Unusual: 11 children, 7 women, 3 Champions League titles, 160 million lost — the wild life of Roberto Carlos

Like one of his famous free kicks that could change direction unpredictably, Roberto Carlos’s life has suddenly taken another turn.

Those fearsome free kicks that made him known around the world have now given way to another reality: a financial catastrophe that the Brazilian legend himself has recounted. Fake friends, fraudulent agents and cunning relatives emptied his bank accounts. Roberto Carlos was left without a penny.

Facing this bitter chapter of life, the portrait of this “eternal boy” — now 53 — changes too, as he seems to have aged suddenly.

He was once the big kid of football, with the permanent smile and the face of a boy who never grew up, enjoying every moment on the pitch. Today, after years of running tirelessly down the left flank, he seems to stand before a sky full of black clouds, where the storms never end.

Trophies and children

And now, take a deep breath: 11 officially recognized children from 7 women, 2 marriages and 2 photo-memories with his chosen ones; 8 teams whose shirts he wore as a player and 5 others he coached, without success; 25 trophies in the cabinet, among them 3 Champions Leagues won with Real Madrid and the World Cup with Brazil; 125 matches with the Seleção, second in national team history after Cafu; 137 km/h, the speed recorded from one of his famous strikes in the France–Brazil friendly in Lyon in 1997; 11 years in Madrid, where Fabio Capello sought him out; 527 matches in the Real Madrid shirt, more than any other player born outside Spain; 3 World Cups played (1998, 2002 and 2006), while many more were the tears for the one he didn’t play in 1994, when Brazil’s coach preferred Branco; 3 toes of the left foot with which he struck the ball to give it the most unpredictable effects; he was 12 when, born in poverty in Garça, in the state of São Paulo, he started working in a textile factory; 10 billion lire spent by Moratti in 1995 to bring him to Inter; 9 million per season was the salary of the two-and-a-half-year contract he managed to get from Anzhi owner Kerimov, when at 38 he decided to move there.

Ronaldo the Phenomenon

And the list goes on: 30 seconds of anxiety that froze the blood in his veins when, waking from groans and being the first to turn from the bed where he slept, he realized his great friend, Ronaldo the Phenomenon, was not well. No, it was not an epileptic seizure, as was insinuated at the time.

The event happened on the eve of the 1998 World Cup final between France and Brazil. He was 42 when he ended his career, after 24 years in professional football; in his best days he needed less than 11 seconds to cover 100 meters; 1 unforgettable assist in Champions League history — the one for Zinedine Zidane’s fantastic volley against Bayer Leverkusen on Real Madrid’s triumphant night. He was 15 when, according to a very serious accusation by German television ARD, he began using doping substances to “inflate” muscle mass, under the care of Brazilian doctor Julio Cesar Alves, one of the most talked-about names in sports medicine in Brazil at that time. He denied all accusations and threatened to sue, but the case died out without needing to end up in court.

And finally, 160 million euros — the sum Roberto Carlos says he earned during his football career and which, according to his account, vanished from his bank account. Puff! Like a cloud of smoke, leaving behind only the traces of an unbelievable story: from a champion rich to the top, to a man left without a penny.

Financial difficulties

In early 2025 the news circulated that, precisely in the days when he was separating from his second wife and waiting to find new accommodation, Roberto Carlos had asked Real Madrid to allow him use of a room at the training center.

The Brazilian immediately denied the news, with an anger that left no room for doubt. But now it is he himself who recounts the severe financial difficulties that have confronted him with a completely unexpected situation. He has always managed to find a solution and, surely, will manage this time too. In the Real Madrid days, Roberto Carlos was regularly present at the parties organized by his friend Ronaldo.

The two have known each other since 1992, when they were still two boys dreaming of football glory. Unforgettable is one of those nights at the Phenomenon’s villa: Real players, together with their wives, partners and fiancées, were enjoying aperitifs at sunset, when a bus appeared at the gate which, with its horn, asked to be let in. In the bus were about ten girls, specially invited by the Phenomenon. Roberto Carlos has humorously recounted:

“I slept more nights with him than with my two wives.” Later, teammates at Real Madrid said that, finding themselves in a somewhat awkward situation — after all, they were there with their wives — almost all of them left, hastily greeting those present and departing before the party turned into a real mess.

The only ones who stayed, even somewhat surprised, were Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos. But here we already enter the territory of unverifiable legend: the two were not frightened and, although outnumbered, with an “admirable sense of duty,” carried the “match” into extra time.

The left foot

We were talking a little earlier about his lightning strike. The ball struck with the left, with that killer foot emerging from a pair of over-trained thighs, strong as marble, with record dimensions: the thigh circumference ranged from 66 to 68 centimeters, from one leg to the other.

Years after that famous free kick in Lyon, a team of French physicists tried to analyze the power of the strike, gravity, air resistance, even bullet dynamics and a number of other factors, in a desperate attempt to discover the secret of that extraordinary strike.

But even science surrendered to the facts. The secret of that strike remained undiscovered. One of many mysteries accompanying Roberto Carlos.