By Brian Okoth
South Africa’s Miche Desiree Minnies resembles Brazilian football great Ronaldinho Gaucho, and the world has taken note.
Appearance comparisons began when football platform, 433, wrote on Instagram that Minnies, 21, brings fond of memories of “someone.”
More than 7,000 Instagram users said in agreement that Minnies has a striking resemblance to Ronaldinho, who won the World Cup, Ballon d’Or, FIFA World Player of the Year award and UEFA Champions League in his illustrious 20-year career.
Minnies plays as a striker for Pretoria-based football club Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies, a top division team in the women’s league in South Africa.
In 2018, she represented South Africa in the FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.
Not related to Ronaldinho
In the 2021/22 season, Minnies scored 22 league goals for Sundowns Ladies to help the club win its fifth league title.
She came second in the list of top scorers, behind her team-mate Boitumelo Rabale who had 24 goals.
Some football fans have joked that Ronaldinho, who is 43 years old, should ask for DNA test to establish whether he is related to Minnies.
Official birth records, however, show that Minnies, who was born on November 14, 2001 in Cape Town, South Africa, shares no lineage with the former Barcelona, AC Milan and PSG player.
Before joining Sundowns in March 2022 on a four-year contract, Minnies played for RSA Vasco Da Gama, a club playing in the semi-professional provincial women’s league.
Top scorer
In the 2020/21 season, her goal-scoring prowess led Vasco Da Gama club to win the provincial women’s league and a qualification to the top division.
While departing Vasco Da Gama for Sundowns, Minnies’ then-coach Ashraf Calvert said he felt a “sense of accomplishment” for helping the striker “transform her life for the better.”
Sundowns, under the leadership of head coach Jerry Tshabalala, enjoys success outside South Africa too.
The club was crowned the winners of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Women’s Champions League in 2021 and winners of the CAF Women’s Champions League the same year.
In 2022, the club reached the finals of both tournaments and emerged the runners-up.
