7/7/2025–|Last update: 10:51 (Mecca time)
In the world of football, there are stars who shine for a while, then their luster was afraid, and others made glory and left an eternal legacy. But only few were like Rivaldo; A man from the poor neighborhoods, an artist on the green grass, and sometimes a fraudulent is not afraid to manipulate the nerves of the masses and rulers together.
Rivaldo was born in the poor Paulista neighborhood in Brazil, where he used to sell juices and sweets to the beach to help his family.
It was not his way to glory with easy; At the age of 15, life was shocked when his father lost a terrible accident, but he walked dozens of miles daily to train, defying sadness and poverty.
That arduous life has later earned a hardness that made a star in Deportivo La Coruunia, where the net shook 21 times in a single season, prompting Sir Bobby Robson to bring him to Barcelona.
The greatest chapters of Rivaldo
With the Catalan giant, the Rivaldo line is the greatest chapter of his career. In his first season, he scored 19 goals, and Barcelona gave the local double and then crowned the Golden Ball, after another legendary season in which he scored 24 goals.
But even as he was raising the summits, the Brazilians continued to see Rivaldo as a stranger.
However, glory returned to knock on his door on the legendary night of 2001 against Valencia. Then Barcelona was facing the risk of absence from the Champions League, and Rivaldo advanced with a wonderful goal from a free kick, then a missile from outside the region. Valencia tied twice, until the unforgettable moment.
In the 89th minute, Rivaldo received the Frank de Bohr pass with his chest, and instead of paying it directly, he fired his body in the air to score an immortal scissors that placed Camp Nou in the state of hysteria. That night, Rivaldo went up to the club’s legends.
The worst scene in Rivaldo’s march
But the Rivaldo’s march was not without problems. In the 2002 World Cup, Brazil helped win the title with an impressive performance in which he scored 8 goals in the qualifiers and created the finals.
However, the moment of his scandalous representation against Türkiye, when he grabbed his face after the ball hit him with his leg, cost him a fine and distorted his image in an epic that should have been pure.
After the Rivaldo era with Barcelona ended, he failed to leave a mark with Milan in the strict Italian league, and he rejected a tempting offer from Bolton to choose Olympiacos. His journey continued moving until he retired at the age of 43, yet the peak of his creativity was not more than 5 years, but it was a charming years.
Rivaldo was not the most charisma like Beckham or Ronaldo, and he was not a diplomat with the media, so he remained “the strange man”, but in football, you are governed by what you do with your feet, and Rivaldo possessed Yusra’s feet that made the kicks excluded, and turned major matches into personal exhibitions of his genius.
Between his genius and his cunning, Rivaldo remains an eternal football phenomenon, gathering glory and controversy at the same time, but above all, he was an unparalleled magician, who requires you to hold your breath whenever he touches his football.