Ronaldinho revives Barca's spirits

(CNN) -- If any doubts over Ronaldinho's commitment to Barcelona still lingered, they ought to have been put to rest in the past few days.

Rumors of his apparent desire to leave the Catalan club have circled around the Brazilian for months, compounded by a dip in form, question marks over his fitness, Barca's surrender of both their Spanish and European crowns and a simmering clash of egos with teammate Samuel Eto'o that had most pundits predicting that one or the other would have to leave for the sake of team harmony.

The arrival of Thierry Henry and the growing influence of Lionel Messi also suggested that coach Frank Rijkaard might be ready to let his prize asset go if another club was prepared to meet Barca's estimate.

Last week's run-up to transfer deadline day was dominated by headlines of Chelsea's apparent willingness to break the bank to bring the two-time world player of the year to Stamford Bridge -- wages of $400,000 a week were mentioned -- after Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was reported to have met the player's brother and agent, Roberto de Assis Moreira.

But with the football world holding its breath for a transfer that would surely have smashed the record $92 million paid by Real Madrid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001, the deadline passed quietly with both Barca and Chelsea playing down the saga.

"The brother does this every season to try and get more money and a better contract for Ronaldinho," said one Barca source.

"It usually works. Not this time. (Club president) Joan Laporta told him no way. And that if Ronaldinho wanted to go to Chelsea he could leave for euros 150million ($200m), the price of his buy-out clause. Abramovich didn't want to pay that."

Meanwhile at Chelsea, the Ronaldinho incident looked set to explode the fragile truce between owner Abramovich and disgruntled coach Jose Mourinho.

"There is something boiling up between Roman and Jose again," said a Chelsea source.

"Jose didn't want Ronaldinho. He's not his kind of player and he wouldn't have fitted in with the Chelsea pattern. He's also upset Roman would go behind his back when Jose had done everything to keep the peace this summer."

None of that of course has anything to do with Ronaldinho who celebrated staying at the Nou Camp by scoring twice in the club's first win of the season, 3-1 against Athletic Bilbao, first drilling home an early freekick and then slotting home a first half penalty after Henry had been hauled down.

Dead-ball goals may not be a sure sign that Ronaldinho has rediscovered his best form or peak fitness but the way he dispatched them at least suggests he has recovered some of his appetite for the game. E-mail to a friend