Ronaldinho goes mobile

He's the FIFA World Player of the Year, the European Player of the Year, winner of countless domestic titles including the latest Champions League and is about to embark on Brazil's defence of the World Cup. In short Ronaldinho can do no wrong in the world of football, but will his golden touch transfer to mobile?

That's certainly the hope of Meantime Mobile Creations, who has partnered with Goal Mobile to create a range of branded games and content.

The first title to be released, Ronaldinho Total Control, will be a one-button casual game based around the buck-toothed one's ball juggling abilities – you must maintain a rhythm of button presses to keep the ball bouncing off different parts of the star's body.

Combination moves and special items (like a mobile merchandising contract?) boost your score and could earn you a place in the Meantime Arena hall of fame if you like that sort of thing.

Scheduled for global release during the World Cup, we've already added its name to the list of our squad of soccer wannabes and should be putting it through its paces soon.

What's that? You don't really rate Ronaldinho? No bother, the partnership between Meantime and Goal mobile promises to create a veritable production line of mobile games based on other soccer and sports personalities.

World Cup fever hits Brazil

Brazil is engulfed in World Cup mania with optimism sky high that Ronaldinho and company can bring home a record sixth title.

The country is dripping in green and yellow.

Roads, buildings, shop windows, and even beaches have all been decked out in the national colours that will set pulses racing in stadia across Germany starting from Friday.

Wherever you are pictures of the players look down from advertising hoardings.

The bustling Sahara shopping district is awash with Brazil paraphernalia as businesses seek to tap in on the wave of anticipation.

Banners, garlands, footballs, shirts and seemingly every conceivable accessory are there for fans to snap up. Loudspeakers offer “unbeatable prices”.

“We can't complain,” said one shopkeeper, Jorge.

“First we've had the carnival, then the Rolling Stones concert, and now the World Cup – sales have been good up to now.

“Sirens, flags and football shirts are selling like hotcakes.”

Green and yellow fever has struck each district of Rio, with tiny banners covering entire streets while on the pavements are written slogans like Rumo ao Hexa (we're heading towards a sixth title).

Ronaldinho's smiling face is omnipresent – the Barcelona ace watching from supermarket vans, from your mobile phone, from fashion catalogues or cartoon strips.

Ronaldo appears in a beer advert where he kicks a ball saying: “the battle for a sixth star (to put on the Brazil shirt, there is one for every World Cup victory) has begun”.

Inevitably Brazil's rivalry with Argentina surfaces from time to time.

One soft drinks advert has Argentine legend Diego Maradona singing the national anthem kitted out in the Brazil colours alongside Ronaldinho and Kaka. The ad finishes with Maradona waking up in a sweat, the nightmare over.

The World Cup has sparked a boom in sales of televisions, with shops easing the pain of payment with seductive credit arrangements.

One offers anyone who buys a giant screen TV a second set for 50 cents if Brazil win.

In the first quarter of the year 60,000 plasma screens were sold – that's 2,000 more than changed hands in the whole of last year.

Restaurants and bars are getting in on the act – dishing up pizzas in the colours of the Brazil national flag, or German or any other country on request.

Football fever has touched fashion too. In Sao Paulo designer Almir Slama has transformed the team's shirts into a line of chic dresses.

Ronaldinho says he's 100-per-cent fit again

Ronaldinho says he's recovered from the gruelling European season and is fully prepared to help Brazil defend its World Cup title.

"I'm fine now," Ronaldinho said yesterday.

"We had enough time to rest and practise. I already feel 100 per cent."

The two-time world player of the year said last week he'd arrived for Brazil's training camp "feeling a bit tired" after helping FC Barcelona win the Spanish title and the Champions League.

"Everything [I was feeling] when we got here is gone now," Ronaldinho said.