SoccerMovieMom

Over 500 reviews

Ronaldinho: The One and Only (2026)

A short-term worlds-greatest phenom — ‘Ronaldinho: The One and Only’ (2026)

—

by

MJ-A
in

Ronaldinho: The One and Only, the Netflix 3-part series about the iconic Brazilian player, is entertaining enough that my hubby watched the whole thing — almost 3 hours.

Of course, it helped that the Premier League season had just ended, and he was desperate to watch any soccer.

Ronaldinho’s Life

Though hubby and I are big fans of soccer today, we knew little about Ronaldinho. I became a soccer fan after the 1999 Womens World Cup, and I was only aware of Ronaldinho’s name and face. So I found the series to be very good at showing why he is an important player. The series shows his best video clips and moments and how he fearlessly executes amazing dribbles and tricks while playing at the highest levels of the game.

But it turns out that the peak of Ronaldinho’s career is actually pretty short — about 2 years — and there really aren’t that many stellar moments, so you see the same game clips more than once.

Episode 1 gives his childhood story. Ronaldinho is born into a soccer family, and his older brother Roberto (commonly known as Assis) has become a professional at Gremio, at just 17 years old. To convince him to sign, Gremio gives the family a house with a swimming pool, with tragic consequences. The father drowns on Roberto’s 18th birthday. Assis becomes the man of the house and helps raise Ronaldinho, who is 9 years younger.

As Ronnie’s talent grows, he and Roberto form a father-brother-manager-agent relationship that is sustained for the rest of Ronnie’s life (so far). Their sister becomes the publicist. Roberto had played in Europe, and his knowledge allows him to be a tough negotiator for the very scarce commodity that is his brother’s talent and potential.

Ronaldinho signs with PSG, but it is the following year at WC 2002 where at 22 yo, he breaks through to the world stage. Along with Brazilian greats Ronaldo and Rivaldo, Ronaldinho scores significant goals, and Brazil win their 5th World Cup.

Episode 2 charts Ronnie’s Rise. The ambitious Roberto takes his brother to Barcelona, which has been in a funk and hasn’t won a trophy for several years. Joan Laporta has taken over Barca’s presidency, brought on Manager Frank Rijkaard, and they eventually assemble a team that includes Deco, Eto’o, Puyol, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, and Rafa Marquez (and those are just the names I recognize). In Ronnie’s second season, 2004-2005, they win the league (La Liga) and Ronnie wins FIFA World Player of the Year.

In 2005-2006, Barca win the Champions League for the first time in 14 years, and Ronnie wins both the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or.

But in 2006-2007, Ronnie gets injured, loses his discipline and focus, and Barca loses its magic. By the following season, Prez Laporta decides both Rijkaard, Ronaldinho and other black sheep have to go, and he brings in Pep Guardiola. Ronnie goes to AC Milan, waiving 15% of his transfer fee to do so. It is the beginning of his decline.

Episode 3 traverses through the rest of Ronnie’s career. The stories of his partying follow him everywhere, and he becomes a high-priced journeyman with multiple clubs, mostly in Brazil. He is not called up for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, and he says he did not even watch WC 2010 on TV. He tries to go back to Gremio, his first club, but Roberto’s negotiations fall through. This is where you see the only clip of Pele, where he says Ronaldinho should have played there for free.

There is also film from a game in Brazil where Ronaldinho played against an up and coming Neymar.

The highlight of this episode is that Ronnie plays 2 years with Athletico Mineiro, where he wins the Copa Libertadores in 2013.

The last part of the episode covers the arrest and 5-month detention of Ronnie and Roberto in Paraguay. The explanation is never made clear as to why they entered the country with fake Paraguayan passports, drivers licenses, and ID cards. The internet suggests money laundering.

My reaction

I suppose the series is meant to show the parts of Ronnie’s life that would be attractive to men — the great goals, the skill, the partying, the wealthy lifestyle.

It is made clear that Ronaldinho’s success is rooted in the family that surrounded and supported him, but also that his affable personality and wide smile garner the love of fans everywhere. The series also spends time interviewing Ronnie’s son, who is a pro footballer as well but grew up apart from his father.

But the series is also slanted to make us believe that the success of Ronnie’s teams was largely due to Ronnie’s influence — his camaraderie, his joy, and a few moments of top football. But I had trouble believing that. I thought the absence of key people was interesting — really no mention of Pele, Rijkaard, and Pep. Messi is interviewed in order to give Ronnie credit for mentoring him and assisting on his first goal for Barca (Ronnie is 7 years older).

I was instead struck by how similar Ronaldinho is to Maradona — an incredible talent diminished by excess. Ronnie is not fazed by his lack of “even more” accomplishments; he seems to have a routine answer that he is satisfied with achieving something once, that he’s already done that. I’m actually more amazed that Ronnie only has 1 acknowledged child — but maybe that goes along with once and done.

I also was fascinated by Roberto’s management of Ronnie’s career. Ronnie was lucky to have a brother old enough and smart enough to leverage what he learned in Europe and be a hard negotiator for his brother.

In Conclusion

Uruguayan Director Luis Ara has created many films and shows, many of them sports or football related. If you are a fan of Ronaldinho, I think you would be very happy to watch this series because it really showcases Ronnie’s talents and repeatedly shows his greatest moments. You also learn a lot about his family history and lifestyle.

But while the series is interesting, I wish it had been just 90 minutes. Almost 3 hours of hero workship was a little too much for me. It paints a short-term worlds-greatest phenom in a very positive light.

7 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 7

Resources: