Paulo Dybala has admitted that he still holds a desire to one day trade football shirts with Brazilian legend Ronaldinho, revealing the Barcelona star was the player he looked up to most as a youngster.
Dybala’s brilliant form for Juventus over the last two seasons has seen the Argentine develop into one of the world’s brightest young talents with manager Max Allegri touting the striker as one of the future world’s best players.
Ronaldinho is certainly a player who held, or at the very least came extremely close, to holding that title during his time at Barcelona and Dybala has confessed that his fellow South American was one of his favourite players.
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The 23-year-old – who has nine Serie A goals this season – has explained how Gennaro Gattuso tried to get him a Ronaldinho shirt and the reason he idolised the playmaker so much was down to his clear enjoyment of playing football.
Dybala told UEFA.com: “The one player’s shirt that I would still love to have is Ronaldinho’s. One day Gennaro Gattuso promised me that he was going to call him to ask him for a shirt for me, because he’d played with him, but it didn’t happen.
“Ronaldinho was one of my favourite players when I was growing up and the image he conveyed to me was that you’ve got to have fun and play with a smile on your face.
“European coaches and players sometimes don’t look at football the way we South Americans do. We enjoy the game, laugh a lot, dance and so on. I always seek to have fun and enjoy what I do out on the pitch. That’s just my mindset.”
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