It wasinthe 1995 Umbro Cup that I first grabbed Boro’s attention. At
22 yearsoldI wasalready Brazil’s No.10, plus a Copa Libertadores and
IntercontinentalCupchampion with Sao Paulo from 1993. The latter
titlecameinanepic3-2 win against Fabio Capello’s Milan, where Tele
Santanaputmeonduring the second half in Tokyo.
If I’mhonest,I played really well in the Umbro Cup, and scored when
we beat England 3-1 in the last match of the tournament at Wembley.
Bryan Robson was Terry Venables’ assistant, as well as player-manager
of Boro, and liked what he saw that day, not only technically but also
in my behaviour. I got kicked all over the pitch but kept going despite
being only 5ft 6in. Back then, the Premiership was still a very physical
league, so I think that courage counted in my favour.
After that, Boro showed a real interest in signing me. However, I still
hadn’t played the minimum amount of games for Brazil to grant me
a work permit in the UK, so Bryan had to wait a while until I achieved
that number. When that eventually happened, Boro approached Sao
Paulo to negotiate with them.
I wasn’t expecting to leave Sao Paulo that soon. My international
career had only just begun, but two factors were key for me accepting
Middlesbrough’s offer. First, my contract was coming to an end, and
there was a big gap between what I wanted and what Sao Paulo were
willing to pay to renew it. Cafu had recently gone through something
similar and it took him two months to agree a new deal with the club.
As a result, he spent 60 days only training.
With that in mind, I didn’t want the same thing happening to me.
The second and most important factor was the project presented to
me by Middlesbrough. Robson and chief executive Keith Lamb flew to
Brazil and told me how they were planning to transform the club – to
bring it up to a higher level, become a medium-sized Premiership club
and play European football. Truth be told, I didn’t know much about
English football, as few matches were shown on Brazilian television –
Italy’s Serie A was far more popular, for instance. Some of my friends
said to me, ‘Eh? English football?’ They started watching matches on
TV and wondered how I’d be able to succeed in England, given that it
was a more physical game than the one we played in Brazil. As I was
skinny and small, they asked if I was sure about it.
Bryan brought me several VHS tapes of Boro matches so that I could
see them play, and underlined his idea of playing good football – not
using loads of long balls. His exact words were, ‘I want the ball on the
floor’. The club had just been promoted from the second division, but
that didn’t concern me at all. My focus was on whether I’d be playing
regularly and how the coach could help me improve my game.
I was lucky to find good and honest people in charge of the club, too.
In chairman Steve Gibson, I was confident Boro would be financially
safe in the long term, and that convinced me it was the right decision.
There were rumours about Arsenal being interested in me as well, but
Middlesbrough were the only club to put a bid on the table. I believed
in them, took the offer and never had a reason to look back.enever I look back at my
areer, Middlesbrough will
lways spring to mind – it
as a marvellous moment
r me, professionally and
rsonally. The club, town
d fans welcomed me so
rmly from day one that
family and I felt at home
re... even if we wouldn’t
e been able to point at it
map beforehand.
50 r r
86 November 2020 FourFourTwo