Roberto Carlos

Posted on 08. Feb, 2008 by Borris Becker in Real Madrid Players

Roberto Carlos

Real madrid have signed the 17 year old full back opare to a four year deal. Opare played for Ghana’s Ashanti Gold before signing with los merengues. A good signing from the looks of it, it will be interesting to see if schuster gives him a chance in the first team this season for real madrid in league or champions league matches. Real madrid definitely need a roberto carlos who left last season to join fenerbache in turkey because of his bad contract situation with real madrid.

Roberto Carlos joined fernebache on a free transfer

His first kicks to a football date back to 1990 in Araras, a Sao Paulo quarter. The name of the team was Union San Juan. He was in the first team at the age of 14 and made his debut with the Under-16 Brazil team. He became an idol in Palmeiras and part of Brazil first team when he was only 18. He took a jump over the Atlantic to the European football in 1996 to join Inter. He arrived at Real Madrid one year later. His record as a white player is impressive. He won over all the fans with his spectacular and offensive game as well as tough tackling defensive qualities which made him such a utility player for real madrid, not to mention his endless personal values: an easy-going character, cheerful and very close to the fans. He has been confirmed as the best outside left defender in the world both for his play in Real madrid and in his national team Brazil.

His playing style was just scintillating, everybody wanted to see him play

(Source realmadrid.com)

Real madrid should have handed him a new contract on carlos’s terms as he has played for real madrid for more than a decade and a player as great as him should be treated with a bit more respect than real madrid showed him. After all , he is one of the greatest left backs of all time. He really inspired real madrid to the league title on many occasion, like when he scored in the 92 nd minute in te game against real zaragoza in the league which was I think very crucial as barcelona won their game so real madrid had to win in order to get on equal points with barcelona otherwise when you look at the consequent league table, real madrid would have lost the title had it been not for roberto carlos’s goal.

Roberto Carlos after that momentous event against real zaragoza

(Source news.xinhua.net.com)

The best attribute of real madrid’s left wing back was that carlos could score as well as defend very well. Too many times have I seen defender great in the attacking department but poor in the defending area as defenders bomb forward too much leaving behind gaps in defense. Roberto carlos’s positioning was exceptional as he always seemed to be a very aggressive and attacking defender but always tracked back to his position to defend so quickly, sometimes I thought there were two roberto carlos on the pitch. He moved so well and with so much pace, stamina, vision and always created danger in the opponents penalty box with his pin point crosses and his bazooka long range left footed rockets.

Roberto carlos had a rocket of a left foot, he could score from anywhere, anywhere

(Source realmadrid.com)

It’s sad that he left the way he did but real madrid will always remember him for the good things he did for real madrid rather than just blame him for the goal in the champions league which real madrid conceded in less than 11 seconds into the game which eventually knocked real madrid out of the tournament. I just hope he can get involved with real madrid in the youth programs so that his unique talent can be passed on to the next generation of players and may be real madrid would get another roberto carlos from their youth system, which has been disappointing for a number of years because real madrid buy so many foreign big name players that the youth team teenagers never get the chance to play for the first team and thus get transfered so some other clubs.

One of the all time greats

(Source it.eurosport.yahoo.com)

As far as marcelo goes, I don’t think he is the next roberto carlos because of a number of reasons, one being that although he is performing well, roberto carlos was far faster than him on the pitch and could attack more efficiently with his long range shots and his powerful runs into the opponent,s penalty area. Marcelo does not has that kind of a pace nor does he has a powerful shot although he has scored long range goals for brazil but those goal were just one offs. He must improve his skill on the ball and work on those legs to get some pace while running with the ball.