Rivaldo says he will be remembered

Updated: Sunday June 30, 2002 12:48 p.m. ET

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YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) -- Brazil's Rivaldo, who went into the World Cup amid doubts about his fitness and criticism over his international form, was in defiant mood on Sunday after his team's 2-0 win over Germany.

"I played 14 games with the number 10 shirt, a shirt that lots of great players have worn, and I'm sure that in the future lots of people will remember Rivaldo," he said.

"There it is. Champion. I think I've made my contribution to the Brazilian team, I'm very happy and I hope the Brazilian people are also content.

"It means a lot to me because I'm 30 and I believe it's the last World Cup I'm going to play. I've played two World Cups even though a lot of people doubted me."

Rivaldo's international career stretches back nine years to a friendly against Mexico in 1993, yet -- possibly because of his ungamely style or his unassuming manner off the pitch -- he has often been the brunt of criticism.

The attacks reached a peak in the last two years, when he was booed by the crowd during a Brazil match in Sao Paulo and he threatened to pack in his international career.

At one stage, he was accused of lacking dedication to Brazil's cause.

SIMPLE PEOPLE

"I never bottled out playing football," he said. "I've always played the same way, I had a good World Cup in 98 but unfortunately I didn't win the title.

"We played with love for our shirt and we won this important title.

"Brazil needed this title. We know the difficulties the country is facing, and we know that we are giving a lot of happiness to the people, simple people.

"We had a lot of difficulties in the qualifiers but we played with love and dedication we won."

Rivaldo was left out of the team altogether after the 1996 Olympics when, after being included as one of the permitted over-age players, he was blamed for a shock semi-final defeat against Nigeria.

He was brought back for the 1998 World Cup and had a good tournament but, like the rest of the team, was ostracised for the 3-0 defeat by France in the final.

He was joint top scorer as Brazil won the Copa America the following year but was again under fire as they struggled in the qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup -- even though he scored eight goals in 18 games.

He was surrounded by more doubts after missing the end of the last Spanish season with a knee injury.

"Two World Cups -- I reached the final in both, I lost one, I won one.

CONFIDENCE IN MYSELF

"I think all the players deserve to be congratulated and I deserve to be congratulated because I always had confidence in myself.

"I was certain I would recover and play the World Cup and play the seven games. I've played in all seven games and I'm a World Cup winner."

Rivaldo did not want to discuss his future and dedicated his title to his late father.

"It's not the time to talk about this," he said. "Now we have to talk about the title, not the future. The future belongs to God.

"I'm sure that, wherever he is, my father is very happy and proud of his son.

"People who criticised this team will now have to stay quiet for a long time. There is no motive to criticise this team because we made history, we played seven games and won seven games."

Copyright 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.