“You play to win, you don’t play to earnmoney… You need to feel it”
“Your father Washington was a successful basketball player. How much influence did he have on you?
He wanted to play football, but life and friends and luck took him to play basketball and he did very well. I’ve always had a strong relationship with basketball, it’s a sport I like a lot. I played it when I was young. But he was always pushing me and my brother to play football; what he couldn’t do himself he wanted his kids to do.
Being a professional sportsman, did your father instil competitiveness in you?
No doubt. and also I have to say, for a very long time he was still recognised. His popularity was bigger than mine, especially for older people. Maybe after I won the Copa america in1995, I achieved something with the national team. then it was like, “oK, he’s not anymore the ‘son of’, now he’s got a name for himself.” But at the beginning, in every news item that came [about me] there was always a reference to my father.
Did basketball influence your football?
every sport has something you can use in others. In basketball, the positioning when defending is pretty similar. When you’re marking a man you need to see the ball, and the basket needs to be behind you; if something is not in that triangle of perfection, something is wrong.
Did the encouragement to keep on studying also come from your parents?
When I was young, the deal for me to be able to play outside on the streets was that I had to do my homework. It became
