Conducted by Tiago Leifert, the interview begins with the former players' opinion on who should be the Cup's top scorer. Ronaldo, who reached that achievement in the 2002 World Cup with seven goals, said: “It depends on the team that goes further in the Cup, which will have a better chance of having the top scorer. The number of games influences to know who will be the top scorer in a World Cup. In our case, Rivaldo and I fought for top scorer in 2002, I ended up being the top scorer, and Rivaldo had a spectacular cup scoring decisive goals. Our contribution on the pitch was important to reach the final, scoring goals.”
For the five-time champion duo, in the first episode of the series, the stars mentioned that the Brazilian team arrives at the World Cup with great chances, disputing favoritism alongside France and Spain.
Leifert asked Rivaldo about his eye for goals in Penta's campaign and the notable goals he scored during his career at Barcelona. For the ace, replacing Ronaldo at Barcelona made Rivaldo change his role on the pitch a little. “I learned to score goals. I was a midfielder that gave more assists, then Ronaldo left me in a difficult situation (laughs). I ended up going to Barcelona to be his replacement, after he was transferred to Inter Milan.”
“I used to say: - I'm not like Ronaldo, I'm a midfielder. Then things started to turn out very different from what I was used to, and I got used to scoring goals. I think Ronaldo played a big part in that, because of his departure, I started scoring goals for Barça and I had the opportunity to score goals for the national team, being runner-up in the World Cup in 2002,” adds Rivaldo.
Ronaldo commented on the changes in the period of preparation for a World Cup. “I remember that in 1994, we practically trained for three months. It is very exhausting physically and mentally, and football has had a great evolution in terms of physical preparation. Clubs and teams today train much better, being more efficient. I'm talking about the physical part, about the technical and tactical part, it takes time, but we won't have that long period of 50 days of preparation anymore.”
The veterans of the Brazilian team also opined about the importance of coach Tite who is in charge of the green and yellow team. Rivaldo commented that the coach's time in office will be essential for the team's good performance in Qatar.
“The team's chemistry helps the group a lot, I see a lot of people criticizing the coach who could call another player, but he already has practically a closed group of his trust, which is very important, I believe he is very confident for this World Cup; he comes from a World Cup in 2018 where he was eliminated by Belgium, and for sure he will want to make a comeback with the players he is taking, who are reliable. Time helps a lot.”
Ronaldo spoke about the pressure on the coach for the call-up of athletes who are emerging in this pre-World Cup period. “We cannot forget that we are a country of 200 million coaches. Especially coming closer to the Cup, there is an appeal for one player or another, especially if he is in Brazil standing out, the competition is very tough.”
Two-time world champion with the Brazilian National Team in 1994 and 2002, Ronaldo is confident with the work of the coach who ends his cycle in the Brazilian National Team after the World Cup in Qatar. “I think Tite has the best players at his disposal and I believe it is a very difficult job to select the 25 ones for a World Cup,” concludes R9 to the ‘Dia de Jogo Betfair’ show.
“If we go back to 2002, Ronaldo went to the World Cup recovering from an injury and I was also in the final process of an injury. There was a lot of talk that we didn't have the best conditions for the tournament and Felipão ended up betting on Ronaldo and Rivaldo, and things went very well,” said Betfair's ambassador Rivaldo.
The first and second part of the interview with the Brazilian stars on ‘Dia de Jogo Betfair’ show is available on the Betfair Brasil YouTube channel.
Betfair (www.betfair.com) is one of the largest providers of online sports betting in the world, and official sponsor of CONMEBOL Libertadores and Sudamericana. The company, founded in London in 2000, pioneered the provision of peer-to-peer (Betfair Exchange) betting in the betting industry and manages a full suite of sports betting, entertainment events and online gaming products for over 4 million of customers worldwide, available to over 18s.
Thanks to its cutting-edge technology, the platform offers a wide catalog of products that allows you to bet with your own odds and odds offered by other users. Betfair is licensed to operate online betting and other games in 19 countries including Spain, Italy, Malta, Colombia and Great Britain.
Source: GMB
