He was once one of the most dazzling stars in world football, known as the Football Wizard. At his peak, he beat Messi and Ronaldo in seconds and conquered fans with his magical skills. He was elected World Footballer of the Year twice and his annual income was as high as $100 million.
In the seven years since his retirement, Ronaldinho has fallen into despair and has been looking for opportunities to make money around the world. This time, he set his sights on the cryptocurrency world.
2025 is the year of the celebrity coin explosion. After Trump took the lead in issuing coins and raked in $65 billion, the US First Lady Coin and the Argentine President Coin took over, and various celebrity coins emerged one after another. So when the rumor that Brazilian football star Ronaldinho is about to issue a coin leaked, the market was not surprised.
At around 6:00 a.m. Beijing time on March 3, which was the same time as the issuance of Trump Coin, during the US Eastern Time Offseason, Ronaldinho announced his official token, STAR 10, on Twitter.
Half an hour after he tweeted, the market value of the token exceeded $200 million, with a single coin worth $0.28. A few hours later, Binance founder CZ and co-founder He Yi commented and retweeted Ronaldinhos tweet on Twitter, respectively, attracting greater market attention. The market value of the token grew rapidly, exceeding $350 million. The current highest price is $0.4 per coin, an increase of 45.66% in 1 hour.
The reason why He Yi and CZ rushed to forward the post is that STAR10 is somewhat different from previous celebrity coins such as Trump. This is the first celebrity coin issued on the BNB chain. I have been a fan of Ronaldinho since 2005, and we are grateful for the launch of this token on the BNB Chain. CZ wrote.
But the market quickly sensed something unusual. In fact, one day before the official token launch (March 2), Ronaldinho had already interacted with CZ on X, retweeting CZ’s tweet “Keep Building!” with the caption “On it!” This interaction sparked community speculation: Is BNB Chain behind Ronaldinho’s token launch?
CZ stated: “There is no commercial relationship between BNB Chain (and any of its affiliates) and Ronaldinho,” and reiterated that the post was not an endorsement of the token.
It was revealed that he sold his social media account for $5 million
Up to this point, Ronaldinho’s coin issuance behavior was not considered “cutting leeks” until the community broke the news and revealed deeper inside information.
According to X user @R 10 coin_, this former football genius not only deeply participated in the speculation in the cryptocurrency circle, but also allegedly sold his X (Twitter) account to a coin issuance team in Shenzhen for US$5 million to help it conduct false propaganda and attract investors.
The starting point of the matter can be traced back to May 2024, when @R 10 coin_ began to discuss a cryptocurrency cooperation plan with Ronaldinho. After six months of negotiations, the two parties officially signed a $6 million contract in January 2025. After the agreement was reached, @R 10 coin_ paid a deposit of $3 million as the first step in advancing the project.
However, what was unexpected was that Ronaldinho privately signed a $10 million agreement with another company without notifying his partners, and received an additional $5 million deposit. He then fully promoted and warmed up the companys tokens, completely ignoring the partnership with @R 10 coin_. Therefore, @R 10 coin_ publicly condemned Ronaldinhos fraud, made the contract details and some promotional materials public, and continued to disclose insider information.
According to reports, this company located in Shenzhen, China has long been notorious. Its main business is to manipulate the Meme coin market, conduct false propaganda and quick cut and run mode. Their operation methods are extremely deceptive: crazy speculation in a short period of time, creating FOMO (fear of missing out) emotions through social media marketing to attract investors to enter the market; quickly raising the coin price, pushing the market to the peak in just 1 hour; then quickly selling, causing the coin price to collapse, leaving investors with nothing, and the behind-the-scenes manipulators absconded with the money.
At present, RonaldinhoX account has not responded to the above information. After the insider information was exposed, Ronaldinhos token STAR10 fell to $0.28 per coin.
7 years after retirement, Ronaldinho has a lot of bad deeds
Ronaldinho comes from a football family in Brazil. His father is an amateur football player and his brother is a professional football player. In such an environment, he has shown extraordinary talent since he was a child, and his love for football is engraved in his blood.
At the age of 13, he amazed everyone in the junior competition and led the team to win the championship. At that time, people might not have realized that this little boy with a bright smile and dancing dribbling skills would become the hottest star in the football world in the future.
In 1997, Ronaldinho, who was only 17 years old, officially entered the professional arena. Two years later, he led Gremio to win the Rio Grande State Championship and became famous. Ronaldinhos technical style is very ornamental, his extraordinary movements are like flowing water, and the game is more like a magic show, which is dazzling.
In 1998, Ronaldinho signed with Gremio at the age of 18, officially opening the glorious chapter of his career. Just one year later, he got the opportunity to play for the Brazilian national team in the World Cup in France. Although he was still a substitute at the time, his talent was already fully revealed.
What really made Ronaldinho a world-class star was the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. In that star-studded Brazilian team, Ronaldinho was not overshadowed by the brilliance of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and other superstars, but became the key man. In the match against England, he used a magical 40-yard lob to break through Seamans defense and help the Brazilian team advance to the semi-finals. In the end, Brazil won the championship and Ronaldinho became a member of the World Cup champion team.
When Ronaldinho landed in La Liga, Barcelona was in a trough, but his arrival completely changed the teams fate. When facing Real Madrid, which had superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Beckham, and Zidane, he used gorgeous dribbling and amazing goals to make the Bernabeu fans stand up and applaud him.
During his time at Barcelona, he won everything: he was named World Footballer of the Year for two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005, beating Zidane and Henry at their peak; in the 2005-06 season, he led the team to win the La Liga and Champions League double, and was named the Champions Leagues best player; his advertising endorsements were overwhelming, with global brands such as Nike, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and EA Sports all vying to work with him. In 2006, his endorsement income exceeded $19 million, making him one of the most expensive players in football at the time.
At this time, Ronaldinho has become the soul of Barcelonas revival and the king of world football.
But Ronaldinho, at his peak, also embarked on a path of self-destruction. He was too addicted to pleasure, football was no longer the only thing in his life, he began to indulge himself and treated nightclubs as his second home.
He spends every night in bars and parties, reveling all night long. His female companions are constantly changing, from Brazilian dancers, French models, to Italian stars, and there is never a lack of gossip around him.
Alcohol became his daily routine. He could not train on time in the morning after being drunk and even began to miss important games. Barcelona coach Rijkaard and his teammates repeatedly advised him, but Ronaldinho never took it seriously: I am still young. As long as I warm up well before the game, drinking will not affect my game.
But reality soon dealt him a heavy blow.
Alcohol, nightclubs, and lack of training caused Ronaldinhos competitive state to decline sharply. His once lightning-fast starts and ghostly dribbling became weak and powerless. He began to become lazy on the field, his number of goals dropped sharply, and the fans love for him gradually turned into disappointment.
In 2008, Barcelona could no longer tolerate him and sold him to AC Milan for 25 million euros. The former king of the world now had to leave the team in disgrace.
However, after coming to Serie A, Ronaldinho still couldnt discipline himself and was still addicted to nightclub life. Milans top management originally hoped that he would return to the top, but he continued to degenerate and his career quickly went downhill.
After leaving Milan, Ronaldinhos career has completely entered the twilight of his career. He played briefly for some teams in Brazil and Mexico, but he could never regain his former glory. Whats worse is that his extravagant life has not stopped, but his income is far less than before: his investment failed, 57 properties were seized by the court; there was only 6 euros left in his account and he was heavily in debt; in 2021, he was arrested by the police for entering Paraguay with a fake passport and detained for three months.
A generation of football genius, became a prisoner. And his road to making money has just begun.
Ronaldinhos money-making map covers almost the entire world: he holds personal football training camps in Brazil, Argentina and other places, charging high fees, but the quality of training has been criticized. Many parents bluntly said: We pay for his face. There was news that he participated in commercial activities in Spain as a football idol and was even willing to stand for any company as long as the price was high enough. In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, wealthy clubs have also invited him to be a guest, and the offer was extremely generous.
China is also one of his important markets. Every trip of Ronaldinho to China has completely turned into a naked money-making trip and a night of revelry in nightclubs.
The appearance fee for a dinner starts at $20,000. Even if you just show up and say a few polite words, the organizer will have to pay a lot of money.
The price of taking a photo with him: 20,000 RMB. Just standing next to him and taking a photo costs far more than the average persons monthly salary.
Cost of dinner: 70,000 RMB Want to have a meal with Ronaldinho? Sure, but the price is comparable to the luxury-level celebrity experience.
Ronaldinhos business model is simple: as long as he is paid enough, he is willing to go anywhere and do anything.
People thought that his path to depravity had ended there. However, today in 2025, he once again refreshed peoples perception - he sold his social account to a trader to enter the cryptocurrency circle and made another wave of quick money by cutting leeks.
From a football genius to a decadent extravagant life, and then to a complete commercial tool, his name has been linked to fraud, speculation, and money laundering. The STAR10 token scam has completely ruined his reputation, and this may just be the beginning of his scam.
No one knows what his next plan is - maybe he will issue new tokens? Maybe he will re-enter the arena in the field of NFT? Or simply sell everything he has and continue to make money by relying on the celebrity effect? But what is certain is that he can no longer return to the peak moment on the green field.
I heard that Ronaldinho is going to be a grandfather soon. At the end of last year, Ronaldinhos son officially announced the news of his girlfriends pregnancy. Now, Ronaldinho, 44 years old, is no longer young and looks a lot more haggard.
The football legend of Ronaldinho has come to an end. Now, apart from his wonderful samba passes, all that is left to the world is his repeated golden gains and the scattered chicken feathers.
