This Day, That Year – April 10

This day in history we feature Roberto Carlos. A Brazilian former professional footballer who now works as a football ambassador was born on this day in 1973.

Trivia – Roberto Carlos

Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha known as Roberto Carlos, started his career in Brazil as a forward but spent most of his career as a left-back and has been described as the “most offensive-minded left-back in the history of the game”. A free kick specialist throughout his career, his bending shots have measured at over 105 miles per hour. In 1997, he was runner-up in the FIFA World Player of the Year. Widely considered one of the greatest left backs in history, in 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players.

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At club level, Roberto Carlos joined Real Madrid from Inter Milan in 1996 to spend 11 highly successful seasons, playing 584 matches in all competitions and scoring 71 goals. At Real, he won four La Liga titles and the UEFA Champions League three times. In April 2013, Marca named him in their “Best Foreign Eleven in Real Madrid’s History”. He is one of the few players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances at club and international level. Roberto Carlos made his debut for the Brazil national team in 1992. He played in three World Cups, helping the team reach the final in 1998 in France, and win the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan. He was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team in 1998 and 2002. With Brazil he is especially known for a bending 40-yard free kick against France in the inaugural match of Tournoi de France 1997. With 125 caps he has made the third-most appearances for his national team. He was chosen on the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in a 2002 FIFA poll. He took up management and was named as the manager of Sivasspor in the Turkish Süper Lig in June 2013. He resigned as head coach in December 2014. From January to June 2015, he was manager of Akhisarspor. Although Roberto Carlos announced his retirement from playing at the age of 39 in 2012, in July 2015 he was appointed player/manager of Indian Super League club Delhi Dynamos, with whom he would make three appearances. On 16 June 2019, Roberto Carlos took part in Soccer Aid at Stamford Bridge, London. He played for the World XI team which was captained by Usain Bolt and they beat the England XI on penalties. In 2019, Roberto Carlos became the global ambassador of the international children’s social programme Football for Friendship. Carlos attended programme’s Forum and awarded the winners. In January 2022, Bull In The Barne United, an English Sunday League pub team, won a raffle meaning that Roberto Carlos would play for them in a one-off friendly. The Shrewsbury-based side play in Division One of the Shrewsbury & District Sunday League and paid just £5 to enter the eBay raffle. On 4 March 2022, Roberto Carlos made a goalscoring debut for Bull In The Barne United during a 4–3 defeat to Harlescott Rangers in a friendly match at Hanwood.

Source – Wikipedia