LIVING

Why were you in Sao Paolo?
It was a combination of two things: I had been trying for a while to get the courage to go over there to work on my idea for a novel, to be set in Brazil. Meanwhile, a journalist friend of mine moved out there. He kept saying, “Come out, there’s work, there’s opportunities”.

Where did the idea for the biography come from?
I started researching how to get a novel published, and realised it is quite difficult. At the same time, I was pitching Brazilian stories to British papers. Then I thought of combining the two and started sending off proposals for a factual book. I thought about what the British associate with Brazil: football, samba, Carnival. With the 2006 World Cup coming up and having some knowledge of football, it was the obvious one to try.

Did you have any problems getting people to talk about Ronaldinho?
In Brazil, it was easy. They are open people, like to talk, and help out. And are less media savvy. In Barcelona they want to know who you are, what you’re doing, who’s your publisher. I did try—I went through Barça, approached some of the other players, but they said they have a policy where they don’t like to talk about other people. I didn’t hear a single bad word about Ronaldinho, but I did about his brother. There was no point approaching him, because he wouldn’t have been interested and it could have done more harm than good.

Have you heard what Ronaldinho thinks about the book?
I’ve got a friend who works at Barça and speaks Portuguese. He told Ronaldinho, “My friend’s written a book about you. Would you be interested in having a copy, maybe meeting him?” And Ronaldinho said yes. The next day, my friend started asking at the club and learned that there is another book about Ronaldinho [written by an Italian journalist] and that his brother was kicking off about it. So I thought, just leave it.