Was Diego Ribas a star? I never considered it. A great player? Yes. That, despite defending the Brazilian team for a few years, never reached a World Cup.
For Germany’s Werder Bremen, Diego was a star. More than that, an idol. So much so that it provided a farewell game for the midfielder, which defended the green and white colors of the club from 2006 to 2009, earning the magician nickname.
A big party-which filled Weserstadion in Bremen, which has a capacity of 42,000 people-for the former player, who stopped playing at the end of 2022 (defended Flamengo).
He acted a while in each team, the Werder legends and the friends of Diego, who included five-time champion Cafu, Julio César (goalkeeper) and Julio Baptista, all former Brazilian selections.
The victory of legends, 6 to 5, came at the end, with a goal of his penalty, Diego, who had already made others before, including friends.
The farewell game is a friendly, with almost no physical dispute, impediments not seen by arbitration, former veteran athletes and athletes parading their category (or not so much) alongside footballers in full activity and rivals in fraternization, including when the other team scores.
Even David, Diego’s teenage son, who acted for his friends, alongside his father, scored a goal.
The tribute, post-game, was very beautiful, with light show, club songs, pop music and the reconstitution of a historic goal he scored, from before midfield, for the German team. On the big screen, messages of famous people in the world of the ball, such as Ronaldo Phenomenon and Romário.
What Werder Bremen did to Diego, a foreigner who misses his fans, is an example of what clubs in Brazil should do for those who marked the epoch wearing their colors.
There were few idols who had a farewell game, a final meeting with the fans, colleagues and former colleagues (many of whom became friends), with the presence of family, dear people.
Zico, the greatest idol in Flamengo’s history, was honored in Maracanã in 1990; former São Paulo goalkeeper Rogério Ceni, in Morumbi in 2015; former Corinthian midfielder Marcelinho Carioca, in Pacaembu in 2010; former Vasca striker Roberto Dinamite, in Maracanã in 1993; Former goalkeeper Palmeirense Marcos, in Pacaembu in 2012. These are exceptions.
Pelé, the king of football, had no farewell departure promoted by Santos; Socrates, idem, by Corinthians; Romário, idem, by Vasco; Renato Gaúcho, idem, for Grêmio; Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Reinaldo, idem, by Atletico-MG. They and other stars deserved, no?
A phrase attributed to Paulo Roberto Falcão, the King of Rome, holder of the 1982 World Cup team in Spain, who received no tribute (neither in Italy nor in Brazil, where he shone for Internacional), says the soccer player dies twice, one of them when he retires from the lawns.
Thus, the farewell departure is a very important moment, because a tribute in life is given to someone who gave great joys to the association, scoring goals, or avoiding goals (in the case of defense players), and winning titles.
Diego Ribas, in the course of the celebration in Bremen, gave an interview to journalists. I questioned him about not participation in World Cups, especially in 2010, in South Africa.
“Playing a World Cup was one of the dreams I didn’t realize in my career, but it’s something I have very well resolved. In the 2010 World Cup, when Dunga was the coach, I was listed among the best players in the world, but I wasn’t summoned.”
“Being in the Brazilian team is not just about the player. When it is a Ronaldo Phenomenon, a Ronaldinho, of course there is unanimity, but the player, as talented, will depend on the decision and preference of the coach.”
“I don’t complain about the opportunity in the Brazilian team, I’m not frustrated by it or get the feeling that my career could have been better or more solid. I lived what had to live in football, a victorious story.”
At age 40, Diego, who emerged in Santos at the beginning of the century (in a team that also had Robinho and Elano), wrote another chapter in history he considers victorious.
A certainly unforgettable chapter that gave him a happy “first death” and a chair on the table of exceptions.
