Most footballers spend a lifetime watching highlights of Ronaldinho, dreaming of what it would be like to share a pitch with the Brazilian magician, let alone humiliate him.
But Albert Adomah didn’t just share a pitch with Ronaldinho. He dared to pull off the unthinkable: he hit him with a stepover and left him behind.
It was 2011, and a then-23-year-old Adomah had just earned his first call-up to the Ghana national team while playing for Bristol City in the Championship.
The debut wasn’t a low-key affair. Ghana were set to face Brazil at Craven Cottage, and the team sheet looked like a FIFA Ultimate Team dream; Ronaldinho, Neymar, Marcelo, Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, Fernandinho, Lucas Leiva, and Alexandre Pato.
For Adomah, a player who had grown up mimicking Ronaldinho’s tricks in street games and cage football, the moment was almost too surreal.
“Before I became a professional footballer, I used to do Ronaldinho skills in street and cage football. So to be on the same pitch as such an iconic figure was a wow moment of my career,” Adomah told SunSport.
But the admiration didn’t stop him from going for it.
Midway through the game, Adomah recall pulling off a trademark stepover, Ronaldinho’s move, and gliding past the Brazil legend, leaving him momentarily chasing shadows.
“During the game, I did his trademark stepover. I’ve got a picture of me going past him. I thought, ‘I’ve just skipped past the most skilful player ever,” he added.
For a few glorious seconds, the kid from South London who grew up imitating Ronaldinho had flipped the script.
But football has a way of restoring balance. Almost immediately, Lucas Leiva, Brazil’s midfield enforcer, came flying in with a crunching tackle that stopped Adomah in his tracks.
“I got brought crashing back down to earth. Lucas, a typical holding midfielder, came steaming in with a sliding tackle,” Adomah recalled.
Brazil would go on to win 1-0, thanks to a strike from Leandro Damião, but Adomah’s surreal debut didn’t end there. After the final whistle, he bagged shirts from Neymar and Pato, souvenirs from a night he’ll never forget.
Twelve years later, Adomah is still playing in the English League Two with Walsall and still has the memory of stepping past Ronaldinho like it was a kickabout back in the cage.
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