Former world best footballer, Ronaldinho, has been arrested by authorities in Paraguay after he was caught with illegal passports.
Ronaldinho was arrested alongsilde his brother who also served as his agent at Barcelona, Roberto de Assis.
Arguably one of the greatest to have ever played the ‘beautiful game’, Ronaldinho, 39, and his brother Roberto de Assis, 49, were found presidential suite at the Resort Yacht and Golf Club, some 15km south of the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion.
He said that he was in the country for a charity event.
Ronaldinho and his brother were not taken to the police station but remain under custody and are obliged to go to the prosecutor’s office on Thursday.
“(Ronaldinho and his brother) are not being detained, they are still under judicial investigation and they have to testify. Then it will be decided whether they will be arrested or not,” Paraguay’s interior minister Euclides Acevedo told ESPN Brasil.
He further added that the pair believe that they were tricked by a man who was accompanying them, who has since been arrested and are cooperating in the investigation.
“Mr Ronaldinho has a false passport. That is a crime and that’s why his arrest has been ordered,” Paraguay’s interior minister Euclides Acevedo told local radio station AM 1080.
“I respect his sports popularity, but the law needs to be respected no matter who you are.”
Acevedo said that an investigation was “ongoing”, adding that more information would be shared with the public at a press conference on Thursday morning, local time.
“Ronaldinho will be heard at eight in the morning on Thursday at the prosecutor’s office,” Acevedo told reporters.
“We are also investigating the responsibility of the authorities who allowed them to enter the country with falsified documents,” Acevedo said.
Paraguayan and Brazilian media reported that Ronaldinho and Assis, who is the former Barcelona playmaker’s agent, remained at the hotel under police watch after their arrest.
