Sex and PS2 sessions sapped Ronaldinho

Brazil's World Cup exit explained

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 27th July 2006 10:02 GMT

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A rationale for Brazil's inglorious exit from the World Cup has emerged. England's arguably even more inglorious exit in Germany was variously blamed on a combination of manager Sven Goran Eriksson's tactical ineptitude, the side's continued inability to take penalties, and Portuguese winker Cristiano Ronaldo¹.

Brazil's malaise, meanwhile, can be traced back to the all-night sex and video game sessions of star player Ronaldinho, if an article in The Sun is anything to go by.

Ronaldinho broke team curfew orders for some off-pitch action with his girlfriend, the French model Alexandra Paressant. She relates how the passionate Samba ace would "make love all night", before sitting down to play 2006 FIFA World Cup on the PlayStation 2.

She implies that the time he spent playing video games, rather than energy sapping sex sessions, might have knocked his form.

Ronaldinho failed to hit the back of the net or live up to his star billing during the tournament before Brazil was eliminated by France in the quarter-finals.

Is it too mischievous to speculate that Paressant might have done her patriotic duty in sapping the Brazilian ace's strength? That's a tough one to answer since the Brazilians, unlike beaten 1994 finalists Italy, were allowed conjugal visits when they won the World Cup in the US. This time around, the Azzuri emerged victorious on penalties.

There's an irony for those who see the striker's fondness of PlayStation 2 games to blame for his run of indifferent form in Germany. As Eurogamer notes, Ronaldinho is the "face" of EA's 2006 FIFA World Cup game... ®

¹England's traditional inglorious exit from the World Cup is never attributed to coming up against a superior side or poor form. Oh no. Previous excuses have included high humidity (Japan 2002), David Beckham (France 1998), inability to take penalties (Italia '90), cheating Argentinians (Mexico '86) and tight fitting football shorts (Spain '82).

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