Rivaldo says Louis van Gaal ‘limited’ his influence at Barcelona and even tried to ’embarrass’ him by playing him in an under-strength side made up of youth-team players.
The Brazilian, now regarded as one of the finest players of his generation, completed a switch from Deportivo de La Coruna to Barca in 1997, with Sir Bobby Robson – the then manager – at the heart of the high-profile move.
Robson was replaced by Van Gaal later that summer and Rivaldo would finish as the club’s second-top scorer with a tally of 19 goals in 34 top-flight games, helping the Catalan giants win La Liga in a magnificent debut season.
The stylish forward would go on to add another league title, as well as the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Super Cup, to his collection before leaving for AC Milan in 2002.
While Rivaldo established himself as a fan favourite among Barcelona supporters across a memorable five-year spell, there were some trying times for the attacker, especially under Van Gaal – who enjoyed two separate spells as manager at the Camp Nou.
The pair didn’t always see eye to eye, to say the least, though Rivaldo is reluctant to pour scorn on the Dutchman, who he views as a ‘great coach’ in spite of their differences.
‘Van Gaal is a great coach. Every time I give an interview I speak well of him, because he is a great coach,’ Rivaldo told Betfair.
‘But he does not like the player who stands out, the player who does something individual.
‘He is very collective. And, of course, I was also very collective. But there are times when I could do much more. He limited me, he took away all my freedom.”
‘Sometimes in training, in some matches, there were some discussions between Van Gaal and me . But I always said he was a great coach.’
Rivaldo was convinced he could make the biggest contribution as a No.10 – but Van Gaal disagreed, insisting the 2002 World Cup winner was at his best on the left wing.
‘He wanted me to play on the left. And I’ve played several games, two years playing as a left winger, but there was a moment when I said: “No, I have to do something else”,’ he explained.
‘I’m doing good things on the left wing, because I’m in the prime of my life, I can play in any position and I’d be good at it.
‘I had a lot of confidence, I knew I could perform a bit better, that I was a No.10, that I wanted to be a No.10, that I wanted to play in the middle of the field, because of the passes I gave, the assists.’
He added: ‘Van Gaal told me that I gave too many assists from the left side.
‘Then, one day I wanted to change positions. It was a day when we beat Atletico Madrid 2-1. In the first half, we were 1-1.
‘At half-time, he spoke highly of the way the team was playing. After ten or 15 minutes he took me off and put on another player, [Boudewijn] Zenden, who even played well. So, I got angry at that moment.’
It was at this point that a frustrated Rivaldo decided to make his feelings clear to Van Gaal, via Jose Mourinho, who was part of Barcelona’s coaching set-up at the time.
‘It was there that I decided to speak to him the next day and say that I didn’t want to play left wing anymore,’ he continued.
‘I could stay on the bench, I could compete for the position, but I wanted to play as a No.10. After the match I went home and when I got there I thought: “I’ll talk to him tomorrow!”‘
Rivaldo remembers one particular match, not long after this conversation, in which Van Gaal fielded him in a ‘very, very, very average team’ in order to humiliate him.
‘He took me to a game where he had given Luis Figo, Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique a rest and he put in some players from the youth team,’ Rivaldo went on.
‘It was a cup game, I think against a third division team, and I remember Mourinho saying to me: “Hey, you play as a No.10′”.
‘He put out a very, very, very average team, he gave everyone a rest and he only put me in to embarrass me.’
Rivaldo, though, has no regrets about his time at Barca, where he was playing in 1999 when he beat David Beckham and Andriy Shevchenko to the prestigious Ballon d’Or award.
‘It was a wonderful experience, I had a lot of wonderful moments at the club,’ he said.
‘I won titles, I was voted the best in the world while playing for Barcelona. So, it was five wonderful years that I was there.
‘Right from the start, I started by being Spanish champion, an important title for my career.’
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