Gor Mahia coach Robertinho played with Brazil Legends Zico, Socrates, Junior
Brazilian Youth Team that won the Toulon Tournament, in France, in 1980.
Standing :Luis Cláudio, Édson Boaro, Dudu, Marolla, Mozer and João Luis;
Crouching Robertinho, Cristóvão, Baltazar, Mário and João Paulo
Gor Mahia’s new coach, whose full name is Roberto Oliveira Gonçalves do Carmo, o Robertinho had an illustrious playing career. When it comes to playing achievements among former Gor Mahia coaches, he ranks at the top alongside fellow Brazilian Ze Maria who played regularly for the Brazil national team , popularly known as the Seleceao, as well as Len Julians who played in top English League for Arsenal and other teams, as well as Jack Johnson who played in the top tier of the Danish and Scottish leagues.
The highlight of Robertinho’s career came on September 25 1980 when he featured in a friendly for the Brazil national team against Uruguay. On that day he played alongside Brazil legends: Carlos, Junior, Cerezo, Socrates and Zico, the latter two who are considered amongst the greatest players ever tp play for Brazil. On that day he featured as a striker in a 4-4-2 formation. It is quite an achievement considering the array of strikers that Brazil had in those days. And he had just turned 20. He went on to have an illustrious career that saw him play for all the top Brazilian teams of the 1980s: Fluminense, Palmerias and Flamengo.
He was born in Carioca Brazil on June 20, 1960. His professional career started at Fluminense. While there he was selected to the Brazil Under 20 team.
An extremely fast right winger, Robertinho started his career at Fluminense, popularly known as Tricolor das Laranjeira. He was there from 1978 to 1982, scoring 22 goals in 66 matches. At Fluminense he played alongside famous Selecao like Branco and Edinho who both played in the world cup. The team was coached by a Brazil legend: Mario Lobo Zagallo.
In 1982 he went to Flamengo, the legendary Brazilian side. Among the players in the squad were Brazil legends like Zico, Junior and Julio Cesar. Also in that squad was a young Bebeto who would later steer Brazil to world cup glory in 1994. While at Flamengo, Robertinho helped Flamengo to win the Brazilian championship with a 3-0 over rivals Santos.
“It was remarkable to make the move that resulted in Flamengo’s third goal (scored by Adílio) against Santos in the final of the Brazilian 83,” recalls the former forward, who played 47 games with the red-black shirt, 22 of which were victories, 11 draws and 14 defeats. He scored scored 11 goals for Flamengo.
That same year he played in the The Mundialito de Clubs, officially Cup Super Clubs or Coppa Supermondiale Clubs. This was an unofficial summer association football friendly tournament that took place in Milan, Italy from 1981 to 1987 every two years.
Robertinho scored the opener in the first match which was against Inter Milan and Flamengo won 2-1. They finished second to European champions Juventus who won the tournament fielding legends like world player of the year Michel Platini, Poland legend Zbigniew Boniek, Claudio Gentile, Marco Tardelli and Paolo Rossi who was top scorer in the 1982 World cup.
Flamengo before the 1983 Mundialito de Club match against Juventus
Backrow Leandro, Raul, Marinho, Mozer, Ademar, Andrade e Júnior.
Frontrow: Robertinho, Adílio, Júlio César Peu
Robertinho Video highlights from the 1983 season
In a star studded Flamengo side, Robertinho found himself on the bench quite often so in 1984 he left to join Palmeiras. His stay at Palmeiras was short lived. He played 25 games (11 wins, 8 draws and 6 losses) and he scored three goals.
He would then return to Flamengo for the 1985-86 season. It was yet another star studded Flamengo side with legends like Zico, Socrates, Bebeto, Aldair and Jorginho. In those days, the top Brazilian players often stayed in Brazil and rarely ventured to Europe.
In 1987 he joined Sport Recife, popularly known as Leão da Ilha, where he was Brazilian champion in 1987, playing alongside midfielder Ribamar, right-back Betão, defender Marco Antônio.
He would also play for Internacional-R and Atlético Mineiro popularly known as Galo (alongside midfielder Renato Pé Murcho and the late center forward Gérson). That was the last club he played for in Brazil, in 1989.
Atlético Mineiro twice champion Mineiro in 1989.
Standing: Jair Pereira, Éder Lopes, Zanata (ex-Bahia), Luizinho, Batista, Paulo Roberto Prestes and Rômulo;
Crouching: Robertinho, Marquinhos, the late Gerson, Renato Pé Murcho, Éder Aleixo and Belmiro (massage therapist)
He then embarked on a European sojourn with Nacional da Madeira of Portugal. He stayed there from 1989 to 1994. He then ended his career with Grössenbacher, from Switzerland, in 1995.
In the next article: His coaching record ……..
Win the 2 legs of the CAF CL preliminaries and you qualify for the money bracket group stage of $550,000 or approx. kes.55m.
Even if the club spends kes.10m to prepare for the two legs that’s a straight profit of kes. 45m.
For CAF Confed Cup to qualify for the group stage will require 3 legs to cost about kes.15m.
Group stage payout is $275,000 or approx. kes.27.5m. This leaves a take home of kes.12.5m.
Does one need 12 years to understand that qualifying and progressing further in the CAF CL and next the CAF CC is the ONLY sure path to the financial stability for a club like K’galo?
Is overhauling the squad and TB every season the right strategy?
All the best team, 12 years is a long time, one should have learnt something!
pls look at the Gor Mahia budget or any other club playing in Caf for that matter. The moneys made in Caf competitions are basically there to cushion clubs not to miss the next stage. Categorizing this money as “financial stability” is far fetched. Also the manner at which you have calculated the “profit” is abit too simplistic.
This is why we keep asking the club treasurer to at least publish the Gor budget and financial statements, this can go a long way in educating fans on the kind of moneys needed to run a club.
That’s the “lie some fall for” season after season.
Firstly, winning the CAF CL earns a club kes.250m (CAF CC is kes.125m) which is why every club is fighting for that “cushion”.
Of course the big question is the current strategy capable of winning or even progressing past CAF group stages?
Secondly, even if the club spends another kes.15m for the 3 group stage legs the club will still have a profit of kes.30m from the kes.55m CAF CL group stage prize money. Give or take a million it does not take a genius to see that CAF especially the CL is the panacea to GMFC’s financial woes.
Also note;
1) Gor Mahia’s budget lines are always grossly exaggerated / unjustifiable. Take a simple example of salaries.
Can the office justify a monthly payroll of kes.5.5m per month?
Even if you take 30 players and 5 TB at a very high average of kes.100,000 you get to only kes.3.5m per month.
So who /what gobbles the extra kes.2m per month, allowances?
That said the reality is that our players don’t even get kes.100k per month most likely kes. 30 to 70k.
Not forgetting that some of the 30 players never play a competitive match the whole season.
2) Next is the size of the travelling team for away matches is pumped up with officials/ cronies to make it bloated and expensive i.e air tickets & accomodation. Recall the fracas in Libya when players disputed high allowances to some non players/ officials.
3) That’s why ADOR opted for a weak treasurer who upto today cannot give members the true financial position/ health of the club.
Why is GMFC recruiting a full time finance manager, another unnecessary overhead, when a qualified treasurer can easily maintain computerized financial records?
4) All other revenue streams (cost/benefit) cannot match what the club can get from the CAF money brackets e.g
a) Betsafe sponsor = kes.55m for a whole year something club gets from CAF CL group stage qualification.
b) Membership, 550 members = kes.660k,
c) Merchandise = kes.500k to 2m,
d) Gate collections even at kes.1m per home game club will raise kes.17 for the 17 home games.
The office is responsible and culpable for players and TB who win or fail in CAF.
You don’t need 12 years to realize that winning or the further Gor Mahia progresses past the group stages in CAF is the ONLY sure route to financial stability both directly and indirectly, for it will attract more sponsorship bigger fanbase / membership etc. It’s not rocket science.
Looking at Robertinho pics, he always lined up on the front row on the right. Superstition?