“I no longer recognize myself in today’s football.
I watch this sport and it seems like a different planet to the one I’ve lived on.
Today I see footballers who invent non-existent pain just to avoid wearing their national team’s shirt, as if representing their country were a nuisance and not an honor.
I took the field at a World Cup with a leg screaming in pain, and I did it without hesitation, because that symbol on my chest was worth more than any fear.
Now I witness scenes that hurt me: players who allow their wives to go on TV to blurt out private matters, locker room confessions transformed into gossip, constant requests for richer contracts, as if money were the only measure of greatness.
Many have asked me to sit on the bench, to manage teams, to enter the halls of football power. But that’s not what I want.
If I really had the choice, I would like to be with the children, teach them what it means to love this sport, respect it, sacrifice for the team.
Because those values that made us men, not just footballers, are disappearing, and someone must stop them from dissolving.”
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