Rivaldo is on the verge of national redemption

By Frank Malley, PA Chief Sports Writer, Yokohama

Rivaldo knows more than most the fickle nature of football.

Three weeks ago he was the pariah of this World Cup, the man vilified for feigning injury when Turkey's Hakan Unsal kicked the ball at him in Brazil's opening match.

Rivaldo went down, held his face while grimacing as if in agony, though the ball had hit his knee. The referee sent off Unsal and the Brazilian was branded a cheat, even by many of his countrymen back home.

He received a warning from FIFA and it seemed that once more the man who has courted much controversy during a turbulent and talented career had again pressed the button on his own destruction.

Now, however, the nation which has so often turned upon him is now acclaiming him as the man to help deliver Brazil's Holy Grail.

Five goals in six games, with his only blank in the semi-final, has proved just how crucial he is to the vision of manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.

In Sunday's final against Germany, Rivaldo will be seeking to erase the memory of that first-match aberration, plus all the pre-tournament criticism, and inspire Brazil once more to the World Cup triumph they regard as their spiritual right.

It was just as well Scolari put his faith in Rivaldo, especially as Ronaldo, by his own admission, is feeling the strain of six games in just over two weeks so soon after his recovery from knee reconstruction.

Rivaldo's international career stretches back nine years, but others, it seems, have always earned more recognition, even though he scored four goals and won a runners-up medal in the 1998 World Cup and was joint top scorer when Brazil won the Copa America a year later.

He has been accused of saving his best for Barcelona and was jeered by fans in Brazil at recent home games. His discontent at one stage during Brazil's erratic qualifying campaign - six defeats in 18 matches - led to him threatening to quit.

Rock bottom came during a match against Colombia in Sao Paulo when Brazil supporters shouted: "Get out Rivaldo, you're useless."

The man wearing the famed number 10 shirt ducked to avoid missiles and wondered whether he wanted to play again for a country that did not appreciate him.

In Barcelona they adored him, but in Brazil, ever since he made a careless pass in the Atlanta Olympics which ended Brazil's dream of gold, he had been portrayed as a mercenary.

"They booed me and treated me so badly that night," he recalls. "I always try hard and give my best.

"I don't remember being so miserable at the end of a game."

Worse was to follow when his family received threats and his car was vandalised.

But now there is the chance to lend his career the immortality for which he desperately yearns.

"In the last three World Cups we have always been in with a chance," said Rivaldo.

"In 1994 we were champions, in 1998 runners-up and now we are in the final again.

"If you analyse it no other team - Italy, England, Germany or Argentina - can equal that record."

Redemption, it seems, could be close at hand.