Brazilian football great Ronaldinho follows this Malappuram student

Former Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho has millions of fans across the globe. Ronaldinho has 51.4 million followers on Instagram and on the contrary he follows only 363 people on the popular social media platform. One of them is P T Vivek from Chengani near Vengara in Malappuram.

The engineering student had painted two pictures of the ex-Barcelona player and shared it on Instagram. The former FIFA World Player of the Year thanked Vivek for the paintings and started following the Manjeri EKC Engineering College student.

Ronaldinho is under house arrest in Paraguay after an appeal court judge refused a request to release him and his brother.

The 40-year-year-old and his older sibling Roberto Assis spent more than a month in prison for allegedly entering the South American country with fake passports.

In April, the two were relocated to the four-star Palmaroga Hotel in the capital Asuncion after agreeing to pay $1.6 million in bail.

Ronaldinho and Assis travelled to Paraguay on March 4 to participate in a children's charity event and promote a new book. They were arrested later that day on accusations of using false travel documents.

The two have denied any wrongdoing and said they were presented with the passports as a "gift" upon arriving in Asuncion.

Ronaldinho retired from football in 2018 after a career that included spells at Gremio, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, AC Milan and Atletico Mineiro, among other clubs. He was a part of the Brazil team that won the 2002 World Cup and was twice voted the FIFA World Player of the Year.

(With inputs from IANS)