VASCO: Having won almost everything there is to win in International and club football, Lucio came to India to be part of the FC Goa set up for the second season of the Hero Indian Super League.
The former FIFA World Cup winner and UEFA Champions League winner with Internazionale will be a huge boost to FC Goa who lost out in the semi-final to Atletico de Kolkata in the premier season of the ISL.
In an interview with Herald, the Brazilian veteran praised the team assembled by Zico ahead of the second season. “The team works hard every day to get to know each other on the pitch. I do not know about last season but it is evident that everyone in the team wants to play. This is good for competition. It’s a healthy attitude,” he said.
With a lot of Brazilian players joining the ranks, it would seem that the team will come out playing colourful football but Lucio stressed that quality is more important than quantity.
“Quality of players is most important. Each one of the players has to do well on the field, not only the Brazilians,” he admitted, adding that each of them want to play at a high level so as to help the team do well and achieve good results,” Lucio said.
Having played under top coaches like current Chelsea coach, Jose Mourinho (at Internazionale) and current Manchester United coach, Louis Van Gaal (at Bayern Munich), one would assume that there would be a lot of their training methods and ideologies that he would bring to the current team but the veteran Brazilian insisted that that was not the case.
“Every club is different. This is a different type of competition and their methods wouldn’t really help too much in this scenario,” he explained. Heralding the impact that Mourinho had on his career, he said, “He is probably the best coach I’ve worked with.”
Indian players have been in the spotlight following the first season of the ISL. Local lad, Romeo Fernandes even had the opportunity to go to Brazil on loan to play with Atletico Paranaense. Admitting that this is the first time he has come across footballers from India, Lucio said that it is too early for him to make an assessment. He did however, point out the fact that some of the Indians in the team are talented and singled out Romeo for special praise.
When asked about which of his former teammates he was looking forward to facing, he said it didn’t matter as he is focussed on achieving the top prize with FC Goa. “I have to play against both, Roberto Carlos and Marco Matterazzi. I look forward to both but I am more concerned about doing well for my team,” he concluded.
