Cash, goals & dictators: Recalling Rivaldo’s spell in Uzbekistan

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In August 2008, Brazilian World Cup winner Rivaldo made the curious decision to join Uzbek side Bunyodkor. It was a wild ride.

Wins consecutive La Liga titles between 1997 and 1999. Wins the Ballon d’Or in 1999. Wins the World Cup in 2002. Wins the highest accolade of all — a place in the FIFA 100 — in 2004. Holds his face when hit in the midriff, always.

At his dominant peak, Rivaldo was a phenomenon.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the mercurial attacker hit the highest heights with Brazil and Barcelona, forming one of the greatest attacking trios in international football and single-handedly dragging Barcelona to league glory.

He may have been less glamorous than Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, but Rivaldo was, on his day, as impressive as anyone in the game.

By his early 30s, however, he seemed all but finished at the top level.

A disappointing spell at AC Milan petered out in embarrassing fashion, and in late 2003 Rivaldo went back to Brazil at the age of 31.

Just a year and a half after winning the World Cup, his days appeared numbered.

But appearances can be deceptive.

Somehow, that 31-year-old Rivaldo would proceed to squeeze another 12 years of football out of his ageing legs, traveling around the world on a kind of eternal victory lap, postponing retirement, retiring, coming out of retirement, eventually retiring again.

The epilogue to Rivaldo’s career, which finally ended in 2015, basically mirrored that of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

At the end of the film, Frodo and Sam — having seen the ‘One Ring’ destroyed