Vítor Borba Ferreira Gomes, better known as Rivaldohe has been through a lot of teams in his career. Fifteen to be exact, between the debut in Paulista and the jump to Europe with Deportivo La Coruña, then Barcelona and Milan, with experiences here and there between Türkiye, Greece and beyond. The period dearest to him, where he spent the most years, was the one he lived with the shirt blaugrana wearing (1997-2002), with 4 trophies and a Golden Ball to go with it.
In the interview given to BrandRivaldo wanted to exhume those memories: “It was a wonderful experience, I lived many fantastic moments within the club. I won trophies, they voted me the best player in the world playing with Barcelona. So they were five fantastic years that I spent there. Already at the beginning, starting with the title of Spanish champion, an important trophy for my career.”
Yet the return of Louis Van Gaal in the summer of 2002 he ruined everything, because of a somewhat bitter relationship between the two: “Van Gaal is a great coach. Every time I do an interview I speak well of him, because he is a great coach, but he doesn’t like players who stand out, those who do something individual. He is very collective And, obviously, I was very collective too. But there are moments when I could have done much more. It limited me, it took away all my freedom.”
Complete with admission and background of clearly visible frictions at Barcelona: “Sometimes in training, in some matches, there were discussions between Van Gaal and me. But I always said that he was a great coach. He took me and wanted me to play on the left flank. I played several matches, for two years, as a left winger, but at a certain point I said: ‘no, I have to do something more’. I was doing good things on the left wing, because I was in my prime – explained Rivaldo -, I could play anywhere position and I would do well. I had a lot of confidence, I knew that I could do more, that I was a ’10’, that I wanted to be a ’10’, that I wanted to play in midfield, for the passes I made, the assists.”