Brazillian Bull with "The Deadly Left Foot"

Legends are born in the month of April they say. While one legend is an iconic cricketer from India - fondly called as the 'God of Cricket', the other one is an iconic footballer from Brazil - known for his 'deadly left foot'. Call it a coincidence, both these legends were born in the year 1973 and went on to achieve the highest in their respective sports. The hero of this write up is none other than the Brazillian Bull - Roberto Carlos !!

Brazil is blessed with a huge amount of talent in the field of football - akin to the cricketing talent in India. Hailing from an underprivileged family, Roberto Carlos was forced to take up a factory job at a tender age of 12. Just like most of the Brazillian children, Carlos fell in love with football and started playing the sport whenever he had time. When talent meets opportunity, a legend is born !

Carlos was called up to play for a State Club and his raw skills were honed with every match that he played. With the unique agility and ball control he had, a call up to the national squad was always around the corner. Carlos made his international debut in 1992. The first 4 years since the international debut was accompanied by frequent change in clubs over Spain & Italy for better opportunities.

Cometh the year 1996, and we had the biggest signing - Carlos to Real Madrid as a full time 'left back' donning the jersey # 3. Carlos went on to achiev the unique record for the most numbet of caps by an overseas player for Real Madrid - 370 appearances. He also won 4 La Liga titles and 3 Champions League titles with Real Madrid.

1997-2002 were the years owned by Roberto Carlos. He earned the tag of a 'free kick specialist' & the banana shot against France (beating Fabien Barthez) in 1997 further accentuates this title. The free kick was termed "impossible" and was taken up as a subject of study by physics enthusiasts - is it the magnus effect? or anything to do with Aerodynamics? A team of renowned physicists from France (ironically the opposition country against which Carlos scored) concluded that it is quite unsure to see a similar goal - after a frame by frame analysis on the ball trajectory with applicable forces at that precise moment. Conclusion was that all the variables such as ball speed, spin, trajectory, point of impact and distance etc. worked together in tandem to give us this visual treat and might be one in million dollar combination - predicting it to be quite impossible.

Carlos himself didn't attempt this technique afterward in his 20 year long career !!

His shots have an approximate speed measuring ~100 mph (top rated speed of a Royal Enfield Interceptor 650) !!

The icing on the cake moment would be the World Cup victory for his national team in 2002 after a heartbreaking loss to France in the previous edition's final. Carlos donned the national jersey 125 times - second most in Brazillian football history.

There have been several left footed players who have achieved greatness in the history of football and the list continues to grow with most modern players attempting to emulate their role models. One of the first to tear down the left wing and join the attack would be the man with "The Deadly Left Foot" - Roberto Carlos

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