Roberto Carlos

Roberto Carlos (footballer)
         

Roberto Carlos

   


Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973 in Garça, São Paulo, Brazil), more commonly known simply as Roberto Carlos, is a player/manager who last played as a defensive midfielder for Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala, where he was also club captain. He currently works with Anzhi as a coach and is not currently registered with the league as a player.Carlos has spent most of his career as a left wingback but started his career in Brazil as a forward. He started playing for Brazil in 1992 and was a member of the Brazil national team in three World Cups, helping the team reach the final in 1998 and win the 2002 tournament. He is also known for his running speed, long free throws and trademark free kicks with power and curve.
He previously played for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid for 11 years, making over 370 appearances and winning four leagues, three UEFA Champions League trophies, and two Intercontinental Cups. Roberto Carlos is also one of only fifteen players to have played more than 100 matches in the Champions League. He finished second to countryman Ronaldo in the 1997 FIFA World Player of the Year award poll and was named as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers by Pelé in March 2004.

Roberto Carlos

 


Biography

Roberto Carlos was born in the city of Garça, São Paulo. Raised with no luxury, he had a poor childhood and used to spend his time between helping his parents in farm works, and playing with his friends after all his works were over. In 1981, Roberto Carlos with his family moved to Cordeirópolis.
On 24 June 2005, Carlos was robbed by two gunmen while doing a live radio interview. However, the thieves did not harm him, merely taking his watch and the interviewer's cellular phone.
On 2 August 2005, Carlos received dual Spanish and Brazilian citizenship. This proved important for Real Madrid, as it meant that he now counted as a European Union player, opening up one of the club's allowed three slots for non-EU players and enabling Real to sign fellow Brazilian star Robinho.
For his 38th birthday, it was reported that Anzhi Makhachkala owner, Suleyman Kerimov, bought him a Bugatti Veyron

Club career

União São João
Roberto Carlos began his professional career playing for União São João, a football club based in Araras (São Paulo state). In 1992, despite playing at what was seen as a lesser club and only being 19 years old, he was called up for the Brazil national football team.


               

Roberto Carlos

Palmeiras

At Palmeiras, Roberto Carlos was recognized as one of the greats of Brazilian football of all time, winning two consecutive Brazilian Leagues.

Internazionale

After almost signing for Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough side in 1995, Roberto Carlos chose a move to Internazionale, in the Serie A, playing one season for the Nerazzurri. He scored a 30 yard free-kick on his debut versus Vicenza. Javier Zanetti also made his debut in this game alongside former England international Paul Ince.
In an interview with FourFourTwo in a May 2005 issue, Roberto Carlos said that the then-coach of Inter, Roy Hodgson, wanted him to play as a forward, but Roberto Carlos wanted to play as a left back. Roberto Carlos spoke to Massimo Moratti (the owner of F.C. Internazionale) "to see if he could sort things out and it soon became clear that the only solution was to leave.

Roberto Carlos

 


Real Madrid

Roberto Carlos played at Real Madrid for 11 seasons,with playing a total of 584 matches and scoring 71 goals in all competitions. 370 of them were league matches, in which he scored 46 goals from his left-back position. He famously set up Zinedine Zidane to score the winner for Real Madrid to win the Champions League in 2002. His consistently high standard and dynamic displays saw him voted into the uefa.com users' UEFA Team of the Year in 2002 and 2003

On 2 August 2005, he received dual Spanish and Brazilian citizenship. This proved important for Real Madrid, as it meant that he now counted as a European Union player. In January 2006, he set a club record for the most league matches played by a non-Spanish born player by making his 330th appearance for Madrid. He broke the previous mark of 329 held by Alfredo di Stéfano

Having played 30 or more league matches for ten consecutive seasons and being one of the most consistent players in the squad, he was heavily criticized for conceding the ball early during the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16 against Bayern Munich, which led to Roy Makaay's goal, the quickest goal in the tournament's history. On 9 March 2007, he announced his decision to not renew his contract with Real Madrid. In the dying seconds of one of the last few games of the season against Recreativo de Huelva, Fernando Gago played a beautiful pass and Roberto Carlos slotted it home. As a result, Real Madrid were on course for their 30th La Liga championship. He was linked with a move to Chelsea in the summer of 2006

Fenerbahçe
On 19 June 2007, Roberto Carlos signed a two-year contract and one year optional with the Turkish Super League champions Fenerbahçe at the stadium in front of thousands of fans

Roberto Carlos

           



In the first official match he played with the team, Fenerbahçe won the Turkish Super Cup against Beşiktaş by a score of two goals to one. During a league match against Sivasspor, he scored his first goal for Fenerbahçe on 25 August 2007 on a diving header, which was only the third headed goal of his career.

He was injured during the final period of the same season and missed the title race between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray

His team eventually lost the title to their rivals, while guaranteeing a place for themselves in Champions League knockouts for the next season. He announced that he was unhappy about the final result and would do his best to carry the domestic trophy back to the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium.

On 7 October 2009 Roberto Carlos announced that he would leave Fenerbahçe upon the expiration of his contract in December 2009. He offered to return to Real Madrid and play for free, though he also said return to the Brazilian domestic leagues was a possibility and announced on 25 November 2009 his departure.

He played in his last match for the Turkish club when he came on in the 89th minute as a substitute against Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League on 17 December 2009. Team-mates gave Carlos a goodbye shower after the match as Fenerbahçe fans chanted "I love you Carlos," giving him a standing ovation.

Corinthians
After 15 years away from Brazil, Roberto Carlos returned to his country in 2010 to play for Corinthians. He joined his friend and former Real Madrid teammate Ronaldo.
On 4 June 2010, Roberto Carlos scored a goal against Internacional and helped Corinthians to move to the top of the Copa do Brasil (or Brazil Cup) table. The Timão won the game with the score of 2–0

On 16 January 2011, Roberto Carlos scored an impressive goal directly from a corner kick against Portuguesa. Concerned with his safety after being threatened by fans after the Copa Libertadores da América defeat to Tolima, Roberto Carlos requested his release by the club, and was promptly released by Corinthians

Anzhi Makhachkala
On February 12, 2011, Roberto Carlos signed a two-and-a-half year contract with Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala,

Roberto Carlos

                 



worth approximately €10 millionPlaying in a defensive midfield position, Carlos has been captain of Anzhi since March 8, 2011. On April 25, 2011, Roberto Carlos scored his first goal for Anzhi in a 2-2 draw with Dynamo Moscow, converting a 58th minute penalty. On April 30, 2011, Roberto Carlos scored his second goal, converting a penalty in a 1-0 win over FC Rostov. On June 10, 2011, Roberto Carlos then scored his third goal on a 20th minute in a 2-0 win over Spartak Nalchik.On September 11 2011, Roberto Carlos scored his fourth goal in a 2-1 win over Volga. As of his first season for Anzhi, Roberto Carlos made 28 appearance and scoring five. On September 30, 2011, Carlos became the caretaker coach of Anzhi following the sacking of Gadzhi Gadzhiyev, before Andrei Gordeyev assumed the role also in a caretaker capacity. Roberto Carlos has announced his plans to retire at the end of 2012, but to continue to work behind the scenes at Anzhi. He was removed from the Russian Premier League registration list for Anzhi on March 9, 2012. According to Anzhi's vice-president German Chistyakov, he has not retired yet.

Racism in Russia
In March, during a game away at Zenit Saint Petersburg, a banana was held near Carlos by one of the fans as the footballer was taking part in a flag-raising ceremony. In June, in a match away at Krylia Sovetov Samara, Roberto Carlos received a pass from the goalkeeper and was about to pass it when a banana was thrown on to the pitch, landing nearby. The 38-year-old Brazilian picked it up and threw it by the sidelines, walking off the field before the final whistle and raising two fingers at the stands, indicating this was the second such incident since March.

Roberto Carlos

                           


Honours

Club
Palmeiras
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (2): 1993, 1994
Campeonato Paulista (2): 1993, 1994
Torneio Rio-São Paulo (1): 1993
Real Madrid
La Liga (4): 1997, 2001, 2003, 2007
Supercopa de España (3): 1997, 2001, 2003
UEFA Champions League (3): 1998, 2000, 2002
Intercontinental Cup (2): 1998, 2002
UEFA Super Cup (1): 2002
Fenerbahçe
Turkish Super Cup (2): 2007, 2009
Turkish Super League (1) 2007
Country
Brazil
Copa América (2): 1997, 1999
FIFA Confederations Cup (1): 1997
FIFA World Cup (1): 2002
Individual
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team (2): 1998, 2002
UEFA Defender of the Year (1): 2002
UEFA Team of the Year (2): 2002, 2003
Golden Foot: 2008
FIFA 100