Unlike his two rivals for the 2004 World Player of the Year award, Ronaldinho did not help his club win any silverware over the last 12 months.
For Barcelona fans, however, the Brazilian playmaker has achieved something just as important.
Ronaldinho has restored the shattered morale of the Catalan club after four years of mismanagement, political in-fighting, hapless coaching and desperate underachievement.
Eighteen months after his arrival, the club are nine points clear at the top of the Primera Liga, in the last 16 of the Champions League and playing the most exciting club soccer in Europe.
It has been Ronaldinho's vision, passing skills, and dazzling repertoire of party tricks that have been the catalyst for this change.
Almost as important as his performances are his smiling, laid-back attitude to life and infectious enthusiasm which have transformed the atmosphere in the Barcelona squad.