Ronaldinho ‘warned’ he could be sent back to jail over a maintenance payment dispute

Ronaldinho was arrested and imprisoned in Paraguay last year

Former Barcelona and Brazil star Ronaldinho has reportedly been warned that he could be sent back to jail over a maintenance payment dispute with a former girlfriend. According to reports in Brazil, the 41-year-old has been ordered to settle his debt with Priscilla Coelho by December 1 in order to avoid the seizure of his assets, as well as possible prison time. Priscilla's lawyer, Bruno Medrado, told Brazilian newspaper Extra: "Right now he has to pay up." After a number of failed attempts to locate Ronaldinho, it is thought that officials gave him a court summons so he could be formally notified about the maintenance payment deadline on November 11. In May 2018, Ronaldinho was made to deny allegations that he was set to marry Priscilla and another woman - Beatriz Sousa - at the same time.

Around a year later, it was suggested that Priscilla, who is said to have began dating Ronaldinho when he played for Belo Horizonte club Atletico Mineiro, was demanding money from the footballer.

The ex-Barcelona man - who was arrested and imprisoned in Paraguay last year after flying into the country with a fake passport - is currently believed to be in Dubai.

Ronaldinho and his brother were arrested in March last year after entering Paraguay to launch an online casino with fake passports, which wrongly showed that they they were naturalised Paraguayan citizens. The passports had previously been issued to two women, before they were altered. He spent his 40th birthday in prison, but was later allowed to move to a four-star hotel in the Paraguayan capital as part of a house arrest deal. He and his brother Roberto de Assis Moreira arrived back in Brazil at the end of August 2020, following a forced stay of nearly six months in Paraguay. They were informed that they would not be put on trial over the fake passport scandal, with their lawyer able to sort a deal with state prosecutors which was approved by a judge. Ronaldinho and his brother were ordered to pay around £153,000 in compensation, with the former having to pay £68,000 of the total and his brother the remaining amount. Related links:

• This is how Ronaldinho ended up in a Paraguayan jail
• Lionel Messi sends support to Ronaldinho after his mother’s death
• Ronaldinho’s son Joao Mendes signs for Cruzeiro