To be even more precise, I stopped following the English premier league in
1999 when Man U won the Treble for the first time; I might have continued for another season, but I certainly lost interest by mid-2000. Back then, my favourite player was Ryan Giggs. :o
After that, I did watch a few World Cup matches over the next 15 years, but that's it.
Ronaldinho first caught my attention in 2002, after he scored that amazing free-kick goal against England in the 2002 World Cup.
But even after that, I did not follow the Spanish league or any other league, until I discovered YouTube in 2006, when Ronaldinho was in his prime; and even then, I was more interested in J-pop, so I did not see my first Ronaldinho YouTube video until maybe 2008 or 2009, when even he himself seemed to have lost interest in European football...