Everybody wants Ronaldinho

It becomes more and more clear that Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho (28) will be the centre of the coming transfer summer, with all kinds of speculation, rumours and comments. It also seems that Barcelona's fear that no club would be interested anymore in Ronaldinho, was somewhat besides the truth. The usual suspects - AC Milan and Chelsea - are back (read more here and here), but also other clubs are keeping an eye on the player. An overview:

- Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Atlético Madrid defensive midfielder and former Barcelona player Thiago Motta, a close friend of Ronaldinho, called the Brazilian a week ago and tried to convince him to join Atlético. Ronaldinho kindly rejected the offer saying that Barcelona will have to move first. Atlético Madrid president Enrique Cerezo said this week in an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena COPE that his club could sign a player like Ronaldinho: "We have enough money to pay what would be needed for that."

- São Paulo striker and Inter Milan loan out Adriano (26) reacted cautious to the rumours about a possible summer move to Barcelona in a kind of swap deal including Ronaldinho (read more here). In an interview with Italian sports paper Tuttosport the Brazilian said: "Of course it would be nice to play for a club like Barcelona, but it is not something I'm thinking about now. After I have returned to Italy, I will see what will happen."

- Asked about the rumours linking Ronaldinho with his club (read more here), Fenerbahçe manager Zico said in an interview with Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio that, if possible, he would without any doubt sign his compatriot: "I'm an admirer of Ronaldinho and the Fenerbahçe president is too. Notwithstanding his current situation, every team would like to have him, including us. He would make our team better, like Roberto Carlos has done."

- Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said on Thursday in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Corriere dello Sport that if he could bring one player to Juventus, it would be Ronaldinho: "I would take a player like him straight away if the price would be accessible, which I don't think is the case." Roberto de Assís yesterday thanked the Italian international today in the same paper for his kind words in this difficult times: "His words prove that the great football players still admire Ronaldinho and want to play with him." For the paper this is enough to conclude that Juventus has now also officially joined the race for Ronaldinho.

- British tabloid The Daily Mail claims today that Manchester City has joined the race for Ronaldinho. Manchester City president and Thai billionnaire Thaksin Shinawatra would have been contacted by intermediaries and alerted to contact Barcelona and the player's agent about a possible deal. Although it's unclear how much money Manchester City manager Sven-Göran Eriksson will be able to spend in the summer, sources in Italy report that Milan believes the City interest is serious and that the club has therefore increased their efforts to close the deal shortly.

(read everything on the Ronaldinho transfer story here)