Why so Many Brazilians Are Named After Argentinian Legend Juan Roman Riquelme
Feb 13, 2020
"[Riquelme] treated the ball with such kindness that it looked after him all over the pitch, with the humility of a dog kissing his feet." — Brazilian 1970 World Cup winner Tostao.
"If we have to travel from point A to point B, everyone would take the six-lane highway and get there as quickly as possible. Everyone, except Riquelme. He would choose the winding mountain road, that takes six hours, but that fills your eyes with scenes of beautiful landscapes." — Former Argentina and Real Madrid star Jorge Valdano.
"I enjoyed football to the maximum. I hope the people have enjoyed it alongside me. I tried to have a good time." — Juan Roman Riquelme.
There is a famous saying in South America that "Brazilians love to hate Argentinians, while Argentinians hate to love Brazilians," but when it comes to Juan Roman Riquelme, stereotypes and conventions rarely apply.
The former Argentina international became a footballing legend during two spells at Boca Juniors, in between a dazzling spell in Spain for Barcelona and especially Villarreal in the mid-2000s.
Riquelme's unique, casual brilliance was a perfect example of jogo bonito (the beautiful game), but he never represented a Brazilian team in his career. Instead, fans in the country only ever got to watch him do damage to their teams.
And yet, take a look at the team sheets from the recent Copa Sao Paulo and you will see that, six years since his retirement, Riquelme's name still echoes all around Brazilian football...literally.
Attracting crowds of 10,000 fans, scouts from Europe's big guns and powerful agents, the Copa Sao Paulo opens the curtain to the football season in Brazil every January. It's the country's premier youth tournament, but it's also widely regarded as its most democratic.
This season's edition featured 127 teams from every corner of the continent-sized nation, pitching Brazilian giants against barely-heard-of minnows over three weeks across the state of Sao Paulo.
With no top-flight matches drawing attention, the Copinha, as it is affectionately known, is the main source of domestic football on TV in January.
For many players, the U20 competition is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get themselves into the limelight and, with some luck, earn a lucrative move.
Rewind a year, and Gabriel Martinelli found himself in that very position, making headlines with Brazilian third-tier club Ituano; now he's bagging goals for Arsenal in the Premier League.
The Brazilian wonderkid is just the latest talent to successfully take a path that was also followed by the likes of Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Roberto Firmino, Casemiro and Marquinhos.
However, with over 3,000 teenagers hoping to achieve the same goal, it's not easy to stand out.
Riquelme Sousa Silva was among those who impressed this season, netting six goals in five games, including a hat-trick, to help Atletico Goianiense record their best-ever campaign in the Copinha.
Yet, as he had somehow been anticipating, most of the questions he took afterwards had nothing to do with his killer instinct inside the box.
"They were mostly about my name," he chuckles, explaining why he was christened after the Argentinian former midfielder.
"It was because of my uncle—he was a huge fan of Boca Juniors around the time I was born [in 2001], and then, one night, they say they were watching this Boca match and he asked my father if he could name me after Riquelme. My father accepted, even though he didn't know much about him and wasn't really into football.
"My mother had other plans for me, but eventually she consented too."
Raised in Aguiarnopolis, a countryside town in Tocantins state with a population of just over 5,000, Atletico's 18-year-old striker says he had never met any other Brazilians with the same name.
He wouldn't have had to look far in Copa Sao Paulo, though, to find a namesake.
In total, there were 12 boys named after Riquelme playing at this year's tournament—enough to field a whole team, with another Riquelme on the bench.
All of them were born in the early 2000s, when Boca ruled South American football. Back then, the Buenos Aires giants won the Copa Libertadores three times in four years, thrashing Brazilian sides along the way.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - JUNE 14: Juan Roman Riquelme of Boca Juniors gestures during the semi final first leg match between Boca Juniors and Universidad de Chile as part of Copa Libertadores 2012 at Estadio Alberto J. Armando on June 14, 2012 in Buenos
No matter whom they played against, they looked invincible, much of it being down to Riquelme's elegance on the ball as he dictated their rhythm with his classic style.
The way he played the game filled Brazilians with nostalgia because their own country seemed unable to produce old-fashioned playmakers of his ilk. "In the past, we used to have players like Riquelme," Pele reflected in an interview with Brazilian television in 2006.
This obsession contributed to the rise of what might be called the "Generation Riquelme" in Brazil.
They are all similar in name but separated by just a few letters, as highlighted during the Copinha: Among the 12 Riquelmes, there were some unconventional spellings, such as Rikelme, Rickelme, Rikelmi, Riquelmy, Riquelmo and even an Aimar Riquelme (mixing the Boca legend with Pablo Aimar, an iconic player for Boca's fierce rivals, River Plate).
Two of the Riquelmes featured for Cruzeiro and started together in a game during the group stage. It wasn't a unique situation at the club either. With five players named after Riquelme in their academy, Cruzeiro included four of them in a matchday squad last year.
Com nomes inspirados no craque argentino, o volante Riquelmy e o meia Riquelmo querem o título da Copinha!
The U20 team's coach, Celio Lucio, a former centre-back who won the Copa Libertadores with the club in 1997, deals with them in his daily routine.
"It isn't that difficult [to tell them apart] because they have different haircuts, don't play in the same position, and more importantly, they aren't all in the same age group," he explains, while admitting he is not the biggest fan of naming kids after greats.
"This whole thing brings a very big pressure on the athletes. I remember seeing a lot of boys called Lineker around. These are situations that should be handled very carefully, demanding some psychological work to make sure their names don't become a burden at some point."
According to the latest population census, taken in 2010, there are 622 Brazilians named after legendary English striker Gary Lineker.
That's nowhere near the popularity that Riquelme has reached, though, leaping from 202 registrations in the '90s to 14,037 in the 2000s. It represents a growth of 6,894 percent, the second-biggest among male names in the period.
The first one? Rikelme, which increased 10,057 percent after going from 26 to 2,641 babies in the same interval.
And it is not just football fans who have been giving their offspring the name of the Argentine maestro; footballers have been at it too.
Former Porto and Brazil international goalkeeper Helton Arruda christened one of his sons Riquelme, while Ronaldo Angelim, a retired centre-back who scored Flamengo's Brasileirao title-winning goal in 2009, did the same.
"He was a great midfielder, someone I enjoyed watching play," Angelim says. "But it was actually because of my ex-wife [Ricassia]. We had already picked a [football] name similar to mine for our first son, Ronald de Boer, so when we heard that our second one was coming, we named him after her."
Despite his baby face and general shyness, Riquelme, who many consider to be Boca's all-time greatest player, was a revolutionary in all senses of the term.
It's no coincidence that El Grafico magazine had him on one of its historic covers as Che Guevara. His die-hard fans call themselves "soldiers of Riquelme." They might have never realised, however, that his army was so big in Brazil as well.
Ezequiel Fernandez Moores, Argentina's leading sports columnist, has followed Riquelme since he broke through at La Bombonera in 1996 and fully understands the fascination he causes on the other side of the frontier.
"If Brazil is the home of artistic football, then, it seems logical to me, that they pay homage to the most artistic player we've had in recent times," Moores argues.
"[Diego] Maradona and [Lionel] Messi are from another dimension, famous on a much more global scale. Riquelme is a distinct phenomenon. He's admired by those who really get this game, who know he did impossible things not because of his excellent technique and skills, but because of his character, his dignity, as an artist of the ball.
"Therefore, it doesn't come as a surprise that when [Danielle] De Rossi was unveiled at Boca, he admitted having a WhatsApp group with different players, all of them midfielders, one of whom's photo was of Riquelme.
"For that reason, I assume he had such impact in Brazil. Not just because his most memorable masterclasses were against Brazilian clubs in decisive matches, but also for standing for a type of football that no longer exists, from the past, one where the ball was moved around and the player didn't need to run so much. Perhaps, this explains this nostalgia about Riquelme.
"Like Zidane, they have a beautiful name, an artistic one as well: Zinedine and Roman."
While Brazil have a whole generation of Riquelmes coming through their youth ranks, it's just as curious that the same will never happen in Argentina while it's not an accepted name at the country's registration offices.
The closest they will get are the 193 boys named Juan Roman in 2002, a time when the Boca Juniors idol was destroying Brazilians and spreading the legend that makes his compatriots still refer to him as "the last great No. 10."
Brazil, however, may be gearing up to strike back with their very own Riquelme in the near future.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic 'Wants to Play' for Boca Juniors, Says Director Jorge Anro
Sep 29, 2019
CARSON, CA -SEPTEMBER 15: Zlatan Ibrahimovic #9 of Los Angeles Galaxy during the Los Angeles Galaxy's MLS match against Sporting KC at the Dignity Health Sports Park on September 15, 2019 in Carson, California. Los Angeles Galaxy won the match 7-2 (Photo by Shaun Clark/Getty Images)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic "wants to play" for Boca Juniors and the club can afford to bring the LA Galaxy star to Argentina, according to director Jorge Anro.
The Boca director told Mundo Boca Radio (h/t Goal's Matt Dorman) that the club are in a healthy enough financial position to land the 37-year-old striker.
"It is true that Ibrahimovic wants to play for Boca and it is true that we are in a position to bring him in," Anro said. "The club is in a very good moment institutionally. It is so good financially that it can afford those luxuries. We would be able to pay Zlatan's contract."
Ibrahimovic's agent, Mino Raiola, has recently taken to Twitter to shoot down speculation the former Sweden international could leave Major League Soccer and head to Boca Juniors:
I have never offered Ibrahimovic to Boca Juniors or to anybody else. Total #fakenews
The striker has been at LA Galaxy since March 2018. He signed for the club a day after leaving Premier League club Manchester United after his contract with the Red Devils are cancelled.
Ibrahimovic has proved a huge hit for the Galaxy, netting 22 goals in 27 games in his first season. He has racked up another 28 in the current campaign to continue his prolific form:
ZLATAN DOUBLES THE LEAD!
Pavón returns the favor this time to set Ibrahimović up for goal No. 28 on the season.
The striker's hat-trick in a 7-2 win over Sporting Kansas City saw him break the Galaxy's record for most goals in a single season. He told reporters after the win: "I think I am the best ever to play in MLS. And that, without joking."
LA Galaxy general manager, Dennis te Kloese told ESPN Deportes (h/t Tom Marshall at ESPN FC) that Ibrahimovic's future at the club will be decided at the end of the season.
The former Manchester United man will turn 38 in October but has shown he still has plenty to offer despite heading towards the end of a glittering career.
Boca Juniors sound willing to try to tempt Ibrahimovic to Argentina. The club made a splash in the transfer market during the summer by landing Daniele de Rossi on a free transfer.
The midfielder joined the club after 18 years at Roma and was warmly welcomed by supporters. He went on to score on his debut for Boca against Almagro in the Copa Argentina.
Daniele De Rossi's Great South American Adventure with Boca Juniors
Aug 21, 2019
LA PLATA, ARGENTINA - AUGUST 13: Daniele De Rossi of Boca Juniors celebrates after scoring the first goal of his team during a match between Boca Juniors and Almagro as part of Round of 32 of Copa Argentina 2019 at Estadio Ciudad de La Plata on August 13, 2019 in La Plata, Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images)
They couldn't believe it. When word first began to filter through that Daniele De Rossi—a FIFA World Cup winner with Italy in 2006 and a bona fide AS Roma legend having played his whole professional career with his hometown team—was going to join Boca Juniors, the reaction of football fans in Argentina was incredulity.
"When Nicolas Burdisso—who was one of De Rossi's teammates at Roma and is now director of football at Boca Juniors—came out and said a couple of months ago, 'We're going to get Daniele De Rossi,' people laughed," says Sam Kelly, founder of the Hand of Pod podcast.
"Boca have done this in previous years, saying they were going to bring in this-and-that signing. They did it with Ronaldinho a few years ago, and it tends to get laughed at.
"Then we heard De Rossi was mulling over whether to come to Buenos Aires or to move to L.A. At that point, everyone here in Argentina thought he's obviously going to L.A. Galaxy because they will pay him on time. They'll probably pay him more. If you had De Rossi's money, wouldn't you rather be in Los Angeles than Buenos Aires?
"Then he said: 'I'm retiring from football.' Fans from [Boca's rivals] River Plate were saying, 'OK, De Rossi was so desperate not to come to Boca Juniors that he's decided to retire instead.' Suddenly, one day, he said he'd changed his mind and was going to come to Boca.
"It's a weird situation. I still can't get that it has happened. From 16 years of following the Argentinian league, I've always wanted to see a European with no connections to Argentina be sentimental enough or curious enough to come down here and take part in this wonderful footballing culture that Argentina has, with all of its problems, but also with a lot of good things.
"He's clearly not done it for money but for personal reasons. You often hear the cliche from footballers, 'I'd love to play in La Bombonera [Boca's iconic stadium].' He appears to really mean it."
A standing ovation from every Roma player as Daniele De Rossi says goodbye 👏💛❤️
De Rossi, who turned 36 in July, has had a glittering career. He made his Serie A debut with AS Roma under Fabio Capello in January 2003, and he won the league's prestigious Player of the Year award in 2009, which is a notable achievement for a defensive midfielder.
He also scored in Italy's penalty shootout victory against France in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in Germany, and he amassed more than a century of caps for his national team before retiring in 2017.
"It's a surprise that De Rossi has come here," says Carlos Navarro Montoya, a legendary goalkeeper with Boca Juniors who is known as "El Mono" (The Monkey) by fans. "You could see the reaction when he arrived in Buenos Aires at the airport. It was packed with a lot of fans. The people of Boca received him very well, with fondness. You can see it has affected him.
"The fans have a lot of empathy for him because he has chosen to come here instead of more lucrative offers in other countries. I admire him for this. He could play with another team in another league with fewer obligations, less pressure, but instead, he decided to take this challenge. Boca is a team that is under permanent pressure to win all the competitions it enters.
"It's about something more than football. He's taken it for personal reasons. It's about 'ilusion' (a dream). He didn't come here for any other reason. He's prioritising sporting goals, obviously, rather than the pursuit of money. It's a distinctive story, something different."
Daniele De Rossi being mobbed by Boca Juniors fans at 06:30 in the morning! 🤩 After announcing that Roma’s player of 18 years was set for a Buenos Aires switch, De Rossi was welcomed to the club by hundreds of fans waiting for his arrival at the airport! 👏
De Rossi is travelling in unchartered territory. Several of his former teammates at AS Roma played in Argentina's premier division, including Fernando Gago, who featured for Boca Juniors in last year's Copa Libertadores final; Gabriel Heinze, who left AS Roma to play with Newell's Old Boys in 2012; and Burdisso, who learnt his trade as a youth team player at Boca and in its first team for several seasons before leaving for Italy. He returned to the club as sporting director earlier in 2019.
There have been several Argentinian greats who have come home after triumphing in the great leagues of Europe, such as Diego Maradona; Juan Roman Riquelme, who returned to Boca from Villarreal in 2007; and Carlos Tevez, now a teammate of De Rossi's at Boca having first returned to the club from Juventus in 2015 after playing in that year's UEFA Champions League final.
What makes De Rossi's case stand out is that he is a top European-born player. Even players like the former Juventus pair Mauro Camoranesi—a FIFA World Cup winner with De Rossi in 2006 who finished his playing career with spells at two clubs in Buenos Aires, Lanus and Racing—and David Trezeguet, the scorer of France's golden goal in the UEFA Euro 2000 final and whose goals helped River Plate gain promotion in 2012, both grew up in Argentina.
"The only precedent for this high-profile a European coming to Argentina would be Trezeguet joining River during River's season in the second division, but obviously Trezeguet has connections to Buenos Aires because he grew up here, and he grew up as a River fan. On the one hand, European, check. World Cup winner, check. Slightly over the hill but clearly better than everyone else in the league, check.
"On the other hand, his arrival wasn't quite as surprising—except to Europeans—because people in Argentina were aware that Trezeguet had spent his adolescence in Buenos Aires before he went to Monaco. De Rossi is completely from left field. He doesn't have any connection with Buenos Aires. He just fancied coming here to play football."
Pablo Lisotto, a journalist with La Nacion, notes that Boca fans have already started motivating De Rossi by shouting "Forza Tano!", a reference to the abbreviation "tano."
In Argentina, locals refer affectionately to an Italian as "tano." Boca's roots, of course, go back to an Italian neighbourhood in Buenos Aires in which the club sprung from in 1905.
"In the neighbourhood where Boca originated, the inhabitants call it the 'Republic of Boca,' as if that was a country in itself," says Lisotto. "There, most of the people are of Italian origin living in 'conventillos' (tenements). Immigrants having arrived from cities like Naples and Genoa. Boca's nickname 'The Xeneizes' comes from 'Los Genoveses'—from Genoa, the Italian port city."
Lisotto believes that De Rossi's robust, all-action style will help him to adapt to the rigours of Argentinian football. Famously, De Rossi has a hazard-symbol tattooon one of his calf muscles of a footballer snapping into another player's ankle with a sliding tackle, and he wears a No. 16 jersey in homage to the notorious Manchester United enforcer Roy Keane.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - AUGUST 18: Daniele De Rossi of Boca Juniors gestures during a match between Boca Juniors and Aldosivi as part of Superliga 2019/20 at Estadio Alberto J. Armando on August 18, 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo End
"This type of play is very familiar for Boca," says Lisotto. "The kind of player who fights for every ball. Historically, those players are well recognised at Boca. The club's fans appreciate the player who physically gives everything on the pitch—those players who sweat the jersey."
Diego Simeone, who returned from his European adventures to play with Racing in 2005, sounded a note of caution, however, when speaking to No Toda Pasa (h/t Ole).
He reckons De Rossi could struggle to adapt to the more freewheeling nature of Argentinian league football:
"It's not going to be easy for De Rossi. He comes from an Italian culture that is very tactical. The spaces are reduced, with the lines of the team close together. In Argentinian football, the teams are much more open, and this is complicated for those who are not used to it. It happened to me when I came back from Spain. The spaces on the field in Argentina were much more open, and I found this very hard."
So far, the signs are good, though. De Rossi scored on his debut last week with a header in a Copa Argentina game against Almagro, although Boca lost the tie on penalties.
The real test begins on Wednesday when Boca play the first leg of their quarter-final Copa Libertadores clash against LDU Quito in Ecuador. If, as expected, Boca progress, they could face eternal rivals River Plate in the semi-final.
It would give Boca a chance to avenge last year's historic defeat in the final and bring De Rossi within a step of achieving what he claimed on Boca's website would be "the crowning moment" of his career. It would be the realisation of an amazing dream.
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Boca supporters already roll out the welcome party for Daniele de Rossi - the Italian is expected to be presented as a Boca player on Thursday pic.twitter.com/LvSLcnPuHe
The Italian completed a medical on Thursday, has had a tour of the club's Bombonera ground and will be presented at a press conference on Monday, according toFootball Italia:
Daniele De Rossi visits the Bombonera, the legendary Boca Juniors stadium. https://t.co/tBiNlyRUYP
De Rossi has been praised for his decision to move to Boca Juniors:
It is very easy for aging players to go to China to earn easy money. But #DeRossi has proved what a man he is by taking the tougher way by heading to #BocaJuniors in a commercialised football world.
Daniele De Rossi has always been his own man, went through his career with integrity and has now found the perfect ending to an amazing story with his decision to join Boca Juniors over chasing money or revenge on his beloved Roma for how things ended
The Italian is a talented, tenacious midfielder who spent his entire career at Roma. He was not too happy to be allowed to leave the club when his contract expired at the end of last season:
De Rossi: "I'm not over the moon, but I accept the decision of the club. I have no resentment towards that. We never spoke about money: that was not the crux of the matter." pic.twitter.com/iq1LXpDZWg
He made over 600 appearances for the Italian side—only Francesco Totti has made more—and was part of the Italy squad that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
His former Roma team-mate Leandro Paredes told TyC Sports (h/tFootball Italia) that the new signing is excited to play for his new team.
"He told me that he can't wait to start and would play on Sunday if he could. He's crazy about the idea of wearing the Boca jersey," he said. "I'm not kidding, when he makes his debut, I want to be in the stands watching him."
De Rossi's move to Boca Juniors has already proved to be a hit with supporters and is likely to be the last of his career.
