Remember the former Brazilian striker Ronaldinho? The magician who thrilled everyone with his football skills for years. Well, seems like the former Ballon D'Or winner is going through a tough time in his personal and financial life. According to several reports in foreign media, as many as 57 properties of Ronaldinho have been seized over unpaid taxes and fines. Not just this, the authorities have also confiscated his Brazilian and Spanish passports. The Folha de S.Paulo paper said the former World Player of the Year owes 9.5 million reais ($2.51 million) in unpaid environmental fines after illegally building a pier at his lake house in Porto Alegre.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Apart from these fines, Ronaldinho is being pursued by creditors seeking to recover £1.69m in other debts, such as council taxes. It has been reported that Ronalidnho's passport has been seized till the cases are resolved. A judge in Porto Alegre told the Reuters news agency that because the case was under judicial secrecy rules, no details of the newspaper report could be confirmed or denied.

The 39-year-old striker who has represented some of the top European clubs like Barcelona, AC Milan and PSG, had won the World Player of the Year award in 2004 and 2005. He reached the peak of his prowess while playing for the Spanish giants Barcelona. He won the World Cup in 2002 alongside fellow superstar forwards Ronaldo and Rivaldo.

Ronaldinho had retired from footabll in 2015 after enjoying good spells in Brazil and Europe.

Notably, Ronaldinho is not the only former Brazilian star facing financial problems. His former teammate and ex-Brazil captain Cafu is also going through a tough time. Several of his apartments have been seized by the Brazilian authorities. But, Ronaldinho's case comes as a major shock as the striker had recently found himself in the list of most expensive Instagram celebrities. The report had claimed that Ronaldinho charges around  £150,000 for a single promoted Instagram post.