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.
