Soccer’s sorcerer

No one has a deeper or more dazzling bag of tricks than Ronaldinho, who’s determined to make this Brazilian side the best ever. Grant Wahl reports.

ASKING a Brazilian to name his country’s most entertaining World Cup team is a lot like pressing a wine expert to choose the richest vintage of Bordeaux.

Does he fancy the 1970 champions, the popular choice, led by the immortal Pelé? Or maybe the 1962 winners, the connoisseur’s pick, paced by the dribbling wizard Garrincha? If he’s like the character Miles in Sideways and prefers temperamental wines, he might choose the ‘82 outfit, an outrageously skilled bunch (with Zico, Sócrates and Falcão) that threw caution to the wind and paid the price, losing to stolid Italy in the quarter-finals.