Roberto Carlos has done more than enough in his career, and collected more prizes than any players could dream of. He was a true legend.
The departure of Coach Gadzhi Gadzhiyev and the appointment of Coach Anzhi Makhachkala in February put an end to Roberto Carlos’s career. He only played 32 matches in a year and a half. At the age of 39, he became the unwanted piece of the chess set. Carlos has a strong attitude, and being put into reserve was unacceptable to him. He announced his retirement shortly after and is likely to become the Vice Coach to Coach Guus Hiddink in Anzhi.
Carlos has never been known to surrender. When he started his career playing for Inter in 1995, Carlos got into an argument with Coach Roy Hodgson: “It was a disaster. I needed freedom to play, but Hodgson forbade me from crossing the midfield line.” Hodgson was a traditional British footballer and he didn’t want his defenders to be on the offensive, so he made Carlos choose to play either as a true winger or as a dedicated defender. Carlos found this outrageous, and said he “wanted to be free to move across 80 metres rather than be confined within 20 metres.” This divergence resulted in Carlos being transferred after one season, despite him leaving a good impression at San Siro on his first day with a beautiful 30-metre goal.
Roy Hodgson failed to understand Carlos, but Fabio Capello is different. In Real Madrid, Carlos became “El Hombre Bala,” whose speed, stamina and perfect skills were unrestrained by Capello. No other defender was as good as he was, having scored 66 goals in his 11 years playing for Madrid. Free was his spirit, though, and he left Madrid in 2011 when he was blamed by the Corinthian fans after a team’s defeat.
A strongman on the field
Roberto Carlos is no mere footballer; he is a warrior on the field. He made fans all over the world scratch their heads and drop their jaws when he landed a ball in the French goal in 1997. It was a shot from nearly 40 metres away; the ball simply flew in a curve and past the goalkeeper at an incredible speed and with astounding accuracy. People tried to look for the magic behind the shot, but there was no magic. “About the truth, I chose a target, closed my eyes and kicked as hard as I could”. One time when he was practicing kicking penalties prior to a match with M.U in the Champions League, Carlos broke a chair half a field away with a ball shot.
People became curious, because Roberto Carlos’s strength was abnormal for someone 5’5” (168 cm) tall and weighing 63 kilos. His secret: his giant-sized thighs, with the left thigh diameter being 58 cm and the right one being 61 cm. To put it into perspective, Carlos has thighs as big as Muhammad Ali’s.
Roberto Carlos went from a poor boy in a family whose biggest asset was a bicycle to one of the best defenders of all time. At the age of 19, he helped the Brazilian national team become the World Cup champion. He won the La Liga four times and seized three Champions League silver cups under the Real Madrid flag. He won the UEFA title of “Best defender” in 2002, and was proclaimed one of the best 100 football players of all time by FIFA. He was loved by the Madridistas, and the Fenerbahce fans shouted, “I love you, Carlos,” in his last match in Turkey. He put his name in history with his score against Barthez and his field-side low angle shot past Tenerife’s hands. He has done more than enough in his career, and collected more prizes than any players could dream of. He was a true legend.
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