Ronaldinho: Messi has everything, he didn't need anything from me

Former Barcelona superstar Ronaldinho has fond memories of his days at the Catalan club and his memorable partnership he forged with Lionel Messi.

Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho were part of the Barcelona team that won the 2005-06 Champions League.

Barcelona legend Ronaldinho has reminisced his days at Barcelona 'a joy from the first game' and the spoke about his friendship with a young Lionel Messi. Messi, who made his senior team debut in 2005, formed a lethal partnership with Ronaldinho as the Blaugrana won the 2004-05 LaLiga title and were part of the team that lifted the Champions League in 2005-06.

“When I arrived at Barcelona, there was already talk of a kid who stood out,” Ronaldinho told Panenka magazine.

”Then we were friends; we started playing together and we got on very well. He arrived being different to all the others, and we spoke with [Frank] Rijkaard so that he came to train with us - it was all very fast.”

Ronaldinho also assisted Messi’s first goal against Albacete with a delightful chipped pass, which the Argentinian dinked over the goalkeeper.

”I was lucky enough to give him the pass for his first goal,” he recalled.

”Over time, it’s very nice to see someone who starts out so close [to you] and then conquers the world. We were always very close. We learned things, he taught me Spanish and I taught him Portuguese, but with the ball we understood each other perfectly.

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”I’d be left amazed by how calm he is. That’s something I love about him; he never gets into trouble, he’s always with his family and those closest to him.

"Leo has everything, he didn’t need anything from me."

The 2002 World Cup winner has fond memories of his time at Barcelona where he won two LaLiga titles and Spanish Super Cups and the Champions League.

"From the first game, it was all a joy," he said.

"There are a lot of memories. I think I arrived with thousands of people waiting for me in the stadium."

The Brazilian also had words of praise for his manager at Barcelona Frank Rijkaard:

”He’s a great coach, a very quiet guy, the best I’ve ever worked with,” Ronaldinho said.

”He knew everything because he played at the highest level, and that made things easy for us. Everything he asked us to do, he has already done it before, so he spoke to us in a very simple and direct way. He gave me a lot of freedom to play my football. When we didn’t have the ball, we also had to fulfill our obligations. But when we had it, he made me feel completely free.”