Daniel Alarcón: This is Ambulante Radio from NPR, I'm Daniel Alarcón and I'm here with our producer Lisette Arévalo.Hi Lisette.

LISETTE: Hi Daniel.

Alarcón: Eh, Lisette, how much do you know and how much do you like football?

Lisette: Well, I have to be very, very sincere and I don't like football at all (laugh) and therefore I don't know anything about football.I know how basic it is like a yellow card and red card if you do something very, very bad.(laughs).

Alarcón: (laughs).

Lisette: But there ends all my super knowledge about this important sport for our region.

Alarcón: Ya, ok, so that I know about you because we worked together many years ago then, I was very surprised that on the board, which is like the internal record of the stories that come on Ambulante radio, I saw your name next to aSoccer history.So I imagine there must be a very particular reason why you are bringing me a football story when you don't like that sport at all.

Lisette: Yes, Daniel, and I know that you like football very much and you are very fanatic and you comment with the rest of the team.But I'm sure you've never heard a story like the one I am going to tell you because it is about a footballer who - what I understand and what I know about football - has one of the most impressive trajectories in Brazil.

Alarcón: Let's see, let's see, let's see.And that's it.Ok, tell me where your ... your story begins.

Lisette: Let's see.To begin with, he was in Flamengo, which is a team in Rio de Janeiro and is one of the oldest and most great in Brazil.

Alarcón: as they told you...

LISETTE: Según me ha contado y he investigado, también he hecho mi labor periodística(laughs).

Alarcón: Ready.Yes, I know the flamengo.Copa Libertadores champion several times and came to be in the Club World Cup recently.

Lisette: very, very prestigious.Any soccer player in Brazil would like to go through this team.Eh ... and well, it also went through another one from the Basque da Gama.And he was not there in any year, but he was there in 89, when they were champions of the season.

Alarcón: Perfect.That is, of course, this man already collected titles ...

Lisette: Exactly, passed through the most important teams in Rio and Brazil.But not only stayed there, as you surely know and I recently found out ...

Alarcón: (laughs).

Lisette: Brazil exports many soccer players abroad, especially to Europe.And this player I want to tell you is not the exception.He was part of teams such as Independiente de Argentina, Puebla de México and even came to play France.

Alarcón: That is, he fulfilled any young Latin American footballer to play in Europe.

Lisette: exactly.

Alarcón: already.Then now...Let's see, I have surely heard of this player, what is his name?

Lisette: Well, his name is Carlos Henrique Raposo, but everyone knows him as Carlos Kaiser.

ALARCÓN: Todo el mundo, o sea nadie, porque(laughs) ese nombre no me suena en absoluto.

Lisette: huh ... well, Daniel actually Carlos or Well, Kaiser, in all that time he was in these teams, in the twenty years of his career, he really never played a soccer ball.

Alarcón: 20 years of career and did not touch a....Okay.But how did he play on all these teams without touching a ball?

Lisette: Well, what happens is that Kaiser always had the ability to convince everyone that he was someone who was not and beyond being a story about football, this story is about a man with a lot but a lot of charisma, gift of the word and all the pint of a great soccer player.

ALARCÓN:Okay, bueno Lisette, soy todo oídos y te paso el micrófono.

LISETTE:Okay, aquí vamos.But before, a little pause.

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LISETTE: WE ARE BACK I AM LISETTE ARÉVALO.

Carlos Kaiser's story is not one of those that can be completely verified.But that does not make it less real.So let's start to say something key: Kaiser has always known how to get his way.And that's why he defines himself as a malandro.

Kaiser: a Malandragem é um Jeito de Você will defend them, agruras, das difficulties that or world affirms you.

Lisette: Malandragem, that is, the act of being a "malandro", which Kaiser describes it as a necessary action to defend against the difficulties of the world.Although in Spanish Malandro means criminal, in Brazil it is different.It is a quite used term to refer to rogue boys of large cities such as Rio de Janeiro, where Kaiser grew in the 70s.Boys who, like him, with ingenuity, subtlety and deception, know how to overcome any difficulty and like to take the advantage in every situation.

And well, in reality this concept should not seem very foreign: it is the idea that the rogue, the cunning, lives of the fool, of the slow.Something so common, unfortunately, in our region.

Kaiser, for example, was looking for a way to make money or fix them if he didn't have it: sometimes he cut flowers from the gardens of a cemetery to sell them at the entrance or got into the cinema without paying the ticket.

Kaiser: dizem that cats têm sete lives.Eu só tenho uma, understand?I know eu tinha that ter um rapulous rapid pra, pra I light ...

LISETTE: He puts it in terms of survival.Because unlike cats, which are said to have 7 lives, he only has one.So for him, he needs to have rapid reasoning to overcome the mishaps of life.If not, according to him, I would be dead.

As once, when he was 12, and he almost happens to him what was the worst: he was going to run out of Christmas.His mother told him that if he failed at school, he would not give him gifts or could participate at dinner.Carlos already knew that he had gone wrong in the exams.So the day he had to collect his notes, he came up with an idea.He decided to stop on a public phone that was very close to his school.

Kaiser: Liguei for A Polycia 190 e Falei that tinha uma bomb no colégio.

Lisette: He called the police and said there was a bomb at school.When he arrived and saw that everyone was being evacuated from the place, he pretended surprise.And when he told his mother what happened and that he could not give the notes, she had no choice but to accept it.

Kaiser: when ela sube that eu já tinha had been reprovated já festes já tinham passado já.

Lisette: Carlos had already eaten Christmas dinner and received his gifts at the time the notes came home.

With only 10, 12 years, Carlos says that being a malandro ... a rogue...It had to do with the neighborhood where it grew.

Kaiser: Eu Morava Num Bairro Poor da Zone Sul do Rio de Janeiro Chamado Botafogo.Demuite houses?And surrounded by Morros, by Favela Né?

Lisette: It was a residential area, with few businesses, he says.Surrounded by hills and favelas.The Botafogo that he describes is a poor place, the typical hostile neighborhood where many Brazilian football cracks have come out.Although, to be precise, this neighborhood is not as poor as Kaiser says.Historically it has been one of the most wealthy in the city, where the nobles settled in the time of the colony.And although over time it was increasingly populated, with factory workers, artisans, soldiers and merchants, the richest continued to live in the neighborhood.Even there is one of the most expensive schools and is one of the most tourist places in the city.

Anyway, according to Carlos, he was far from having the life of a noble.Remember to see a lot of violence, and the presence of drug cartels looking for their friends to offer them work.And he says that many of them accepted because they needed to earn some real to hold their families.It is not difficult to believe because there are studies that indicate that in the 70s, the time when Kaiser grew, 60 percent of the country's population was poor.So for many there was no other alternative.

But Kaiser did have it: football.

Kaiser: eu acho what dizer that eu jagava não é prepotência, sou um face very true.Eu never Joguei Ftebol.Eu semi -um craque de ftebol.

LISETTE: I'm going to translate it literally because it seems important to me.Kaiser says: “I think saying that I played is not arrogance.I am a very real guy.I have never played football.I've always been a football crack ".

A crack ... You know, of those extraordinary players who stand out for their movements, technique, and domain of the ball.At that time he spent playing with his friends on the courts of the Aterro do Flamengo, a park with several gardens between the center and southern Rio de Janeiro.And according to him, they saw him in his neighborhood as the boy who had the most possibilities to become a professional.

Kaiser: Me compares me Beckenbauer.

Lisette: With Beckenbauer.Franz Beckenbauer.The mythical German defense, twice Golden Ball, world champion in 74, three times European champion with his club, Bayern Munich.Etc.Etc.One of those players who knows him by his nickname.I played with a very elegant style, like an emperor or German, a "kaiser".

Then let's imagine it: it was the beginning of the 70s, Carlos, a crack child, idol in his neighborhood, being compared to the best defense of football history.But since people could not pronounce "Beckenbauer"...

Kaiser: e Discoriram that or appealed to was Kaiser, and Botaram Meu appeal from Kaiser.

Lisette: When they learned that the nickname of the German player was Kaiser, they decided to call Carlos like this.Simpler.Equally blunt.

The moment is also important.It was the golden age of Brazilian football.Pelé was the best in the world, without discussion, but he was not the only national idol: Carlos Alberto Torres.Tostao.Rivelino.Great players, admired worldwide.And Jairzinho, Kaiser's idol, had put goals in all 1970 World Cup matches.

In that World Cup the Brazilian team dazzled everyone with a unique game style.Kaiser was 7 years old, he saw everything on television and, like so many children from his generation, he dreamed of becoming one of those superstars players.

That is why he and his friends passed the afternoons playing what in my country, Ecuador, a pachanguita is said, in Chile a pichanga, and in Brazil peeled ... that is, informal matches in the streets or in empty lots.If anyone had managed to gather money to buy a ball, they used that.But if not, they managed the same, using balls made of paper or old averages.

He was in those with his friends on a Sunday in December 1973 ... Kaiser was 10 years old, and played a peeled on Real Grandeza Street, when two leaders of a local club appeared ... and not any club ... The Botafogo, one of the most importantof the country, the one that gave the national team its star players in the World Cups of 58 and 62.Kaiser played midfielder and the leaders of the Botafogo were very surprised with his technique.

Kaiser: E os leaders do Botafogo me viram.Coincidentally perguntaram pro meu pai quem was eu ...

Lisette: says that coincidentally the leaders of the Botafogo asked Kaiser's father who was the child with long and disheveled hair.When he replied that he was his son, the leaders asked him to take him at 7 am the next day to his club.They wanted to do a training test.His dad accepted and although Kaiser did not even have appropriate shoes to play, they appeared.When he arrived, he was asked to show his performance on the court.

Kaiser: Com 15 minutes of Treino Marabram eu sair e eu was to fail com meu pai ...

Lisette: After just 15 minutes they asked him to get out of the court.Kaiser did not understand what was happening, so he approached to talk to his dad.I felt that they had called him to make him embarrass.At that time the leaders approached and asked Kaiser to turn away because they wanted to talk only to their dad.But he was not one of those who expected sitting to know his fate and stayed close enough to listen to what they said.

Kaiser: sen or senhor could leave ainda, or senhor traz to documenta do seu Filh.

Lisette: They wanted their father to take his documents because he would be registered as a Botafogo player.

Kaiser: foi um two days Mais Happy gives minha life.

Lisette: I don't know if it is understood, that sound at the end of the phrase ... is that just remembering that day talking to me broke.He says it was one of the happiest days of his life.It was not be for lowerly.He and his dad were fans of the Botafogo, so wearing the white and black striped shirt was an honor, a dream.

Kaiser: Foi Assim that Tudo Começou.

Lisette: And not only refers to his career in the Botafogo.But at the beginning of what Carlos Kaiser would be.And like every myth, it is difficult to know where the lie begins and where the truth ends.In fact, even for him it is almost impossible to clearly remember the exact dates or data about his history.When we talk, he clarified more than once.

But something that does not forget is the name of all the teams through which it happened.Summarizes it without problem.

Kaiser: Basque, Flamengo, Fluminense, Bangu, América, Independiente Da Argentina, El Paso, No Texas, Louletano Em Portugal, Puebla No Mexico.Ajaccio na ilha gives it cors of França, understand?

Lisette: But let's start with the Botafogo, the first one in which he was at 10 years, in the youth category.According to him, since he started using the team's shirt, everything in his life changed.

Kaiser: Eu EM time from Terdez Amigos Eu Passei to Ter 100 Friends.Passei a não pay non -supermarket, eu passei to pay to enter no cinema.

Lisette: He went from having 10 friends to have 100, now they let him go to the cinema for free, without having to hide ... he left the supermarket without paying, only that the food was not stolen, but they gave it to them.It was a superstar and its stage was the neighborhood of Botafogo.His mother soon realized that his son was a monetary opportunity for his family.But above all for her, because Kaiser tells that she was alcoholic and very aggressive.Then, according to him, as soon as he had the opportunity, his mother signed the representation of his son's football career.

Kaiser: veluu meu passed by Uma to Uma Pessoa Mitito ignorant, distressing das leis ...

Lisette: But as she was ignorant, says Kaiser, and did not know about laws, signed a document that tied him to that businessman for years.If I wanted to break the contract, I would have to pay millions of dollars.And although at that moment Kaiser did not know, according to him, his mother and the businessman took most of the money they paid for playing in the Botafogo.The rest used it to support the family.But of course, it is not that Kaiser was very aware of it at such a young age.

I mentioned a few moments to telling Kaiser's story is not always so simple.In one of our interviews, he returned to the beginning of his adolescence, which was, for him, perhaps the first big lie of his life, which would be foundational in Kaiser's myth.

When he was 13 years or less, he confirmed a suspicion he had since childhood: his parents were not his biological parents.

A cousin told him that his biological mother was a housekeeper at the house of a very important politician in Porto Alegre, the largest city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande del Sur.The politician left her pregnant and when she told her, he gave her money to disappear and raise the baby.Carlos was born in July 1963 in a neighborhood called Moinhos de Vento.

It is not clear why, but his cousin told him that when Carlos had 7 days born, his mother went to a hotel in Porto Alegre.There he met a lady who was visiting her family in the city and became friends.She asked the lady to take care of her son for a few days as she fixed her life.But when he returned for him, the lady told him that the baby had died.It was a lie, of course, because I wanted to stay with him.

Kaiser: unfortunately eu I was brushing of minha mãe trueira and was trazido for or river of Janeiro Pela minha mãe adoostiv.

Lisette: Thus, says Kaiser, was that he was stolen from his biological mother and his adoptive mother took him to more than 1,500 kilometers away, to Rio de Janeiro.His life - as he knew her - had started with a hoax.

Or well, at least that is one of his versions of what happened.In a book written by journalist Rob Smyth, Kaiser told him that his biological mother abandoned him with that lady.Who had told him that he would return for him but never did.And as the lady who was taking care of him was desperate to have a child, he took it as a signal.Instead of taking him to the police he took it to Rio to raise him as his.

And that is something they have to know: with Kaiser there are always two or more versions of the same story.As the origin of his nickname, for example.Because according to his friend in an interview for a 2018 documentary, called Kaiser: The Greatest Football Never to Play Football, his nickname was much more Brazilian than German.

(Soundbite File)

Advertising: Kaiser Uma Grande Cerveja, Kaiser Uma Grande Cerveja.Kaiser, Uma Grande Cerveja.To Cerveja two happy moments.

Lisette: Kaiser, a popular beer that began to be sold in Brazil in the 80s.His friend tells that as Carlos was a chubby and had a bottle shape, they nicknamed him like this.

But whether Kaiser the emperor or kaiser beer, with him it is impossible to know which of those two stories is the real.

Shortly after learning that he was adopted, Kaiser says he was orphaned.His mother was an alcoholic and died of cirrhosis, and his dad gave a heart attack.For a time he lived at the Botafogo headquarters.When I was not there, I lived with two aunts who worked as domestic employees.They lived with the fair, so he started working to help them.

His life became more like the script of a movie of a poor boy who, despite everything, manages to become a great soccer player.

At 15, he says that he was taken from the Botafogo because he offended the then president of the club, Charles Borer.But the next day, he became part of the youth of a rival club, the Flamengo.And here there are also two versions of how it ended there.An involves the businessman with whom his mother had signed the contract: it is supposed to be he who took it.

The other version that gave the journalist Rob Smyth, is that Kaiser went to the same school as the children of Dida, the Flamengo youth coach.And that was through that contact that ended up playing there.Whatever reality, Kaiser was not long in that team.

On Monday, while training on the Flamengo courts, some leaders of Puebla de México arrived at the club.They were there to see Beijoca, one of the great idols of Brazilian football.They wanted to recruit it.But when the training ended, someone else had caught his attention.

Kaiser: but Eles Falam than Nriam Beijoca than Queriam that Garoto who had jogado ...

Lisette: He says that he had trained very well and that he didn't even know that Mexican leaders were looking at him.Anyway, he dazzled them: they chose him over Beijoca and signed his first professional contract.Kaiser was only 16 years old.

We try to contact Puebla to verify this, but we had no answer.But according to Kaiser, in Mexico there were great expectations.Especially for his resemblance to Muricy, a former Sao Paulo player who was very famous in Puebla.The two had long, dark hair and white skin.

Kaiser: When Eu Cheguei no Mexico achavam that eu is or novo muricy, understand?Eu não wanted anything Disso for Mim e eu never wanted anything Disso.

Lisette: They said he would be the new Muricy.But he didn't want any of that, he says.And by then, he had disenchanted football because it was there that he learned that his mother and the businessman had supposedly stayed with 80% of what he had won in the Botafogo.

And this would be key to Kaiser's transformation into a player with a lot of promise to a promise that he would never play.If he had cheated him since his entrance to professional football, now he would dedicate themselves to deceiving them all.

Kaiser: Eu Fazia de Tudo for Não Jogar because Eu Deixava Bem clear to the leaders.

Lisette: It did everything to not play.

Kaiser: eu fiz de tudo, eu fazia de tudo pra hide not jogo, Fingia bruise, causes juízes ...

Lisette: He hid from the game, fake bruises, caused the judges and the referees ... The first thing he told his coach when he arrived in Puebla is that his leg hurt and that he had to rest during the first days.According to Kaiser, the coach did not even question it.

When the days passed the technical director assumed that Kaiser was better and asked him to train.Kaiser quickly thought of an exit.He entered the court and after running a few meters, he threw himself to the floor and pretended an injury.The medical team took him out of there while Kaiser squeezed his teeth pretending intense pain.The doctors made him rehabilitation, they gave him medicine, anti -inflammatories, of all.But nothing seemed to work: Kaiser did not heal and never played again.

After 8 months of not seeing any change in their health, the leaders considered that it was better to return to Rio to recover.He did not resistance and returned with his aunts.Thus, Kaiser did not leave a trace of any master play or a goal.What he did leave in his passage through Mexico were several affairs with women and a son who had one of them.But Kaiser did not take care of him.In Rob Smyth's book he says that at 17 he was not ready to be anyone's father.

Already back in Rio de Janeiro, Kaiser began to move to continue in the world of football.According to PUEBLA, he did not cancel his contract but chose to lend it to different teams in Brazil, such as América do Rio.Although it is also said that he was never hired by this team officially, but attended training because he accompanied a friend of his who was a club player.

This is how Kaiser passed his afternoons, with 17 or 18 years, sitting in the bank, telling the players about their passage through the Puebla.But above all, it was spent talking to the women who were going to see the players train.

This is a recurring theme with Kaiser.One starts talking about football and he ends up talking about women, without asking him.For example, he wanted to clarify - at once - that he has never had vices like drugs or alcohol.But one.

Kaiser: MEU VICIO SEMPRE FOI MULER, EU SAIA COM TRês MULHERES per day from os 15 years.

LISETTE: From the age of 15 he left with about three women a day.He also told me - once without me asking him - that he had his first sexual relationship at 14, although later I found that the journalist Rob Smyth told him that he was about to fulfill the 12.Anyway, he brought the subject several times.

And so it was always.Conquering women here and there ... And of those relationships had another son in Rio with a model, when he was 22.But Kaiser was not a present or exemplary dad with him.

I tell you this because much of what Kaiser would do with his life has to do, in part, with women.His moves to stay in the world of football were never treated about sport, but what he could get part of him.Or well, pretending to be part of him.

Although of course, it would have been impossible for him to play the role of soccer crack without a cast that supported him.So with his friends from América do Rio he went to Footvolley's matches - a mixture of volleyball and football - on Copacabana beach.It was there where the best soccer players were going to demonstrate their skills and spend time with their friends.

It was there that Kaiser, at 20, received the best pass from his life: they introduced the player Renato Portaluppi, better known as Renato Gaúcho for being from Porto Alegre, the land of the gauchos, the jeans.At that time, it was nothing less than one of the best attackers in Brazilian football.It was very quoted.And not only for his technique on the court, but for his physique: women died for him.

(Soundbite File)

Presenter: o Crack of 87, or Meu Amigo, Renato Portaluppi ... Renatoooo

Women: AAAAH

LISETTE: and Happy Renato.He was also a womanizer.Clearly Kaiser and he had that interest in common.So when they met in 1983, on the beach of Copacabana, they became friends immediately.

Kaiser: E from the moment foi uma amizade that eternizou.

Lisette: More than friends, brothers became.They went everywhere together: parties, meetings, footvolley games, training.It was there that Kaiser experienced what the life of a famous footballer in full 80s was like.Where was Renato, was he.They were inseparable.And not only that: Kaiser made sure that they couldn't even differentiate them.

If anyone saw Kaiser walking in river at that time, I could easily think he was a super sports star.Especially if I was going with Renato.Both walked presuming their sculpted body, wearing large and dark glasses, and Kaiser imitated the way of talking about Renato.Both had the typical haircut of the time: short above, pins, and a long mane back.

Kaiser: As Pessoas confusiam isso was Uma Coisa Rotineira, understanding?

Lisette: Kaiser says he never made his friend deliberately.But there are stories that contradict him.Former players, such as Marcelo Gonçalves, remember to have seen him giving autographs in a shopping center pretending to be Renato Gaúcho.And once he even got through him to enter a party in Unadiscoteca exclusive.

Lisette: According to Kaiser, neither of them bothered them to confuse them.On the contrary, it was a praise.

Kaiser: Eu acho ele um homeembonito, accho ele um educated face, não faz nothing wrong ... não use drugs, não baby, então..

Lisette: Because, says Kaiser, it seemed to him that Renato was a beautiful, handsome, educated guy, who did nothing wrong with life like drugs.

While Kaiser increased his fame out of the court, his football career continued.He says he went back to the Botafogo and Flamengo, two of the four most important teams in Rio.

According to him, both in the Botafogo and in the other teams he says he spent, he gave everything during training.Less when I had to practice with the ball, of course.If the ball was in the center, Kaiser was in defense.If the ball was in defense, he was in the attack zone.

When Ricardo Rocha, world champion in 94, former Real Madrid player and Flamengo saw him train, he couldn't believe it.Kaiser asked what that strange way of playing was.Kaiser, who always had an answer for everything, said:

Kaiser: o Tostão, diziam that ele jagava sem ball, e eu falleieu sou equal otostão, eu jogosem ball.Eu não precise gives ball pra jagar ftebol.

Lisette: says that just as Tostão - one of the most famous players in Brazil - played without a ball, he did too.I didn't need the ball to play football.Although sometimes I used other players names to justify.How José Reinaldo de Lima, for example.

But of course, saying that Tostão did not play with the ball is just an expression because Tostão scored many goals during his career.What Kaiser refers to is that Tostão hit races towards the arch without the ball to distract the defense of his opponents, creating space for his teammates to score goals.

When the season started, their tricks also came to play.

Kaiser: Eu infernizes two juices to life so that you are expelled me before jago end ...

Lisette: It made life impossible for the referees to expel him from the matches.Especially if on the same day of the game there was a party that he could not get lost.

Kaiser: Simulava Contusões, Não Tinha Ressonância, was a Minha Palavra against Domédico.Eu say that particular problems ...

Lisette: Simulated bruises and as at that time there was no magnetic resonance, it was his word against that of the team doctor.Once he even brought a prescription of a dentist his friend who said that his injuries had to do with his teeth.That it was a strange neurological situation that needed more studies before I could play again.He could even pretend the death of his grandmother or his mother as many times as necessary.Kaiser did not miss stories.And he says it without a drop of shame.

Most of the time the leaders tried to help him contracting and rehabilitation, but, of course, nothing served.Kaiser was permanently injured.

It's difficult to believe: soccer teams spending money for a player who never played a single game.Because when he signed the contracts - if this were true - Kaiser received some money.So I asked him about that financial expense that his alleged injuries caused the teams.

Kaiser: But eu could be um expense Financeiro Mais Eu was an energy profit, eu unia or group, understand?Eu hardly ...

Lisette: he replied that beyond any expense he could represent for clubs, he represented an "energy profit,".Because in addition to the parties he organized and the women he got for players and leaders, Kaiser was completely at his disposal and at his service.

From history in history, conversation in conversation, favor in favor, Kaiser increased his network of acquaintances.In Brazil, he became friends with great players like Bebet.All the position of a superstar.

He also expanded his network visiting exclusive restaurants to make friends with the owners with a simple proposal: if they left him and the players eat for free, his business would gain visibility with the press.With the same promise he became promoter of nightclubs where he entered without paying and accessed the VIP areas.And the players offered to present women, in exchange for contacting him with the coaches or leaders of the football clubs.With Kaiser everything was a transaction calculated to the millimeter and nothing with him was free.His strategy seemed infallible.It was one of those men who could reach the most expensive places in Brazil without spending a real.

And I knew how to relate to all kinds of people, even with iconic characters from Rio de Janeiro.As Andrade beaver.

Sergio Américo: He owned an illegal pool, which here in Brazil is called jago de bug.

Lisette: He is Sérgio Américo, a sports journalist for more than 30 years, who knows a lot about the history of Brazilian football.Especially the 80s and 90s, which was when Kaiser was active as a footballer.

The bug jogo, the pool that Sergio speaks, is a type of betting -based lottery that exists there more than 100 years ago.It is illegal, like all games of chance in the country.But in practice the police do nothing about it, and the ballots can be bought in any store in Rio de Janeiro.The one who controls that game, of course, manages millionaire figures, but from hiding.

Américo: Then, the owner of Jogo do Bicho was called Bichero.Then Cástor was a bichero, and Kaiser was a friend of Bicheiros.

Lisette: Andrade Castor was at that time the richest and most powerful of the main bicheiros de Río.In addition, he was considered one of the most feared mafia in the city.I had bought several police, politicians and even judges ... it wasn't one of the people with whom you could play.But that didn't scare Kaiser.

Kaiser: Because eu was raised I didn't have a bandit.ESSE denóciode Fuzil na Cabeça, knows?Isso aí não assustrates me, do you understand?

Lisette: because he says he was raised between bandits and not scared or a rifle in his head.But there was something especially that he was attracted to a friendship with Andrade Castor.The Bicheiro had accumulated a fortune with the jago do bicho but had to "wash her", for being illegal.So he decided to "invest" - between Comillas - in one of the smallest teams in the city: the Bangu Atlético Club.And Kaiser did his own.

Américo: And he convinced him that he was a good football player.And what do I know, Minister understood that and hired him.

Lisette: His plan was the same as always: staying in the team to say he was a player but never enter the court during a match.The journalist Sérgio Américo describes it like this:

Américo: that Carlos… talking sell geladeira for Esquimal.

Lisette: that Carlos Kaiser talking, can even sell a fridge to an Eskimo.I knew how to identify the weakness or need of a person and exploited it.In the case of Castor de Andrade, his technique to tangle him in his tangle were the praise, says the Brazilian sports journalist, Martha Esteves.

Martha Esteves: Estava semi -pregnancy or beaver.CASTOR VOCê É UM PAI FOR MIM.Aí or Castor Ficava Encaido ...

Lisette: especially because Kaiser repeated that he was like a father for him.With those words, he compensated for his lack of performance on the court.

Esteves: intimate or banguu éexample do that we are fazia years 70 nesse sense.Of booting um jogador that nem was a jogador to jagar, for exemployment ...

Lisette: Martha explains that the Bangu is a good example of how small teams worked in the 70s and 80s: they hired players but not necessarily to play.Because many times friendship with club leaders or presidents, weighed more than talent.Like Kaiser, which in addition to the praise, had a lot to offer the team.Because the goals that I did not put in the arch, made them on the outside.

Kaiser: Eu tinha tudo or what a jogador wanted, understand?Or wages não tinha acesso to great jogadores, eu achieved great interviews.

Lisette: I also knew how to treat journalists because it helped them get exclusive interviews with the big soccer stars as long as they will interview him too.It was a born public relationship.

Sergio Américo, the journalist we already listened to, reported for Radio Globo in the 80s and 90s and remembers very well how Kaiser approached the first times they found.

Américo: I wanted to make friends with me, right?"Hello Sergio, how are you.You are a crack "."You are the best journalist in Brazil.What honor to be here by your side "...I treated you very well, do you understand?And, was it sympathetic, right?It was so I met Carlos.

Lisette: But of course, the praise were not selfless.Sérgio, for example, tried to convince him to speak in his radio program about him and announce his alleged contract signatures with teams ... most of the time, Sergio resisted.Especially if it was something that could not be verified or sounded very unlikely.But sometimes Kaiser managed to convince him and Sergio sent him greetings when he was on the air.

Little by little Kaiser was building a small empire around him.An Empire of sand that, of course, was destined to crumble.The first time he was about to be unmasked was when Andrade Castor decided that he wanted to see him play for the Bangu.Kaiser had already spent several months in the team but among alleged injuries and bruises that occurred during training, he had not played a single game.So one day of the year 85, when Kaiser was 22 years old, Castor ordered the coach to play him in the match against the Coritiba team the next day.

His coach knew that Kaiser was one of those who left almost every night to discos and bars.So he called the most frequented to ask about him.When he found it he gave him the bad news.

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Kaiser: Eu Falei, pô são quatro da manhã eu thisU na boate, like você queen what eu jogue? ...

Lisette: Kaiser tried to get rid of the situation saying that it was four in the morning, that he was still partying and that he could not play like that, without preparation.But the coach told him not to worry because he had only placed it as a substitute.Kaiser, frustrated, hung the phone and went home.Had to appear at the stadium as it was.The next day, when he arrived, he sat on the bank as a substitute and the game began.

Kaiser: 5 minutes Coritiba Faz 1 to 0.8 minutes or coritiba faz 2 to 0.

LISETTE: Eight minutes of the game and the Coritiba already beat the Bangu 2 to 0.Only 15 minutes passed and in those the coach's Walkie Talkie sounded.He was a bentor ordering that he put Kaiser to the game.Despite Kaiser's resistance, the coach put him to heat.And while preparing, he began to crack how he would get out of that mess.It was there that he heard the words that would save him: the screams of the Bangu fans who were furious because the team was losing.They relieved by attacking Kaiser because, after all, they had never seen him play.They started throwing all kinds of insults.

Kaiser: Aí eu pulo or wiring before entering Em Campo, Brigo as twice and sou expelso before ... of jagar, né?

Lisette: According to Kaiser, the mesh jumped that separated the fans from the court and began to blow with those who insulted him.In a matter of minutes he was expelled before he could start playing.

He went to the dressing room to wait, happy because he did not have to play but nervous about the reaction that Castor de Andrade would have.When the game ended, Kaiser's teammates told him that he would hardly get his time.Minutes later, Castor entered the wardrobe and before he could say a word, Kaiser was already warming his ears.He looked at him and said:

Kaiser: Deus me deu um pai levou e sketches me or second ...

Lisette: I literally translate it: “God gave me a father and took it and today gave me the second.And when I was there and I heard all the horrible things that the fans were saying about you ... like it was a bandit ... "

Kaiser: Eu lost to Pulei, or wiring, maso meu contract ends Daqui to 15 days e or senhor is livre de mim.

Lisette: “I lost my head, jumped the wiring and hit them.I am very sorry Castor, in 15 days my contract ends and you are going to get rid of me ”.

Castor stared at him, processing what he had just heard.After a moment, he smiled and according to Kaiser ...

Kaiser: E Falou "Joel, Dobra or Salário do Kaiser and renovated for six months".

Lisette: He told the assistant: "Joel renews Kaiser's contract for 6 months and doubles his salary".Kaiser had managed to score a half court goal.Or at least that's what always tells about his first step by the Bangu.

But Kaiser says it was in 87 more or less that he reached the highest point of his career.His friend Fabio Barros, known as Fabinho, had been selected to play at the Gazélec Ajaccio in France.At that time the Brazilian players were already in the top of the world and were highly quoted by European teams.When Kaiser knew that Ajaccio sought to recruit more stars, he did not miss the opportunity.He spoke with Fabinho and thus ended almost 9 thousand kilometers away from his river in Janeiro.

Kaiser: I don't primeiro day that caguei or esdio was lot.Queriam that eu fizesse um treino exibição.

LISETTE: In its version of how it was the first day that came to Corsica, the French island Hogar del Ajaccio, the fans were waiting for him with the full stadium.They wanted Kaiser to demonstrate their great skills.But he said he was very tired.So sought a distraction.

He asked Fabinho to get a bouquet of flowers.I had seen that the president of the team was sitting on the stands with his wife.

Kaiser ran to the fence and jumped it.He crossed the stadium seats and in front of the entire fans handed the flowers to the president's wife.He distributed hugs and kisses to the one who accepted them, grabbed a chatter flag, put it as a cape and kissed her while going down.But just then he saw that a man took out some football balls to the court.The gesture of the flowers and the flag had not saved him from the demonstration that the fans wanted.One by one, the man was aligning the balls.

But Kaiser, once again, a step.

Kaiser: all balls that tinham no field eu chutei for a arquibancada all, all, all, nave be collected.

Lisette: Kaiser kicked all the football balls towards the stands, where the fans were.It was the perfect alibi: they left with a souvenir of their team and he would not have to play the ball a lot.His trick was so effective that, according to Kaiser, even the president of Ajaccio was happy because he later said ...

Kaiser: that Napoleão eu's depois was an important thing or the historia of corsa.

Lisette: That after Napoleon he was the most important person in the history of Corsica.

The passage through Ajaccio was simple for Kaiser.At least on the sport side.He says that from the beginning he was frontal with the leaders and told them that he did not want to play.

Kaiser: President, Mafiosos, understand?Eles Gostavam de Me Levar for Festas, Gostavam de Me Levar to travel ...

Lisette: In the version that Kaiser gave me, the president of the team allegedly belonged to a group of mafia so his performance in sports was what mattered the least.It was spent at parties, he liked to travel and simply wanted to enjoy Kaiser's company, which attracted so many people.And that was perfect for him.

And although he was well received at those parties and knew many women, Corsica did not convince him.It was not compared to his Janeiro River.

Kaiser: Eu Fallava, eu não quero jagar tô de bag Cheio, Quero Voltar Pro meu country.

Lisette: Kaiser wanted to return to his country, but the president of Ajaccio did not want to lose it at all.So it allowed him to travel to Brazil with the condition that he would eventually return.

Kaiser: AI ELES Não me sold me, me businesstavampro Bangu, pro America, Pro Botafogo, Provasco, Pro Fluminense, understand?

Lisette: says that Ajaccio lent him to several river teams but never sold it.Teams like the ones he mentioned: America, Botafogo, Vasco, Fluminense, and even returned to the Bangu.

He told me not to stay more than six or eight months in each.It was the maximum time that the myth of his incurable injuries could sustain.

Kaiser: Ah, Umapartid.

LISETTE: He confesses it: to say that he played 10 whole games throughout his career, it is a lot.Almost an exaggeration.

His return to Bangú did not go unnoticed.With his ability in public relations he managed to make the newspaper Dos Sports publish a note with the title: "Bangu already has its king: Carlos Kaiser".The brief note mentioned its passage through France, Mexico, local teams and gave good omen to the team.

He also got a newspaper journalist or day to write a profile about him in which he had his passage through France.But above all, he stressed that he was single.In the photo of the note it is seen with the red and blue ajaccio shirt, leaning on a football arch, with one hand at the waist and looking at the horizon.And well, it is important here to mention that Kaiser himself gave that photo to the newspaper to accompany the article.He is one of the many he had - and still having -: He on the Ajaccio court with the uniform.

But one of his key appearances was in the popular Brazilian football analysis program Round Table.

José Carlos Araújo: or Carlos Kaiser é um Jogador de Futebol.Ele Teve Um Non Basque Experience period ...

Lisette: In the video a young Carlos Kaiser is seen with a black, spongy mane.It is very elegant: Black Black and White Shirt.But above all, he looks very sure of himself and the anecdotes that he tells about his passage through Ajaccio and his contract with the Basque da Gama.At one point in the interview, Kaiser gives him the red blue -neck of Ajaccio to José Carlos Araújo, one of the most important sports commentators in the country.Aráujo, smiling, receives it and boasts in front of the camera.

Kaiser had achieved it.He came to sit in the same chair where great players such as Renato Gúcho, Romário, Edmundo, Gerson ...

Kaiser: Eu não I am uncomfortable to be congenred as or maior jogador that Jagou ftebol never.Eu não me uncomfortable em iso.

Lisette: You have no qualms about saying it: it does not bother him, at all, to be known as the best soccer player he never played.And repeat it: don't bother.

There are so many unlikely details in Kaiser's story, but perhaps this is the one that most caught attention.He told me that in 2003, his ankle fractured and it was only this injury that allowed him to "free" himself from a contract with Ajaccio.That is, taking accounts ... he was hired by this team for almost twenty years without playing a game, and this last contract ended when he was about 40.

Even me, I don't know anything about football, I know none of this makes sense.I think it is common among the great impostors: to repeat deception and half truths, they lose the ability to calibrate their lies.And, over time, they come to say such exaggerated things, that they stop being credible.

But well, that year Kaiser also married and officially retired without scoring any goal.Hung his ankle boots and said goodbye to sport.

Alarcón: But there does not end Kaiser's myth.After the pause, so many years of deception ended up reaching the crack who never played football.

We'll be back.

We are back on Radio Ambulante.I am Daniel Alarcón.Before the pause, our producer Lisette Arévalo told us the story of Carlos Kaiser, the Brazilian soccer emperor.

Then ... to summarize ... a 26 -year -old football career, full of feats and anecdotes, as impressive as frankly unlikely ... according to Kaiser despite never having touched a football ball, despite having played just a dozen competitive matches throughoutHis career, he always managed to get his own.Well almost always.

Lisette keeps us telling us.

Lisette: From the day Kaiser hung his ankle boots, in 2003, he didn't know more about him.He decided to make the life of other forms and took advantage of his good physical condition to become a bodybuilding coach in a gym ... in which, of course, he only trains women.

It was only until 2011 that his story was known: that of the best football player he never played.Two journalists from the medium or balloon heard several Kaiser anecdotes and how he managed to deceive the most important clubs in Brazil.They decided to look for him, interviewed him and published a note entitled: "The story of Carlos Henrique Kaiser: the Brazilian soccer forrest gump".Forrest Gump, the character of the American film that tells such epic stories that seem invented ... like Kaiser's.

The article made it clear that he was the greatest scammer in football and compared his story with that of the character played by Leonardo Di Caprio in the famous Hollywood movie "Atrábame if you can".And although that note did not question the veracity of his anecdotes, the same media took a television report that did.Or well, at least one of them.

In the video you can see the journalist Renato Ribeiro interviewing Kaiser while taking a walk through Rio de Janeiro.It presents it like this:

(Soundbite File)

Renato Ribeiro: Carlos Henrique Kaiser, 48 years, Teria Passagens for great clubs do Brazil and Até no outside Mais Provavelmente você never Ouviu Falar Due.Know or byquê.Never Fez Gol, never decisive Deu Um Passo.Never Deconcerting Drible Drible.I was attacker.

Lisette: Kaiser is walking next to Renato with his hands in his pockets.It has dark glasses with a white frame.While Renato presents it, he smiles slightly, with mischief.

In the report Kaiser tells the same stories that he told me for this episode.His passage through the Basque, for the Bangu, the ajaccio ... the holidays, his friends ... also said that he pretended to speak on the phone with foreign teams to negotiate contracts that never existed ... He talked about his alleged bruises and injuries so as not to have to play.He looks sure, without shame of confessing his truth of the facts.

Kaiser's friends also appeared in the report, corroborating their stories.Like Ricardo Rocha, counting on how his entire career was running away from the ball.And Renato Gaúcho himself once told Kaiser he entered a party posing for him.

(Soundbite File)

Renato Gaúcho: when checking, or Falou Assim:, Não, or Renato Já is inside.It was um mini clone meu, nee?

LISETTE: He says that Kaiser was his mini clone.

After listening to their stories, journalists decided to verify a special.I did not mention it before, but it is important.According to Kaiser, in 1984, he was part of the Independent of Argentina's squad.The year is key, because it was when they won the Intercontinental Cup in a final against an English team.Nothing less than the mythical Liverpool.And although Kaiser saw everything from the bank, he talked about that victory with great pride.Then…

Ribeiro: Nós we link for or independent e Houve sim um Carlos Henrique Jogad.

Lisette: They called the Independiente and the club told them something surprising: in that team there was a Carlos Enrique - who, remember is Kaiser's true name - but he was Argentine, not Brazilian.Kaiser took advantage of the homonym to attribute an intercontinental cup.But in the report they do not confront it.

Even so, Kaiser continues to affirm that he was champion with the Independent.That is, it continues to go through that Carlos Enrique.

I decided then to look for it, to the Argentine, to see what I had to say on the subject.He told me that only until recently was that he knew about the existence of Kaiser and what he was doing.And that he became furious when he learned that he had passed through him.

Carlos Enrique: The first thing that came out is a bad word, did you see?You go out but pute.

LISETTE: Because, already in retrospect, the one that Kaiser has passed through him, could explain why his career never took off.

Enrique: But you don't know the damage that me ... also at the best moment of mine.And I had the possibility of ... to emigrate outside and never happened to me and having a track and came to break it.And I say what happens that everything is ... I don't give me.Can you understand me?Then when time passed I saw that there was another Enrique.

Lisette: When using his name, Carlos Ennrique, and his performance at the Independent to make contacts, Kaiser had achieved what the Argentine never achieved.It is a theory of his nothing more, of course, that we cannot verify.

But that's why and much more than Carlos Enrique does not consider Kaiser's actions to be something that must be celebrated.And much less idealize.

Enrique: Picardy is all nice.Do what you want with your mischief and your life, not with the life of the other and making you go through, for another person.I explain?

LISETTE: The reality is that for Kaiser it was not so serious that the truth was known about his passage through the Independent of Argentina.Especially because he has always been firm in his version and does not matter how many times they deny it, he continues to insist that he tells the truth.

But the Independent is not even the team that is in the center of its history.The one that is the ajaccio, who is supposed to be under contract for more than 10 years.No one had publicly questioned that part of his life.Until he reached international ears.

Louis Miles: My Name's Louis Myles, i'm a film director and i made feature documentary on Carlos Kaiser.

Lisette: He is the English documentary Louis Myles.He knew Kaiser's story for producers who read about him on the Reddit social network, and wanted to make a documentary about his story.Louis liked the idea and in 2015, he and his team traveled several times to Rio to record.There they interviewed Kaiser, players who knew him, football leaders and different friends of his.

Miles: But We Did 72 Interviews and Not One Single Person Hated Him, Really.

Lisette: What surprised them most was that they interviewed more than 70 people and no hate Kaiser.And not only that but even corroborated certain anecdotes told by him.On that first trip they confirmed, for example, that he had been in the Botafogo, Vasco, Fluminense, Bangu, Flamengo and even in the ajaccio, at several times between the 80s and the 90s.

But on the second trip, on the other hand, contradictory versions began to listen and even met people who left against Kaiser.

Miles: Butars We Also Had People Sort of Going Against Him As Well.And so he's sort of saying, well, that didn't happen like that or it didn't happen at all.

Lisette: Some clubs and players that Louis contacted, for example, denied that Kaiser had been part of his team.And there were players who said that he was never part of those clubs and that the team of the team he wanted was simply bought, such as Fluminense for example, and walked through Rio de Janeiro with the attitude and confidence of an entire player.But then when Louis interviewed former workers and players of those same teams, they were told that Kaiser had passed around.

It's all very confusing.The explanation Kaiser has given to this is that clubs do not want to accept that they were deceived, so they prefer to deny it.Because in addition, Louis verified that Kaiser was registered as a professional football player at the Brazilian Soccer Confederation.

I personally tried to contact many players that Kaiser mentions in his stories but I did not receive a response from the majority.And the few who answered me told me they didn't want to give an interview about Kaiser.Except for one: Miraldo Câmara de Souza, known as Ado, who played in the Bangu at the same time as Kaiser.At first he told me by WhatsApp message that Kaiser never played on his team.But then he sent me another message telling the famous anecdote of the fight with the fans in the Bangu.

And so we could continue circling each of his statements.It is common when talking about Kaiser and his life: when you think you have the truth, another version appears that changes everything.

Louis told me that for his documentary Kaiser he was the one who contacted them with the possible interviewees.He had control of who they talked to and who didn't.And although at first that served them, then they decided to investigate more.

Miles: This is the Thing: We, We were in a Game of Cat and Mouse.So We, We Started Getting Interviews Outsis of Him Setting Them Up for Us.

Lisette: They were playing cat and mouse, says Louis.So they were investigating, spoke and interviewed more people, and there they got the fact of someone who was willing to tell them a different story.

Miles: and Somone Tipped US OFF ABOUT WHO TO SPEAK TO TO TELL US ANOTHER STORY ABOUT KAISER.So we found out about Fabinho.

Lisette: Fabinho, Fabio Barros, Kaiser's friend who had played at Ajaccio.

Miles: Because We were Making An International Film, He Said, I Can't, I Can't Have The Name of The Club I Played for A Few Years To Be, You Know, To Be Lied About.I've Got To Tell This Truth.

Lisette: Fabinho told them that he couldn't lie more about a team for which he played for several years.Even less for international production.This is a Fabinho audio of the documentary, Kaiser The Greatest Football Never to Play Football, published in 2018 where he gave the great revelation:

Fabinho: From this time I preferred really dizer tudo aquilo than e tudo aquilo than foi.Or kaiser never flooring laem ajaccio, nem tampoucona cidade, nem muito less not airport.

LISETTE: He says that Kaiser never stepped on the ajaccio, nor the city of Corsica, not even his airport.

Fabinho says that this whole story about Kaiser as a Ajaccio player began when he returned from France in 86 for the end of the year.His brother lived in his apartment and was a good friend of Kaiser.And of course, when Fabinho arrived, Kaiser did not waste time and invaded him with questions about what the ajaccio was like, what was the corsa, what language they spoke, how was the food, what was the club ... Fabinho remembers that he asked if he hadsome ajaccio souvenir or if he could show his professional player card.

Fabinho: E comranea a minha amizade com ele, Indo for As Boates and Chegando Nas Boates Ele also saying that he was a jogador do ajaccio together with Comigo.

Lisette: They became friends quickly and when they went out to the discos, Kaiser took the opportunity to say that he played at the Ajaccio with Fabinho.And he simply did not contradict him.

Fabinho: Assim from the moment of moment that eleiu to Carteira, Eu Já Sabia, who was precisely, ele já tinha me dito: Essa Carteira for Mim é ...

Lisette: Fabinho says that his official Ajaccio player card was the most important document he had in his wallet.So when Kaiser borrowed it, he knew very well for what wanted him.If I could create a replica of that card, Kaiser was on the other side.

Fabinho: I knew that Aquilo Ali for Ele Naite was Uma Referencia.It was the um type Futebol Jogador Contract.

LISETTE: The card was the closest thing that could be taken to a football contract with Ajaccio.The closest you would have to certify your alleged belonging to the team on your party nights.

At least that's what Louis Myles portrayed in his documentary with an acted scene where a young Kaiser is seen by manufacturing his official Ajaccio card.The final product is also seen: a plasticized paper with the Gázelec Ajaccio logo, with Carlos Kaiser's data, his photo, and the years for which he had allegedly hired.These are documents that Kaiser until now shows how evidence of their stories with newspaper cuts where they mention it and photos with recognized players.

Louis Myles and his team also did another verification process with Fabinho.He took them to the two macaque, south of Rio de Janeiro to the Club.It is a very popular place that people go to play and see football matches on weekends.Including Kaiser.

Fabinho: e foi exatically here that I idealize, nee?Fazer those photos as you are not treated do ajaccio.

LISETTE: He says it was there that Kaiser took those photos with the ajaccio shirt as if he were training in France.For the documentary, Fabinho imitated the feigned poses of the photos that Kaiser had supposedly taken on the Ajaccio court.One of them was the photo that had come out in the newspaper or day I already mentioned: Kaiser supported on the football arch looking at the horizon.Fabinho's imitation was an attempt to geolocate Kaiser's photos and demonstrate that they had been falsified, taken on that court in Rio and not in France.

The exercise worked: seeing the documentary it shows that it is the same place with small changes product of a club maintenance.

Fabinho: Quem é do Métie perbe muito rapid that you are nothing to see.Primeiro What is the official jogo shirt, what do I understand?

Lisette: says that anyone who knows a little of the football industry could realize that it is a photo with a fake pose.Mainly because a real player would never wear an official team for training.In addition, Kaiser is never seen training with his teammates.It is always alone with an arm raised shouting and with the ball on the floor, or doing, what in Ecuador is known as "Cascaritas", and in Argentina as "games" or "dominated"...Which is basically passing the ball from one foot to another without letting the floor touch.

Meet Fabinho and his story changed everything for Louis and his team.It was unique information, that no one else had told him until that moment.They had managed to win Kaiser in their own game.Finally it was they who wore the lead.

Miles: Well, Our Reaction Was We Can't Tell Kaiser This.We Need To Keep Kaiser Away From The Story for As Possible So We Can Get More People To Back This Up.

LISETTE: He says that his first reaction was to hide this new information so that Kaiser did not find out.They wanted to save time and look for more sources to support Fabinho's version.

But Kaiser is nothing unnoticed by.

Miles: and then the Next Morning, He phoned up, Absolutely Furious.

Lisette: Kaiser called them the next day.Furious.He had learned that they had spoken to Fabinho.Louis and his team told him that it was best to find themselves in person to lunch and talk.So they decided to see themselves in a restaurant in the Botafogo neighborhood.

According to Louis, when Kaiser arrived I was waiting for them.Leguas was noticed that he could not contain his anger.It took hours to calm him, at one point he was crying from anger, but finally they could convince him that they needed to speak calmly, and they went to the department of Kaiser.

Miles: We Went Up Into This One and a Half Bedroom Flat, In Flamengo, Which Have Been Vry Rondown.There Was A Grotty Matress On The Floor, Which Stank of It, no Bed Sheets.So He's Not Living in The Best Circumstances.

Lisette: it was a bedroom and a half department, with an old mattress, without sheets and Louis says he had an unpleasant smell.It was obvious that I was not living in the best conditions.Kaiser sat in a chair next to a small fridge almost full of magnets with fast food phone numbers, gyms, pharmacies, water services ...

I was shaking, moving his hands and feet anxiously.He went from being the safe and canchero man who told his stories with ease, to be achicopalado, vulnerable.

So before starting Rodar Louis spoke with Kaiser to know what was the focus of that interview.They did not want to tell them the same anecdotes that had told other journalists countless times.And the same as three years later I would tell me for this episode.They wanted more.Louis told him that he should tell them exactly how he managed to deceive so many people because that would make him look better in front of the audience.

Thousands: He Than proceeded Not To do That.He proceeded to Give Us A Nearly Three Hour Long Interview about His Lies and How Hard Life was And, and About All The Bad Things That Happened to Him.

Lisette: But Kaiser did everything but that.In an almost 3 hours interview, he stayed in the same false versions he had given.He talked about how hard his life and all the tragedies that had occurred to him.This is a Kaiser audio speaking in that interview:

Kaiser: eu drink muita sequela.Eu sou um very dry face.Maybe by Isso Tenha lived so much two outers, two jogators, né?What was it to stop and think of life.

Lisette: he told them that he is a guy who has done much damage and that he has suffered a lot.That maybe that's why the life of the other players lived.Not to stop and think about yours.

The interview continued with Kaiser telling what we already know: that he had a sad childhood, that he was stolen from his biological mother, that his adoptive mother was an alcoholic ...

Kaiser: knows, why pô, adversity that you live, with so much Malandragem face that ouvocê é marandro ouvocê é otário, understand?

Lisette: that he lived in an atmosphere of such adversity in Rio that he only had two options: or become a malandro or a loser.

At the end of the documentary interview, Kaiser says that no player or leader had denied him until that moment.That Fabinho was the first and that that demonstrates the respect that people in the world of football that he knew during all those years had.And that he was upset because someone who considered his friend, had denied his story.But he clarified something key to him:

Kaiser: Eu could take advantage of Mesma Opportunity, it was not.

Lisette: that he could have taken advantage of the opportunities he had but that he did not harm anyone.

Kaiser: face, never threw ninguém, face.To thyro life from Mim.Eu eatei lost minha mãe ...

Lisette: that he never took anything from anyone and that it was life that began taking everything, starting to lose his biological mother and then his wife, who also died between 5 to 6 years after they married.

Kaiser: Eu Tirei A MINHA SORTE, Não Tireinada de Ninguém, understand?

LISETTE: And all he took was rewarding about his fate, nothing more.

When I talked to him about this Kaiser told me that if he hurt someone in his life, he went to himself.

Kaiser: Eu prejudicigiqueguém coating Mão da Minha Carreira, Foi a Mim Mesmo.

Lisette: Because with the contacts he had made in football and the access he had, he could really become a Brazilian football crack.

Louis told me that when they finished that interview, they remained to do one more to talk about Ajaccio.Two days later, when they found themselves to record, Kaiser no longer looked fragile.He only looked very angry.And when asked about his passage through Ajaccio, he remained firm about his position: he didn't lie, but Fabinho yes.And he told them that they had to talk to Alexandre Couto, another player who was with Fabinho at Ajaccio.

Kaiser: Tudo or that Alexandre Fala é Tajeiro, element.Alexandre é Autêtico, ele não tem duas faces.

Lisette: that he was a sincere, authentic person, who had no two faces.

At first, Louis had already interviewed Alexandre and he had corroborated Kaiser's stories in Ajaccio.But when they contacted him again with the new information collected from Fabinho, Alexandre changed his version:

Alexandre Couto: never jogou no ajaccio.

Lisette: Kaiser never played at Ajaccio.

Couto: All Sabem Jogadores that Essa historia and liar, understand?Mesmoporque Conhecem to Minha Histria, Minha Edo Fabinho that also Passou for Lá.Bel.

Lisette: And, according to Alexandre, all the players who listened about that story knew that it was not true.But Kaiser made him want, for his charisma, for how good it was and then they simply let his friend live on that fiction.

The truth is that Kaiser does not care how many people contradict their stories.He does not give his arm to twist.When I talked to him about the documentary he told me that he agreed to participate because he wanted to be honest.

Kaiser: foi to be honest and qualquer interview that eu dê sejja here does not meu country for or exterior, eu vou dizer sepre to true, to true não bothers me.

Lisette: And that he has always told the truth in the interviews he has given and that the truth is not uncomfortable.When I asked him about what Fabinho said and Alexandre implied that they were liars.

Kaiser: but I don't, num universe by Carlos Alberto Torres ...

Lisette: that of all the famous players who were interviewed for the documentary, only two denied their history.And that, according to him, they did it because they wanted to have a few minutes of visibility.Nothing more.

Here you have to say something that is important.A story like Kaiser, it could hardly be repeated now.Mainly because in the 80s and 90s, there were no verification tools that we have today.It was simple for a player to get to a club and say that he had played anywhere - from Arabia to France - and that the leaders and presidents believe it.It was the perfect setting for Kaiser to build his myth.

My traveling radio companions tell me that in football there is something called Gambeta.Some players have it, most do not.It is the gift of avoiding defenses, having a lot of waist, making a lot of feint.It is the art of cheating with the ball.

Gambeta is what Kaiser has.

When I asked very specific questions, I answered something that had nothing to do with.I was gambete with their elusive answers.He boasts of having deceived football clubs in Brazil and abroad, but when you confront it, he does not accept any questioning.Instead of answering, he speaks of how unfortunate his life has been.

Finishing our last interview, I perhaps asked the most important question of all.

Many question or wonder if the anecdotes and stories they tell are real or not ... And what does Kaiser think about this?

Kaiser: accredits Quem to like.Eu não faço questão to prompt anything for ninguém.Be true ou lies.Each um that throws sua propries conclus.

Lisette: who creates whoever wants to believe.That he is not going to strive for people to create.That each one takes their own conclusions.

Alarcón: Lisette Arévalo is a producer of Radio Ambulante.Live in Quito, Ecuador.

A special thanks to Louis Myles and Rob Smyth.Many details of this story we met them thanks to their documentary and their book Kaiser: The Greatest Football Never To Play Football.Thanks also for allowing us to use your documentary audios for this episode.

Since this documentary was published in 2018, Kaiser has returned to fame.He was invited again to the Brazilian football program Round Table.

Thanks to the journalist Sabrina Duque for her help with the translation.And a special thanks to Pablo Iragorri for bringing us this story.

This story was edited by Camila Segura, Nicolás Alonso, Luis Fernando Vargas, and for me.Desirée Yépez tried to do the fact-checking.The sound design is by Andrés Azpiri and Rémy Lozano with original music by Rémy.

The rest of the Radio Ambulante team includes Paola Alean, Aneris Casassus, Emilia Erbetta, Xochitl Fabián, Fernanda Guzmán, Camilo Jiménez Santofimio, Ana Pais, Laura Rojas Aponte, Barbara Sawhill, David Trujillo and Elsa Liliana Ulloa.

Carolina Guerrero is the CEO.

Radio Ambulante is a podcast of Ambulant Studies, it occurs and mixes in the Hindenburg Pro program.

Radio Ambulante tells Latin America's stories.I am Daniel Alarcón.Thanks for listening.

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