Things That Matter to...Roberto Carlos

Nicknamed ‘el hombre bala’ (the bullet man) for his powerful free-kicks, Roberto Carlos is undoubtedly one of the most iconic footballers of all time. Having made a name for himself in Brazil, Carlos began his European career with Italian giants Internazionale, before joining Real Madrid in 1996 and forming part of the great ‘Galáctico’ generation at the Spanish club. During 11 highly successful years in Madrid, Roberto Carlos won four league titles, and three Champions League titles, scoring an incredible 71 goals from left-back position. In 1997, he was runner-up in the FIFA World Player of the Year awards - the same year he scored his famous 35m bending free-kick against France for Brazil. In 2002, he added the World Cup to his long list of accolades, helping Brazil to victory over Germany in the final.
by Jose Luis Seijas
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I’m still very much involved in football... as a coach and as a Real Madrid Ambassador (I have four years left in my contract). I’m on the training ground every day, so in that sense I’m still a footballer!

I have done everything I wanted to do…in my career, but in three or four years, I’d like to get into management.

Football has lost a lot of technical quality in the last few years…today’s teams work more on the tactical and the physical side of the game, so we don’t see as many “cracks” as we used to.

In a smaller pitch you need to use your speed…your vision and the timing is so much tighter, so it’s a great way to develop skills.

You can’t compare the Brazilian team of different times, but…the current team has improved a lot since the arrival of new coach Tite. We are playing well and leading the World Cup qualifying table; if It keeps going like it is, they will achieve great things. Neymar is making his mark in Brazilian football history and Felipe Couthino is fantastic!

The less I talk about the racism I encountered, the better…in the world of football, there is always someone with personal issues who ends up going to the stadium just to make trouble. I think football in general has been taking the right steps with all the new legislation - from closing stadiums to sending racist fans to jail. The problem is not football, but people who have issues and take it out on others.

I will always be Brazilian…I left the country following my dreams, and the life that my family lives in Spain is great, very calm, with less violence than there is in Brazil; but life in Brazil is amazing. In fact now that the big Brazilian football clubs have the opportunity to offer players big contracts a lot of them no longer want to leave to country to play in Europe.

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