Rivaldo: the poor boy who won everything in football

In a season where AC Milan is being reinforced with great players like André Silva and wants to add more to the first level to fight for Serie A, the question arises as how much the Italian team env2002 should have paid for Rivaldo (Vítor Borba Ferreira Gomes) who came to the Rossoneri club as World Champion with Brazil and having been Ballon d’Or in 1999, if you handle today’s prices, where millions of authentic players are spent with less brilliant skills than his.

His story.

The story of this Brazilian footballer born on April 19, 1972 in Recife, who at 27 was the best player in the world for three years after conquering the Korea-Japan World Cup with the green-yellow, was not easy and had to overcome many obstacles.

Despite being born in one of the regions with greater economic capacity of Brazil, with a GDP that exceeds 50,000 million reais, Rivaldo comes from a poor family.

One of the best left-handed players of the last 20 years has often had to walk to his training because he did not have money to pay for transport, and he even often had to go to work without a snack because there was no food in his house.

What he feels now.

He says that when he sees the children playing, he remembers his childhood, which was hard. But, he admits that he also feels some pity for all the children whose dream is to become professionals and it is a so competitive world, that few footballers come to fulfill it.

He was also fear that his dream would not be fulfilled because he had no artificial grass fields as we do now; he even had to play barefoot because he only had a pair of football shoes, and he had to take care of them as if they were a treasure. Although he encouraged the children to not stop pursuing their dreams, and to work with much perseverance to approach to be professionals.

Cristiano Ronaldo is an example.

One of the examples he put is Cristiano Ronaldo. For Rivaldo, the Portuguese player is always looking to make a difference in the games he plays, and that is synonymous of great discipline and dedication that he puts to football.

The author of one of the most beautiful and remembered Chilean football fans, was that work of art that took place on May 17, 2001 at the Nou Camp against Valencia, to qualify to the Champions. He states that sport has enormous educational power, even dares to admit that had it not been for football, he would have ended up submerged in drugs, or even killed as one of his friends.

What he wants now.

At 45, he hopes that these initiatives will help young people achieve or not the dream of being professional, but above all to be great people. In 2002 he reached the happiest moment of his career, lifting the FIFA World Cup to the skies of Yokohama after beating Germany in the final match.