‘Pedri Will Make History’ At FC Barcelona And More

Club legend Ronaldinho has tipped Pedri to make history at FC Barcelona.

At age 19, the Golden Boy is already on his way to become one of the all-time greats and moved the Blaugrana up to second place in La Liga with his stunning late winner against Sevilla at the Camp Nou on Sunday.

Speaking to Radio MARCA on Tuesday, the Brazilian World Cup winner who helped Lionel Messi find his feet in the first team in the mid-2000s has tipped Pedri for big things.

“He’s very good and has a lot of quality. He’s going to make history,” Ronaldinho predicted.

As someone who knows first team coach Xavi Hernandez well from their playing days together, Ronaldinho said he was “very happy” for his ex-colleague and hopes that Xavi “continues like this and gets better every day”.

“He was a great friend and teammate,” Ronaldinho continued. “You could already see that he was going down this path because from on the pitch he already looked at football like a coach, he knows very well how football works.”

“I have been able to play with my idols who today are my friends,” Ronaldinho reminisced. “Barca is where I played the longest and I was able to play with the same players for a long time and that is why we know each other very well. The day to day was something very nice: the changing room, the laughs, the jokes, the preparation for the matches… It was all very fun and I miss it.”

Comparing soccer these days with how it was in his day, Ronaldinho noted that it is now different due to the internet.

“In my time we only had a ball to go out and play with, maybe that’s why the soccer of the past has been lost a bit. [But] I have fun when I see a child who hasn’t seen me play and still knows about me, my goals and plays, which is thanks to the internet.”

Of the modern day stars who most resemble him, Ronaldinho noted that “there are many players with the same playing characteristics”.

“Mbappe, Neymar, Messi… They are the players I like to see in matches. Does the Frenchman [Mbappe] resemble [Ronaldo] Nazario? The truth is that Mbappe doesn’t remind me of him,” Ronaldinho admitted.

On Messi, Ronaldinho said that “the first time I saw him, you could already see the quality he had and that he was going to do something great. We got along very well. He’s a great friend.”

And for his fellow Porto Alegre native Raphinha, Ronaldinho tipped that the Brazilian international “would be a very good signing for Barca because he has a lot of quality and everyone is seeing what he is capable of doing.

“At first they said he didn’t have much of a future, but over time he began to play very well and everyone has recognized him,” Ronaldinho concluded.