The megalomaniac contract that Al Nassr has signed for Cristiano Ronaldo is a system that Al Hilal invented in Saudi Arabia. Today’s white rival for the Club World Cup fell in love with Roberto Rivelinothe genius of the mustachioed town in that exciting Brazil in the seventies, and seduced him to change his country for the Saudi league, covering it, almost literally, with gold.
It was in 1978 after the World Cup in Argentina had ended and Prince Khaled Al Saud (the nephew of the Saudi sovereign) directed Al Hilal without sparing any expense. He offered Rivelino seven times his salary at Fluminense and a ticket on the legendary Concorde supersonic plane to Riyadh. Rivelino dribbled with the offer to get an extra with which he dreamed and the Arab club did not blink an eye. “I had always wanted to have a Mercedes and when before signing I asked for one… they laughed, because for them it was like giving me a Fusca (the nickname in Brazil for the Volkswagen Beetle)”, the Brazilian soccer player would say years later. They let you choose model and color. It wasn’t the only luxury car he sat in. Upon his arrival in the country, the club put him in a Rolls-Royce and in it he was paraded before the thousand excited Saudi fans who wanted to verify that it was true, that one of the best on the planet was going to play there.
“I had always wanted a Mercedes and when I asked them for one they laughed; for them it was like giving me a Beetle”
The dreams of grandeur of the Saudi elites were not coordinated with efforts on less visible issues. Like, for example, training camps. “We had to share our pitch with two other teams from Riyadh,” Rivelino himself narrated. in an interview in The Folha de Sao Paulo. “One team trained at six in the afternoon, another at seven and the last at eight.” Fields that to avoid the scorching heat of Riyadh, were made of synthetic grass. Rivelino played with some wet gauze in his mouth to keep his mustache moist and maintain a small sensation of freshness..
The captain of the Canarinha he was 33 years old and had dressed the Yellow green on 92 occasions (including the success in the 1970 World Cup with Pelé) but his abilities were valid. Besides, Prince Khaled had him staying in one of his palaces and expenses paid (also your children’s school). She goaded him on with generous gifts. If he scored a double or a free kick or, for example, scored against one of Al Hilal’s most bitter rivals, at the end of training he would find a gold watch with diamonds.
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Successes in Saudi Arabia
Rivelino did not go to Arabia to take the photo. In 60 games (or 57, sources vary) with the Saudi team he scored 23 goals, one of them Olympic, against Al Ittihad. Also two leagues and a country cup. Triumphs that ended in a disagreement with Prince Khaled when the attacker asked him to release his transfer so he could end his days in Sao Paulo.
The signing of Rivelino was the first firecracker of what could have been a firecracker of the Al Hilal, who also tried to get Zico, but Flamengo rejected an offer of 2.5 million dollars (the player was going to get the same amount). Finally the Italian Udinese would take it. He won the old Europe.
