How ONE Decision Killed The Career Of “The PERFECT Player”

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How good was Diego Ribas actually? #GOAT
New video about one of the most talked about players we’ve seen over the 2000s in football. In this episode we take on Diego Ribas who played for Werder Bremen, Juventus, Santos, Porto, Wolfsburg, Fenerbahce and Flamengo for most of his career.

0:00 Please like the video, it helps a lot
1:20 Becoming The Heir To Pelé’s Number 10
6:19 Becoming A World Champion At 19
8:03 From Reject To Ballon Dor Nominee In 3 Years
12:26 The Decision That Killed Diego’s Career (Or did it?)
15:38 The Unbelievable Comeback Of Diego

So… listen to this… You know what Werder Bremen’s president said when they asked him for how much money he’d be willing to sell Diego? “If they want to take him from us, they’ll have to kill me first”… and he wasn’t alone…

Back then, Diego seemed to have the entire football world at the palm of his hand… All the legends coming down from their thrones to sing praises for the new kid on the block… In Brazil, Ronaldo paraded him around like a proud father, Zico claimed he reminded him

Of his younger self, while Altafini said he was even better, “faster and more versatile”… In Italy, Anastasi called him a mix of Zidane, Baggio and Platini, while Vialli literally said that he was “worth as much as Messi or Ronaldo. One of the three best players in the world”…

Even in Germany, the great Beckenbauer claimed he was “the perfect player” that the reason Bremen was destroying Bayern was that “They have Diego and we don’t”… At that moment, it really felt like nothing could go wrong… His future at the top of football was seen with such certainty that when Ozil started

Popping off, they called him “The next Diego”… Bayern, Real Madrid, Juve… everyone came for him… and it wasn’t just because he had been nominated to the Ballon D’Or or that he had put down nearly 100 goal contributions in just 3 seasons at Bremen…

No, everyone already knew he was a once in generation talent 8 years before that… When Santos went into a meltdown, not having won anything at the national level since back when Pelé was still around… struggling to even pay their own players and watching them leave left and right…

You know who they relied on to save the club? The kids in the academy… They were mocked by the entire country… but while they laughed, they didn’t realize those unremarkable names would one day become known all over the world… Alex, Elano, Robinho… but above all…

Diego… who, at 16 years of age, in his first ever season, was handed Pelé’s number 10 shirt and told to save his own club… In the eyes of everyone in the country, this was an impossible mission… but that was only until he touched the ball…

The way Diego carried himself on the pitch, had it not been for his baby face, you would assume you were watching a veteran… and with two games left before the start of the league season, he got his very own trial by fire…

São Paulo had the best team in the country, Ceni, Júlio Baptista, Luís Fabiano… but above all, 20 year old Ricardo Kaká… and since there’s no better way to prove you’re the heir to the Brazilian throne than to slay the next in line, that was exactly what Diego did…

Thanks to his two assists, Santos had announced to the country that they were not to be joked about… but if that time he came on top… 6 months later when they met again… it was a disaster…

You see, one goal behind, with minutes left on the clock and 3 red cards on the stats sheet, Diego missed a penalty, then got to retake it only because Ceni had come off his line… and once he scored, he had the nerve to run 60 yards just so he could celebrate

By stomping on the São Paulo badge, riling up the entire stadium and getting mobbed by their players… only to end up going behind again… just 5 minutes later… In one single motion, Diego had undone all of his work and convinced the entire country

That he was nothing but a stuck up brat… but thankfully for him, just a month later, he got to redeem himself… With Santos somehow making it to the knockout stage of the Brazilian championship on goal difference and having to face São Paulo yet again…

Diego scored in both legs to put them through to the semi finals… as his teammate Wellington said: “ They were the favorites… The day we beat them, we got back to town and there was a sea of fans waiting…

That was precisely when we realized we could win it all”… and 10 days later, in the final, it was Diego who put down an incredible assist for the goal that would put Santos in front… Once it was all done, Diego had become the youngest ever player to win the Brazilian

Championship and while most previous record holders were just benchwarmers in some super team… Diego was a star player in one of the greatest underdog stories in the history of football… and they weren’t done yet… next year, the Libertadores was waiting for them…

And in the group stage, Diego was involved in 6 goals in 6 matches, from free kicks to back heel assists… He was already all over the headlines… and then… right on the first match of the knockout stage, he put down one of the best performances I’ve

Ever seen, putting in pass after pass, being involved in all 4 goals as Santos held the game to a draw… he simply did not stop… In the quarters he scored maybe the goal of the tournament and in the semis he assisted

The opener and then put in an incredible goal for the third to take them to their first final in 40 years… but just as the greatest story got even greater… Boca beat them mercilessly… Still, it has been an incredible year…

Nike had named him the best player in South America, he had not only gotten his first call up to the national team, but he had joined forces with Kaká to take Brazil’s under 23s to the final of the Gold Cup which is not even meant to be an under 23 tournament

And Pelé himself had said that he “had what it takes” to become better than he was… which is just absurd… and then to top it all off, Ronaldo, himself, invited him for a ceremonial match between him and Zidane…

At 18 years of age, Diego was in a guest list, alongside Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo and Beckham… but then, as it would eventually become usual… things took a dive… In January 2004, Brazil crashed out of the Pre Olympic tournament and missed out on the

Competition entirely… and once it was all done, even if Diego had been involved in 6 goals in 7 matches, people had not let go of the idea that he was “just a stuck up brat”, so he was made into a scapegoat… and as much as several players spoke out in his defense…

Even though he was made captain at Santos…. by July, he got called up to the Copa América and after a quiet tournament, mostly spent on the bench… It was Diego who stepped up with seconds left in the final and put in the assist for the

Goal that allowed Brazil to take the game to penalties and take the trophy… but as much as the fans may have been willing to forgive him then… it was too late… Only a couple weeks later, European Champions, FC Porto had already signed him… and if

3 years before he had been dealt an impossible hand… this time it wasn’t much different… His job at his new club would be to replace Deco… That year’s Ballon D’Or runner up and maybe the greatest number 10 in the history

Of the club… all while the entire team dealt with the departure of José Mourinho… Regardless, even if Porto collapsed without the Special One around, going through 3 managers in a single year and scoring a measly 39 goals over an entire league season…

Diego was a beacon of hope, as much as he wasn’t blowing anyone’s minds, especially after 4 years of watching a genius like Deco… you could see the potential he had and with Porto somehow still winning the intercontinental cup among all the chaos…

Diego could call himself a world champion at 19 years of age, even if once again, he had been sent off for getting “overly excited” with his celebration… No matter what, as his second season started and Co Adriaanse took over the team, there

Was no indication that his time at the club would be over anytime soon… In fact, 17 matches into the league season, Porto were in first place with 6 points to spare and Diego was more than a regular starter… but then, in Diego’s own words: “Everything

Was fine, but then we lost one match and the manager calls me into a room with a translator… he tells me that he’s changing the tactical system, that I’m no longer needed and that I should look for a new club… just like that… I thought my career was over. I couldn’t even sleep”…

In a season where he was planning to secure a call up to the world cup, he was now a complete outkast, not getting a single minute of playing time over the final 4 months of the season… but if every club in Brazil was approaching him, trying to convince him to go back, Diego

Rejected every offer… He had promised himself that he would reach the top of the football world… and he was not leaving Europe until he had made that a reality… And so, in May 2006, Diego finally signed for Werder Bremen… but yet again, they handed

Him the number 10 shirt and asked him to replace none other than Johan Micoud… considered by many the greatest player in the history of the club… Still, as toxic as it was to repeatedly put these kinds of expectations on a 21 year old…

Just as he had done at Santos, Diego made the impossible look easy… In his first start, he defeated Bayern to take the Ligapokal… In his Bundesliga debut, he scored a goal and assisted two others… and then, 6 days after that, he assisted 2 more…

Being named league’s player of the month… which, trust me, became sort of a habit for Diego… In October, with 3 goals and 4 assists in 3 matches, he won it again… In December, he made three and by the turn of the year, he was being named the best player in the league…

Diego mania had taken over the Bundesliga… and it quickly became quite clear that Diego was the sort of player who had to be handled with care, as one newspaper put it: “Diego is the textbook definition of a star.

When a player delivers the way he does, some indiscretions can be put to the side”… and that was exactly what the incredible Thomas Schaaf understood, that others simply couldn’t… turning what should’ve been an incredible career into a toxic rollercoaster… but we’ll get there… for now, Diego was still phenomenal…

Over the second half of the season, even if Bremen slowed down and allowed Schalke and Stuttgart to take their place at the top of the table, Diego never stopped putting numbers on the board, even playing maybe his best game of the season in the UEFA Cup quarter

Finals, demolishing AZ Alkmaar with a goal and 2 assists… but if any moment defined that season, it was his goal against Alemannia Aachen… With Real Madrid scouts and Pelé himself watching from the stands… Diego smacked it in from over 60 yards… and by the time the season was over, even

Though Bremen missed out on the title, Kicker magazine had named Diego as the best player in the country… and with the Copa America to be played over summer, it was a huge moment for Diego… or at least it would have been, had Dunga not force him to watch from the

Sidelines as Brazil lifted the trophy… I mean just look at their starting eleven… it’s unbelievable… but, moving on… The moment his second season started, Diego was going full speed… Right in the Champions League play offs, he was the man of the match, scoring one and

Assisting the other to put Bremen in the competition… And once there, though they would be out in the group stage… his performance against Real Madrid was so impressive, that Van Nistelrooy himself said that “he has to play for Real”…

And that was exactly when the flirting started… player and club going back and forth, praising one another… in fact, it got so intense, that the Werder Bremen president had to intervene, speaking the famous words: “If they want to take Diego from us, they’ll have to kill me first.

Diego will only leave Bremen over my dead body… No one from Real has come to talk to me… Diego has a contract for many, many years and he will stay with us, because he is ours”… Regardless, once the season was done, the rumors only worsened with Diego being called

Up for the Olympic games and pulling off 2 goals and 4 assists in just 6 matches, easily being one of the stars of the competition as Brazil took the bronze medal… but even though the following season would easily be the best of his career…

It was also the season that ruined it… don’t believe me? Well… then let me tell you that after Diego played against Bolivia one month into that season, he would never play for Brazil again… Still, that year, Diego scored 21 goals and provided 11 assists, all from midfield…

In the UEFA Cup, his name was all over the headlines, he scored and assisted against AC Milan, in the quarters he scored a mind-blowing 4 goals… and when they coincidentally met their rivals Hamburg in the semi finals, totalling up to 4 derbies in just 19 days, he made history,

Leading Bremen to win all 4 encounters… and even if he’d also end up getting a yellow card and missing the final which Bremen just couldn’t win without him… let me tell you, those bragging rights meant more to the fans than anything else…

Especially once he made it up to them, by assisting the decisive goal in the German cup final, a week later, bringing the trophy home… Once it was all said and done, Diego was nominated to the FIFA World Player Of The Year, to the

Ballon D’Or… at that point, he was undoubtedly one of the best players in the world… but then he made a mistake… While his dream was to play for Guardiola, Barça never came for him… When Bayern did, he refused to betray Bremen…

And with Real being Real, they refused to guarantee him a place in the starting eleven, which he didn’t like very much… and so with Juventus knowing Nedved would retire soon and still desperate to recover from the Calciopoli scandal which sent them down to

The second tier… they were willing to make him their most expensive signing in almost a decade and promised him they’d build the whole project around him, making him the best paid player in the team… and so…. he caved in…

It was so shocking at the time, that even club legend Gianluca Vialli admitted he was “stunned he had picked them over Real”… And one year later, even if Diego had carried the team, pulling off an impressive 22 goal contributions, Juve had appointed former player Ciro Ferrara as manager, thinking it’d be

Just like Guardiola at Barcelona, but instead he sent them down to 7th place in the table, undoing all the work Ranieri had done over the previous two years and pretty much cutting Diego’s market value in half, killing all the hype that was surrounding his name, as

Well as any hope that he’d be called up to the world cup… Diego, still only 24 years old, got so traumatized over this that, as soon as he could he tried to get a move back to Bremen and when they told him it was “financially impossible”,

He went to Wolfsburg instead, thinking it was close enough… but all that was waiting for him was… more of the same… With Wolfsburg on a massive downturn following their shocking Bundesliga title in 2009, they made Diego their all time record transfer, thinking he’d fix their problems, but instead

He got into a massive public clash with manager Steve Mclaren, culminating in Diego disobeying his orders, taking a penalty he was not supposed to as the team trailed behind against Hanover, skying it, losing the match and falling down to 13rd place, only 1 point above the relegation

Line, leading Mclaren to be sacked and Diego not only to be fined but to get on the wrong side of the board… with new manager Felix Magath eventually leaving him out of the squad for their decisive relegation match… to which Diego simply walked out of the training grounds without any explanation…

Severing any ties he had left with the club… From there on out, he was left in a vicious cycle, where Wolfsburg refused to sell Diego for cheap while other clubs repeatedly tried shake them down, and though at one point,

Diego found himself on loan at Atlético where he formed a truly scary partnership with Radamel Falcao, getting 3 assists in the semi finals against Valencia and then scoring and assisting in the final, taking Atlético to their second ever Europa League trophy… negotiations

Got difficult and they ended up only finding an agreement a year and a half later… Once Falcao had already left for Monaco and the whole squad dynamic had changed… meaning that despite still pulling off some magical moments… he’d finish off his season by

Watching Atlético choke the Champions League final in the last minute… and with his 30th anniversary seemingly catching up to him in the blink of an eye, he left for Fenerbahce, but as everyone assumed his time in the spotlight was over, following two less than memorable

Seasons in Turkey… he made a comeback, or I guess, two… In 2016, Diego arrived at Flamengo, in a transfer that fired up their fans so much, his name was trending worldwide on Twitter and man, he was worth the hype… Nicknamed by the media as “The Diego Effect”…

From one season to the other, Flamengo had gone from mediocre to incredible and by 2018, Diego had rebuilt his reputation so much that a call up to the world cup was being rumored… but, as always, it was right there that everything blew up again, with Diego suddenly underperforming,

Being dropped to the bench, almost leaving to Orlando City where he would ironically replace Kaká… but eventually choosing to stay and turning his form around, only to end up breaking his leg and being told he was out for the season… which was why I said that he made two comebacks…

In his own words, “Everyone told me to stop… they said “36 years old, already an idol and you’re gonna risk it all?!”… but I told them all that I was gonna come back and win the Libertadores”… Two months later, unbelievably Diego was back on the pitch and though it would be a while

Before he got substantial gametime… By November, with Flamengo trailing behind in the final of the Libertadores, his prophecy came true… He came in and the fabled Diego effect went into motion… With 1 minute left on the clock, he won the ball back and set off the counter attack that

Allowed them to tie the match and in injury time, he set up Gabigol for the winning goal… By the end of the match, Jorge Jesus referred to the man once known as “a stuck up brat”, as “one of the greatest captains he ever had the pleasure to watch”…

And if his status as a football legend was still in question, three years later, in the final season of his career, already more of a locker room figure than a star player, he lifted the Libertadores one more time, becoming the second most successful captain in the

History of the club, winning only one less trophy than the great Zico… maybe the comparisons weren’t so absurd…