Rogerio Ceni to Bow out of Sao Paulo and Brazilian Football

In 2015, Brazilian football will say goodbye to a legend. Not a player who took the international stage by storm, although he did bag a World Cup winner’s medal in 2002.

Rather, someone who has been a stalwart in the Campeonato Brasileiro for over two decades and epitomizes his club every bit as much as the likes of Ryan Giggs, Steven Gerrard and Paolo Maldini. We are talking about the world’s most prolific goalscoring goalkeeper, Rogerio Ceni, of Brasileirao giants Sao Paulo.

The No. 01, who turned 42 earlier this month, has announced this will be his final season playing the game, doing a U-turn after initially planning on retiring after the 2014 season, as reported by Veja (link in Portuguese). His contract runs until August and its termination will bring the curtain down on one of the most intriguing figures in Brazil’s domestic scene.

And in this, his final year, his beloved Tricolor Paulista are in the dispute for the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League.

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Just as all but the most stringent of Manchester United and Everton supporters are praying against a fairy-tale ending at Wembley for Steven Gerrard come his birthday in May, it can only be the most cold-hearted of rival supporters—and there will be a few amongst the clans of Corinthians and Palmeiras—praying against Ceni enjoying an equally glorious end to a spectacular career.

Ceni has been a part of the Sao Paulo first-team squad and has the honours to look back on with pride. In addition to that 2002 World Cup medal, he picked up a Libertadores triumph in 2005, before the Brazilian club went on to beat Steven Gerrard’s Liverpool in the FIFA World Club Cup that December.

But there was more to come. Between 2006 and 2008, Ceni and his beloved Sao Paulo would go on to make history as the first club in Brazil to lift three successive Brazilian league titles.

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But despite these later triumphs, Gilmar Ferreira, who writes a column for Brazilian daily newspaper Extra, says that Ceni’s star began to rise in the late 1990s.

“It was in the late 90s that his [Ceni’s] talent began to be recognized in Brazil. He was selected to go to the 1997 Confederations Cup in Saudi Arabia, and, despite not being the first-choice goalkeeper, made a good impression on the coaching staff,” he said.

It is true that the veteran stopper never managed to establish himself as the Selecao’s out-and-out man between the sticks, always seemingly a touch behind the best the country had to offer.

Indeed, perhaps the goalkeeper he can most easily be compared to in the modern era is Marcos, who kept goal for Sao Paulo’s great rivals Palmeiras. And it would be Marcos who got the nod ahead of Ceni in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s 2002 World Cup-winning side and become the target of intense transfer speculation with north London outfit Arsenal.

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So, did the Sao Paulo idol ever come close to leaving the Estadio Morumbi? “Look, we never really know how close or not any of these deals actually are to happening,” Ferreira said.

“All I can say for sure is that a few people sounded out Rogerio [Ceni] during his time at Sao Paulo, especially during the late 90s, when he was 24 or 25.”

And is not only for his goal-stopping exploits that he is known. In 2011, the 42-year-old became the first keeper in history to score 100 goals.

When Sao Paulo win a free-kick around the opposition’s penalty area, heads turn to watch Ceni serenely trot up to the ball and his record of 123 goals across a career speaks for itself. Last season, he found the back of the net on eight occasions in the Campeonato Brasileiro, more often than former Brazil forward Julio Baptista.

Characters like Ceni are to be cherished. And now there is one less in the game; Catch him while you can. That fairy-tale ending may just be written in the stars.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise stated.