Rivaldo Vítor Borba Ferreira (born 19 April 1972), commonly known as Rivaldo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁiˈvawdu]), is a Brazilian professional footballer for Kabuscorp. He plays as an attacking midfielder and sometimes as a supporting striker.
He most notably played five years with Spanish club FC Barcelona, with whom he won the 1998 and 1999 Spanish La Liga championship and the 1998 Copa del Rey. Between 1993 and 2003, Rivaldo played 74 matches and scored 34 goals for the Brazil national football team and was an integral part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup winning Brazilian team.
In 1999, Rivaldo was honoured as FIFA World Player of the Year, Ballon d'Or winner and European Footballer of the Year. He was named by Pelé as one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony in 2004. He is also the president of Mogi Mirim Esporte Clube in his native Brazil.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Club career
2.1 Santa Cruz, Mogi Mirim and Corinthians
2.2 Palmeiras
2.3 Deportivo
2.4 Barcelona
2.5 Milan
2.6 Olympiacos
2.7 AEK Athens
2.8 Bunyodkor
2.9 Mogi Mirim
2.10 São Paulo
2.11 Kabuscorp
3 International career
3.1 World Cup goals
4 Honours
4.1 Team
4.2 Individual
5 References
6 External links
[edit]Early life
Born in Paulista, Pernambuco, Brazil, Rivaldo had an extremely poor upbringing in the favelas of the port town of Recife. His physical appearance still marks the poverty he experienced in his childhood: malnourishment-caused bowleggedness and the loss of several teeth. Rivaldo began his professional career at the age of 16, when he signed with Paulistano, from Pernambuco, in 1989,[1] despite the Paulistano coaches believing him too physically weak to succeed.[2] Rivaldo's father Romildo was killed in a road accident in 1989, but Rivaldo went on to his first professional contract later that year.[2]
[edit]Club career
[edit]Santa Cruz, Mogi Mirim and Corinthians
He went on to play for Santa Cruz in 1991. In 1992, he moved south to the state of São Paulo where he played for Mogi Mirim in the second tier of Brazilian football. It was for Mogi Mirim that he made his claim to fame: in a 1993 São Paulo State Championship match against Bauru team Noroeste, as soon as the referee whistled for the beginning of the match, Rivaldo noticed the Noroeste goalkeeper ahead of his position and scored the opening goal by lobbing the ball over the keeper, shooting from the midfield circle.
In 1993, the forward moved to the state capital to play for Corinthians in the first division.
[edit]Palmeiras
In the next year, he switched local allegiances and moved to Palmeiras, helping the club successfully defend its league championship in 1994. In both 1993 and 1994, he was honoured by the authoritative publication Placar Magazine with the Bola de Prata for the best player in his field position.
[edit]Deportivo
Before the 1996 Olympics, Parma announced that they had signed Rivaldo and his teammate Amaral from Palmeiras.[3] After the Olympics, there was a dispute, and rather than Italy, Rivaldo moved to Spain as he joined Deportivo La Coruña in La Liga. He only stayed for one season, but nonetheless a very successful one for both him and the club. Rivaldo was the fourth top goal scorer of the season with 21 goals (tied) in 41 matches as Deportivo finished third in the league. Rivaldo moved on to league rivals FC Barcelona in 1997 in a transfer deal securing Deportivo a 4000 million pesetas (around $26 million) transfer fee.[1]
[edit]Barcelona
In his first season at Barcelona, he was the second top goal scorer with 19 goals in 34 matches, as Barcelona won The Double of La Liga championship and Copa del Rey.,[citation needed] In 1999, he won another La Liga title with Barcelona, and once again was the league's second highest scorer with 24 goals.,[citation needed] Individually, he won both the FIFA World Player of the Year and European Footballer of the Year awards. In his third season in Barcelona, Rivaldo fell out with manager Louis van Gaal, when he insisted playing as a playmaker rather than on the left wing.[4] Even though he had a strained relationship with van Gaal, Rivaldo went on to score 10 goals in the European UEFA Champions League tournament, as the club reached the semi-finals.Van Gaal was fired in June 2000. In the following 2000–01 season, Rivaldo was once again the second highest goal scorer of the league with 23 goals. In the last game of the season, against Valencia CF, Rivaldo scored a hat-trick to win the game 3–2. His third goal was a bicycle kick from the edge of the area in the 89th minute of the game, and is regarded as one of his greatest goals ever in a combination of importance and skill.[5] The win secured Barcelona a place in the following UEFA Champions League tournament. It was his season best with 36 goals. He scored a total of 130 goals during his time with Barcelona.,[citation needed]
[edit]Milan
In June 2002, van Gaal returned to manage Barcelona. Rivaldo was released from his contract, and signed a three-year deal with the Italian Serie A club Milan. With Milan, he won the Italian Cup and the UEFA Champions League in the 2002–03 season. His time in Milan proved a mutually disappointing affair, often playing second fiddle to Rui Costa. He left the club after a season of very few starts, partly due to injury problems.[citation needed] He briefly returned to Brazil, playing for Cruzeiro in Belo Horizonte. On 22 July 2004 he returned to Europe, joining Greek Alpha Ethniki division club Olympiacos after much talk about which club he would join. There was also speculation that he might join English club Bolton Wanderers, with Rivaldo stating that he wanted to help them qualify for Europe for the first time. However the deal fell apart because Bolton felt that the demands made by Rivaldo's agents were excessive.[6]
[edit]Olympiacos
Rivaldo scored some memorable goals in his first season at Olympiacos, including a fantastic effort in the Greek Cup final with a well placed lob from a difficult position close to the corner flag.[citation needed] Rivaldo also scored two memorable free kicks during the season, the first in the local derby against Panathinaikos and the second against English club Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League.[citation needed] Olympiacos managed to keep the 1–0 lead against their arch-rivals, but Liverpool fought back to score the 3 goals needed to keep Olympiacos from the Final 16, much to Rivaldo's dismay. In the last game of his first season at Olympiacos, the club needed a victory in order to win the Alpha Ethniki championship, with Panathinaikos just one point behind. Olympiacos went on to beat Iraklis 0–1 in an away match in Thessaloniki, by yet another Rivaldo goal,[citation needed] and secured the championship.
Rivaldo continued to score in the UEFA Champions League the following year. He scored a stunning 30 yard strike against Rosenborg BK,[7] and against old foes Real Madrid as Olympiacos failed to advance from the preliminary Group Phase. In the domestic competitions, he kept the best for the second half of the season. He scored twice in Olympiacos' come-from-behind victory against Panathinaikos, as well as two in his team's 3–0 triumph against second placed AEK Athens, effectively securing another title for Olympiacos. He also put Olympiacos through to the Greek Cup semi-finals, scoring on free-kicks in both quarter-final games against Skoda Xanthi.[citation needed]
Rivaldo renewed his contract with Olympiacos for a third and final year, and promised to give his best, despite having turned 34. He didn't wait long to turn his words into actions: He led Olympiacos to overturn their half-time deficit against Skoda Xanthi, and scored both goals for the dramatic 2–1 victory in the first game of the season, winning him the Greek SuperLeague's first-ever Player of the Week and Goal of the Week awards.[citation needed] In July 2006, Rivaldo announced that the 2006–07 season with Olympiacos would be his last in Europe, before returning to Brazil.[8] However he quicky changed his decision and decided to stay for another year. The 2006–2007 season was arguably his best season at Olympiakos,[citation needed] having scored 17 goals at 27 matches, at the Superleague championship.