In an interview with the newspaper As, Brazilian star Rivaldo's son, Rivaldinho, said: "Carrying my dad's name is a burden rather than helping. ”
Rivardinho, 24, currently plays for Romanian club Vitolu Constanza, making 12 appearances this season and scoring six goals.
After you appeared in the Spanish commercial for Colco, it's been many years now...
"Indeed... (Laughs) It's been many years. The ad was funny, and I remember when I went out with my dad everyone asked to take a picture with him, of course, but they would also take a picture with me. It started out as some kid, and I thought I was a child star during that period..."
With a superstar like your dad, what was your life like in Barcelona like?
"It was a wonderful time. I'm honored to be my dad with this player who was once the number one player in the world and one of the best in history. And he's a good dad too. Growing up in Spain gave me a different way of looking at the world, my ideas were all European, I learned about different cultures, this experience shaped my character and shaped who I am today. ”
When you were a kid you played for Barca's youth...
"Yeah, I was the youngest player in the club at the time, I was about 7 years old and then I was training with the 9-year-olds. Messi, Iniesta, Fabregas and Valdés were all older than me at the time, but we all trained on the same pitch.
Obviously, no one thought at the time that they would eventually become the kind of people who would eventually be, but this is a memory that I am happy to recall, the memory that I trained with them. ”
Do you remember Messi from that time? He was strong when he was a kid?
"I don't remember, I was too young, but I do remember someone talking about him. You'll say there's an Argentinian kid here who's awesome. ”
Have you always wanted to be a player?
"When you have a celebrity father, you see people asking him for autographs and group photos, and you want to be like him. So I always wanted to be like my father, to be a player.
I've grown up in the great club locker room and interacted with great players. Everything at that time was incredible, I wanted to get the same feeling they had when they scored, I wanted to hear the stadium calling my name. And my father has always supported me. ”
I guess the feeling when I played with him should be indescribable...
"And the two of us didn't just play together, we both scored goals in the same game and won, it was the most exciting moment of my career because I played with my idol."
As Rivaldo's son and carrying his name on his back, what was your experience as a player?
"Such an identity is more of a burden than a help." It has a positive side, and when I play well, it gets media attention because I'm Rivaldo's son, but eventually they'll always compare you to your dad, and there's a question that you can play because of your dad's relationship, because of the name.
But I think I'm proving my abilities as a player, which I've achieved through my own efforts. ”
It was this effort that helped you travel to Romania, where you were the idol of Vitolu Constanza, the team that Haji coached, who was a legend like your father...
"Haji was like Bailey in Romania. But as a coach he's approachable, he's a real teacher who teaches you something new every day. I've grown this season thanks to Haji. It was he who initially believed in my potential, it was he who gave me the opportunity I was looking for, and everyone was able to see the results of this choice on the pitch. ”
What was the most important lesson Haji taught you?
"He's a very serious and very focused guy. It is no coincidence that he was able to win all that in Romania. One of the most important lessons he taught me was the winner's mindset. He always said that victory or defeat lasted only one day, and that's what my father told me.
He said that everything you did yesterday doesn't make any sense to today. What you're going to do tomorrow makes sense. Your growth, what you learn after every training session, makes sense, so I try to improve myself every day. ”
After two years in Romania, your name has started to appear in the rumors of the big five leagues, but we are now seeing a lot of younger and younger players landing in Europe, such as Vinicius, Rodrigo and Rainier.
"It's not the ideal way to go, because you lose your stage of growth. You're not 100% ready to land in Europe. When you're at a club like Real Madrid, the pressure is enormous. You have to perform well right away, and that's a tough time for you who don't have a full stage of growth.
But Rodrigo is in very good shape right now, and I like Vinicius a lot. The ideal way would be for Neymar to play in Brazil for a few more years, grow up, and then land in Europe with a more mature attitude. But the world of football has changed, I understand that, and now it's almost impossible to follow that path. ”
(Editor: Yao Fan)