Ronaldinho agent met with Chelsea

After he met on Wednesday with Milan and Inter officials (read more here), Ronaldinho's brother and agent Roberto de Assís, would have met today with Chelsea officials. Madrid sports tabloid As assures that Roberto flew this morning to London, where he would hold talks about the transfer of his brother with a Premier League club.

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that this club is Chelsea, who is already for a while showing great interest in signing Ronaldinho, and sees a clash between Chelsea and Milan coming up. Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport thinks Roberto is in London as agent of CSKA Moscow striker Vágner Love, who could move to England in the summer.

The participants at the Wednesday dinner in restaurant 'Giannino' in Milan have in the meantime in different media all commented on the meeting. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani played down the Ronaldinho interest: "Ronaldinho is a great player but we did not speak about the transfer market. It was a simple dinner among friends. If we would have wanted to negotiate about something, we would have gone to another place."

Milan adviser Ernesto Bronzetti nevertheless spoke very clear: "Yes, Milan is interested, but a lot of other big clubs like Chelsea and Liverpool also want him. The player wants to leave because they don't like him anymore in Barcelona, but it will be difficult for us with all those rivals. This is all just beginning." Roberto de Assís, who also denied the later meeting with Inter, said Ronaldinho was not discussed: "I did not talk with Milan about the situation of my brother, we only talked about Zaraoza striker Ricardo Oliveira. Ronaldinho has a contract and the people like him a lot. We should respect that."

It is rumoured in Italy that the renewed interest of Milan in Ronaldinho is due to the fact that Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti, who was not in favour of the transfer, seems to be on his way out and that his possible successor, Italian national team coach Roberto Donadoni, would have given his permission to move for the Brazilian.

Nevertheless, Ancelotti admitted today at a press conference that his club has been for a while and still is interested in signing Ronaldinho and that he supports a possible transfer: "They say he's been having some problems at Barcelona, but I don't know anything about that. I only evaluate him as a player, and as a player he has done very well."

Roberto de Assís is expected to travel to Barcelona in the coming days. He told in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Corriere dello Sport: "I will talk to my brother first and then I will meet Barcelona officials. We'll see what will happen. This is an important moment and we should think carefully about the future."

While it was said yesterday that Barcelona wanted to calm down everything during a meeting with Roberto, Madrid sports tabloid As claims today that Barcelona would be wanting to organize a dignified departure of Ronaldinho. Barcelona president Joan Laporta would fear the reaction of the fans if the Brazilian would leave for little money. Catalan sports paper Sport shares this idea: both parties know the Ronaldinho era in Barcelona is over and Barcelona will know try to fix a reasonable price for which the player can leave.