I Felt Confident Coming Back That I Could Play At My Best – Ricardo

Having recently returned to the Brazilians Starting XI after having suffered a long-term groin injury, sustained during the offseason – which kept him out of action through the start of the 2019/20 campaign.

The 33-year-old has made over 100 appearances for Sundowns since joining from Brazilian outfit Atlético Monte Azul in July 2016.

Having completed his physiotherapy and rehabilitation in his native country, the Downs centre-back had finally forced his way back into the Starting XI, before the Leagues suspension.

Despite playing most of his football in the heart of the Brazilians defence, Ricardo is no stranger to finding the back of the net having contributed 12 goals, most coming from the penalty spot.

Ricardo kicked off his 2019/20 campaign with a few appearances in the PSL and CAF Champions League in March, but the tough-tackling Brazilian had just started building on that initial momentum when the PSL announced it would be suspending all matches due to COVID-19.

“I did my operation and rehab at home in Brazil. My recovery was great and I felt confident coming back that I could play at my best”.

“I have played 9 games this season, I feel good and happy – I missed football after 6 months on the sidelines. Training like this is good, but it’s not the same thing. I miss the ball and the pitch. It’s tough, I felt like I was picking up steam and hungry to add value to the team”.

Ricardo who has applied his trade across the world in some of Europe’s top leagues feels at home in South Africa, having recently become a father and is feeling settled in his adopted home.

“I have spent 4 years here, South Africa is like my second home – SA was a lovely surprise. I came from Europe and Portugal where I had played for over 6 years.”

“At first when I initially got the offer, I was sceptical – having not watched any PSL games but it’s been a great surprise”.

“I think the League will kick-off, but the most important thing right now is the Corona Virus. We all need to be safe and then get back on the pitch”.

3 Responses
  1. How come Michael Jackson was $400 Million in debt?
    Lavish spending on silly useless things. No one to tell him ‘no.’ Legal fees.
    Plastic surgery fees. It adds up. Like many super rich people Michael Jackson spent huge amounts of money on a lavish wasteful lifestyle.

    This is OK while you are making huge amounts of money as he was but likely he was spending at a rate
    faster than he was making it. I think he was a very generous man who gave
    heaps of money away as well but it all started to go wrong with him when there were
    accusations of sexual abuse against young boys who stayed over
    at his Neverland Ranch. We will never know the truth as his
    accuser apparently was planning a deal with Jackson and Jackson pulled out.
    Suddenly there was an accusation of sexual abuse supposedly from the guys’ son who had
    been at the ranch. Jackson always claimed the accusations were no
    more than the guy trying to get revenge for the deal not going through but finally Jackson paid out 20 million dollars
    to the guy to drop the case. Likely Jackson was innocent but many suddenly would not go to
    concerts or be seen buying his music as his name had been dragged through the media
    mud and many people distanced themselves from being seen to be doing
    anything that had Jackson’s name on it. This would have been a financial disaster for Jackson as likely he used very high
    priced lawyers for the case, paid 20 million dollars for the case
    to go away, and suffered a huge drop in his music sales, but likely Jackson still kept
    spending big. A while later there was more speculation Jackson was sexually abusing another boy.
    They were shown together in an interview and it was obvious they were very close and many suspected
    they were lovers. It appears as so the boys parents accused him of abusing their boy and Jackson this time had
    to face court. He won the case as apparently the boy did not
    sound as if he was telling the truth about being sexually
    abused. It appeared as so maybe the boy’s parents may have forced the boy to
    make the accusations so they could get some big dollars as the other
    father had previously. The damage was done for Michael Jackson and he had lost
    most if his loyal fan base by now and his name will always
    be linked to being a paedophile. Revenues from music sales plummeted but Jackson may have been musically brilliant he was in many ways a naïve
    child inside. Many boys who had stayed with Jackson at his ranch were questioned by police but were all adamant he never did anything sexual
    to them. So we will never know whether he was just an adult with a
    child’s mind who was never allowed to be a child when he was
    young and loved having children around him as he was never allowed to have as a child himself, or
    whether he really was a child molester. I prefer to give him the benefit of a doubt as in both
    accusations against him there seemed to be greedy parents eager to take
    money. Just because he was accused does not mean he was guilty and personally
    he was just a man who was a bit childish at heart and naïve who was a victim
    of the muck raking media and ruthless parents who believed
    they could get rich by falsely accusing Jackson of sexual crimes.
    It appears as so after all that his career was over but likely the spending on the lavish lifestyle went on until the day he died so very likely he had
    big debts. Likely there were those loaning him money
    believing there would be a comeback and they would recoup their money and more but had not counted
    on him dying so young.