GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-1197233282945943", "Star_Sports_Skyscraper");

Sports

Sunday October 21, 2007

Ronaldinho and Robinho dropped by their Primera Liga teams

MADRID: Ronaldinho and Robinho were left out of their squads in the Primera Liga on Friday, amid rumours of a party with alcohol and sex following Brazil’s victory over Ecuador on Wednesday.

Ronaldinho was dropped for yesterday’s match against Villarreal and Robinho will not do his share for Real Madrid against Espanyol.

Best of pals: Ronaldinho (left) and Robinho were dropped after failing to show up for training with their respective Primera Liga clubs on Friday.
Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster also left off the list another Brazilian, Julio Baptista, who played against Ecuador although he apparently did not attend the controversial party.

Forwards Robinho and Baptista missed Real’s last training session on Friday, before the trip north to face Espanyol, due to flight delays the club said.

“I am not worried because we have sufficient players to face Espanyol,” Schuster told a news conference.

Ronaldinho also missed Barca’s last training session on Friday and was dropped from the squad to play at Villarreal.

The absences of Ronaldinho and Robinho do however coincide with the information published by the Brazilian daily O Globo, with abundant details of the celebration of the national team's 5-0 victory against Ecuador in Rio de Janeiro.

The daily said Robinho, Ronaldinho and other players attended a party that went on for hours. The report speaks of alcohol, sex and furtive escapes by footballers as they left the Rio de Janeiro disco.

Moreover, O Globo says the party took place in Catwalk, one of the most luxurious discos in the city and whose owner, the Iranian Jafar Hajbrahim, was arrested less than a year ago over drug trafficking.

At one point Robinho – who had been seen dancing with a voluptuous blonde – asked a security guard “for 40 condoms,” the report said, adding that the Real Madrid player left the disco at 5am.

Robinho denied the allegations on Thursday night, and stressed that he is expecting a child and that he is set to marry his girlfriend early next year.

This is not the first time the talented player has been involved in an incident of this sort.

In January, Spanish media accused him of turning up to a Real Madrid training session drunk – an allegation that was not denied by the club.

Robinho admitted this week that he feels “happier with the Brazilian national team than with Real Madrid”.

Schuster expressed total confidence in the player at the beginning of the season, but he cannot invariably count on a place in the starting line-up.

O Globo spoke of Ronaldinho as another player particularly “active” at the party. The daily says he was the last footballer to leave the disco – at 11am, hidden in the boot of a car to avoid being photographed.

Ronaldinho is currently going through a most delicate patch in his career, amid rumours of his active nightlife in Barcelona. The possibility that the Catalan club might seek to sell him off at the end of the season is mentioned ever more often, and criticism of the player’s poor performance on the pitch is equally loud. – Agencies

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story

Sports Poll