Ronaldinho Wanted to Do for Messi What 'Eternal Captain' Puyol Did for Him at Barcelona

Ronaldinho has praised the influence Carles Puyol had on his career in an interview with ​FourFourTwo.

Ronaldinho was talking about how he wanted to be to Lionel Messi what Puyol had been to him. Ronaldinho provided the assist for Messi's first ever Barcelona goal, against Albacete.​

Back in 2005, Messi said "He’s a phenomenon. Ronaldinho gives me a lot of advice and praises me permanently. He’s got an ability to control the ball which makes me jealous. At any moment during a game he can do something special to win it, and that’s what I must aim to do."

Ronaldinho said about Messi that: "Everyone saw he was fantastic from the very first day. I wanted to do with him what others had done with me: I wanted to help him in that first-team moment, because the talent was already obvious."

"When I started at Gremio I had experienced players helping me, my friends Beto and Guilherme. At Barça it was Carles Puyol, my big brother, my eternal captain who is always with me at charity events. I wanted to give back.”

While at Barcelona, Ronaldinho won La Liga twice, in 2005 and 2006, and the Champions League in 2006. He scored 94 goals in 207 games for Barca.

He made a combined total of 728 club appearances, scoring 280 goals in the process, for the likes of: Gremio, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, AC Milan, Flamengo, and Atletico Mineiro. The Brazilian legend was also scored 33 goals in 97 international caps.