One of the greatest of his generation, Renato Gaúcho had 6 minutes in Cups

When Sebastião Lazaroni, finally, decided to put Renato Gaúcho in the confrontation between Brazil and Argentina for the round of 16 of the 1990 World Cup, in Italy, the legendary sports announcer Osmar Santos, at the time broadcasting the match on the extinct TV Manchete, mocked:

“There’s Renato Gaúcho, a striker you’ve probably never heard of, coming in now with almost 40 minutes into the second half.”

There were only 6 minutes left to finish the team’s participation in that world cup when Renato replaced Mauro Galvão. One of the biggest wingers of his generation, the player – at the time of Flamengo – would make his only participation in World Cups. There would be little time to prevent participation from being limited to those few minutes.

A little earlier, at 36, the Argentines opened the scoring thanks to Maradona’s genius. The shirt 10 came to be a doubt for the game. The day before, he said he felt pain all over his body. That, however, did not stop him from dribbling three Brazilians in the final stretch of the game and serving Caniggia in front of goal.

Before Renato could get his first touch on the ball, the task of looking for an equalizer would become even more difficult when Ricardo Gomes was sent off. To prevent Basualdo from entering the penalty area free and having the chance to widen, the defender made a hard foul from behind.

Disorganized, looking for an equalizer on the basis of pressure, Brazil spent the final minutes of that duel paying the price for not having been able to swing Goycochea’s nets even though he finished more than the Argentines – it was three balls on the post.

On the edge of the lawn, while watching Muller and Careca lose goals, Lazaroni had few options to change the game, mainly because he couldn’t count on Bebeto, injured, and Romário, without physical conditions to play for 90 minutes.

On the eve of the game, a report by the Sheet already warned of this difficulty. Reporters Clóvis Rossi and Luciano Borges wrote at the time that the coach, “from so much insisting on playing with just two forwards, was now condemned to do so, even if he wanted to change tactics.”

Even with the lows, the coach took time to put Renato Gaúcho on the field. There was a bad atmosphere between the commander and the player, who spent a good part of the tournament complaining about the reserve. Lazaroni would pay a heavy price not only for that, but because he would end up being labeled the biggest culprit of the Cup’s failure.

The elimination in the round of 16 was the country’s worst result since the 1966 World Cup, when the team fell in the group stage. After the defeat, Renato Gaúcho fired criticism from all sides.

First, he complained about the tactical scheme. “How could you attack with a libero?” he asked. About Lazaroni, “who is not as democratic as he likes to say”, the striker kept his speech tough. “As he is a man of dialogue, he listened. Only he went in one ear and out the other.”

Renato didn’t spare his teammates either. “Many thought like me, but preferred to stay on top of the fence. I spoke, shouted, all that was left was for me to slap Lazaroni,” he said. “If we had won, everyone would be doing an interview. That’s when you meet men.”

Even the then president of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), Ricardo Teixeira, was a target. “I’ve only seen him once around here, at the Argentina game. Then I’m the tourist.”

It was as if Renato was letting out all the frustration he had kept for four years, since the 1986 World Cup, when he lost his chance to play in the tournament for the first time.

At the time, he wore the Grêmio shirt. After scoring the two goals in the victory against Hamburg (ALE) in the 1983 Club World Cup and helping the team to win the Rio Grande do Sul championship in 1985 and 1986, the ace was at the peak of his performance and had been called up for the World Cup. In Mexico.

The striker, however, would end up cut from the Brazilian delegation by the then coach Telê Santana for an act of indiscipline.

The striker, accompanied by left-back Leandro, another absolute starter of that selection, participated in a celebration on the eve of the trip to the Mexico Cup and did not return to Toca da Raposa, where the Canarinho team was concentrated, at the time determined by the coach.

By the time the pair arrived, it was daylight and security at the training center told the coach the exact time they returned. Furious, Telê decided to cut Renato Gaúcho. Leandro, in turn, was acquitted by the coach, but resigned from the call-up in solidarity with his companion.

Years later, already as a coach, the former striker said that he held a grudge against the coach for a long time, but then they made up. He, however, condemned Telê’s attitude. “I would never cut a player of mine if I knew he would help me up front,” he said. “I was flying, at the age of 24, and I knew how much I could have helped Brazil.”

Renato did not play in 1986, nor did he have time to make his mark in 1990. Without avoiding failures, he did not even get an assessment of his performance in a World Cup.

THE Sheet and the magazine Placar, who used to assign marks for the performance of athletes at the time, left the winger without evaluation after the confrontation with Argentina under the same justification: “he didn’t have time to change the match”.

This is the first of a series of ten texts about important characters from the World Cups that, over time, have been forgotten. They will be published on Thursdays.