After a few years abroad, I returned to the islands, to hear there was a new football star rising: 18 year old Rody. He had made his debut for Santa Maria at 16 and a year later was already a full international. On his second game for Cape Verde, a 5-0 win over Equatorial Guinea, he stole the show with a brace.
By following the local game, I had learned to lower my expectations and I expected the Sal island native to be an overrated trickster. The first time I saw him playing was on the last national league and by half-time I knew I was wrong. Santa Maria was winning 2-0 at Académica da Praia and Rody was involved in every meaningful attack. He was replaced at the beginning of the second half and the match ended 2-2.
He reminded me of Ronaldinho, on his first brilliant years in Barcelona. Rody had impeccable technique, superb acceleration and an uncanny skill to beat his marker. A few months later, Cape Verde U-21 played against the favourites and hosts, Portugal, on the opening first match of the Lusophony Games. Rody came from the bench and he had the last 30 minutes to shine.
And shine he did, creating two clear opportunities to score and then, out of nothing, winning the penalty that settled the 1-0 win. Cape Verde won the tournament, and afterwards, nobody was surprised when Rody was snapped up by Portuguese giants FC Porto. It reminded me of another rags-to-starlet story, a long time ago.
In 1994, when I just a kid, they were “The Next Big Thing”: three Cape-Verdeans scoring dozens of goals for the FC Porto U-19 team. There was even a rumour about how they spoke Creole among themselves, to further confuse the opponents. Zeferino was the speedy forward, Tinaia the strong midfielder and Rui César the playmaker.
When the summer came around, they were off to Real Madrid B, playing every week alongside Guti, Cambiasso and Etoo. Was it the start of a glittering career? In the space of three years, all three of them were released. Zeferino is now playing in Malta and Tinaia was last seen on the Spanish fourth division.
The last one, Rui César, returned to FC Porto’s Dragon Stadium just last month. The Portuguese champions were playing a cup match against third division Sertanense. The Cape-Verdean is now 31 years old and, besides two years playing for Marítimo, never left the lower leagues.
Rui César was unexpectedly honest to the Portuguese media: “Of course I’m not happy with my career”. But “I think anybody would do the same as I did. Nobody turns down an invitation from Real Madrid”. At the time Porto wasn’t know for giving youngsters a chance on the first team. Yet “of course now I always have that doubt, whether or not it would have been better to remain at FC Porto”.
Written by Vitor Quintã
Tags: Académica da Praia, Barcelona, Cambiasso, Cape Verde, Cape Verde U-21, Equatorial Guinea, Etoo, FC Porto, FC Porto U-19, Guti, Lusophony Games, Malta, Marítimo, Portugal U-21, Portuguese Millennium Cup, Real Madrid B, Rody, ronaldinho, Rui César, Santa Maria, Sertanense, Spain, Tinaia, Zeferino
This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 and is filed under African Domestic & Champions Leagues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Vitor, good article. In Scoland we have had a number of players over the last 20 years, who were also expected to go and have great careers but didn’t.
I think the three guys you mention had to take up the offer from Real Madrid. They would always have wondered ‘what if?’ had they not.
At least they’ve given it a go, and made some sort of career out of the game.