Rivaldo Taking a Lot of Flak for Player of His Caliber
It was a bizarre Christmas week to say the least for Brazilian striker Rivaldo.
Last Sunday, he had trouble sleeping after being jeered off the field by Catalan fans the day before in the wake of an indifferent performance for his club team, Barcelona.
On Monday, he was named European player of the year for 1999, even though rumors of his winning the prestigious award had surfaced a week earlier.
On Tuesday, he was dropped from Barcelona’s starting lineup by the team’s Dutch coach, Louis van Gaal, after the two argued over which position he should play. Van Gaal wants him on the left wing, Rivaldo wants to play in the center.
On Wednesday morning, Italian newspapers broke the news that Serie A leader Lazio was ready to pay a world-record 120 billion lire ($62.57 million U.S.) to bring Rivaldo to Rome.
On Wednesday night, Barcelona, playing without Rivaldo, managed only a 1-1 tie against Rayo Vallecano, with Luis Figo missing a potential game-winning penalty kick that Rivaldo normally would have taken.
Also on Wednesday, FIFA announced that Rivaldo was in the running, along with English midfielder David Beckham and Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta, for its world player of the year award.
On Thursday, Van Gaal admitted that the team had missed Rivaldo the night before.
“That was a real shame,” he said. “Rivaldo always scores from the penalty spot.”
Talk about ups and downs.
With such a roller-coaster ride of a week, it is small wonder that the player who won a bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, a silver medal at the France ’98 World Cup and a gold medal at the 1999 Copa America is not sure what day this is.
He is under contract through 2003 with Barcelona, which acquired him from another Spanish club, Deportivo Coruna, for $26.7 million in 1997.
But he and Van Gaal are equally stubborn and whether the player who is arguably the world’s best at the moment will get back into the lineup--and where--or whether he will be traded, is up in the air.
“I’ve spent the two years I’ve been here playing stuck out on the left, sacrificing myself,” Rivaldo said. “But now I’m 27 years old and I want to enjoy my game so that I can help Barcelona win the 1/8European 3/8 Champions League, which is the principal objective.
“I don’t want to leave Barcelona. I’m very happy here and I want to stay on.”
He is equally adamant, however, about no longer playing out wide.
“We’ll have to wait and see what happens after Christmas,” Van Gaal said. “I don’t think he’s going to change his mind. He seemed pretty steadfast when he said what he said.”
Meanwhile, Rivaldo had praise for the player who came closest to beating him for the European player of the year honor--Manchester United’s Beckham.
“He was my great rival and a great player who would have deserved to win,” Rivaldo told France Football magazine, which has organized the award since its inception in 1956. “He proved it by winning four titles with Manchester United.
“But the many goals I scored made the difference. Beckham has won all the major trophies this season and his passing is great, but he scores fewer goals than me.”
Rivaldo scored 27 in helping Barcelona win the Spanish league championship and the Spanish Cup last season.
Meanwhile, if Lazio is serious about pursuing him, it can certainly afford the $62 million. It received a world-record $49.5 million from Inter Milan for Christian Vieri in June.
The rest is just small change at this level.
BEST AND CRUYFF
Two former Los Angeles Aztec players were in the news for vastly different reasons last week.
George Best, a former Manchester United and Northern Ireland striker who played in the old North American Soccer League from 1976 to 1981, will be inducted into the International Football Hall of Champions during the FIFA World Player gala in Brussels, Belgium, on Jan. 24.
Best was one of four players voted into the hall of fame for 1999 by a panel of 26 international soccer journalists. The other three are former Brazilian World Cup stars Didi and Zico and former Dutch striker Marco van Basten.
For Johann Cruyff, meanwhile, the week was not quite as pleasant.
The former Ajax Amsterdam star and Barcelona coach who was elected European player of the century last January, reportedly broke his arm in a charity match.
Cruyff, 52, played in the NASL from 1979 to 1981.
AN ODD LIST ALTOGETHER
Funny how Sports Illustrated could arrive at a list of California’s “50 greatest sports figures” of the century and yet manage to omit two-time world champions and Olympic gold medalists Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy and Carla Overbeck, each of whom was born in the state.
Three other players on the U.S. women’s national team who were 1991 and 1999 world champions and 1996 Olympic gold medalists fared better.
Michelle Akers made the list of the top 50 from Washington, Mia Hamm made it in Texas and Kristine Lilly was one of those selected from Connecticut.
One of the obvious flaws with such lists, of course, is that some states have more legitimate candidates than can be included while others struggle to find 50 names.
As a result, the other 10 soccer players from among the 2,500 athletes in all were a mixed bunch.
They included such figures as Billy Gonsalves (Massachusetts), from the U.S. team that reached the semifinals of the 1930 World Cup, and Harry Keough (Missouri), who was on the American squad that upset England in the 1950 World Cup.
Also included were goalkeepers Kasey Keller (Washington) and Briana Scurry (Minnesota), along with defender Alexi Lalas (Michigan) and midfielder Claudio Reyna (New Jersey).
But it was obviously a tough task to find 50 noteworthy names from Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming, because the magazine’s lists included national soccer unknowns Seth Spidahl (Alaska), Carl Christensen (Vermont), Bart Farley (Vermont) and Trey Harrington (Wyoming).
The most glaring omissions?
Anson Dorrance of North Carolina, who has coached the Tar Heels to 15 NCAA women’s titles in 18 years, and Tony DiCicco, Dorrance’s successor who led the U.S. women to their 1996 and 1999 triumphs and who posted a 103-8-8 record before retiring last month.
NEXT GENERATION
The U.S. Under-17 national team finished fourth in the FIFA Under-17 World Championship in New Zealand last month, the Americans’ best finish at that age level.
Now, a new crop of players will go into residency camp at the Bollettieri Sports Academy in Bradenton, Fla., next month to begin preparation for the next world championship, which will be played in Trinidad & Tobago in April 2001.
Among the 18 players called up by Coach John Ellinger are five Californians, three defenders and two midfielders.
The defenders are David Chun of Irvine (Woodbridge High and the Irvine Strikers); Jordan Harvey of Mission Viejo (Capistrano Valley High and the Irvine Strikers), and Heath Pearce of Modesto (Johansen High and Ajax United).
The midfielders are Marco Rodriguez of Diamond Bar (Diamond Ranch High and the Irvine Strikers) and his brother, Mario Rodriguez of Diamond Bar (Diamond Ranch High and the Irvine Strikers).
