Joining Real Madrid was a bad move, says Brazil's Rodrigo
Brazilian Rodrigo Fabri, who has never played for Real Madrid since being bought by them in 1998, admitted on Sunday that joining the European champions had been a bad career move.
Brazilian Rodrigo Fabri, who has never played for Real Madrid since being bought by them in 1998, admitted on Sunday that joining the European champions had been a bad career move.
Rodrigo is joint top scorer in the Brazilian championship for Gremio, who are the latest club to sign the striker on loan from the Spanish club.
"I've never played any game for them (Real)," he told the sports daily Lance.
"They paid an absurd amount of money for me, gave me a great salary and never used me - they just loaned me out."
"I'm still looking for an explanation," he added. "If they were not going to play me in a single game or even for a single minute - then they would have been better off not buying me, wouldn't they?"
"Professionally, going to Real Madrid was very bad for me, because they just loaned me out all over the place. On the other hand, it was very good financially. At least that's something."
Rodrigo said that Real pay 80 percent of his wages and Gremio the rest. The forward scored his 14th goal of the Brazilian championship in Saturday's 3-1 win over Gama.
His career is finally flourishing again for the first time since he joined Real at the start of 1998. Previously, he had shot to fame with Portuguesa, leading the unfashionable Sao Paulo club to the Brazilian championship final in 1996 and playing three times for Brazil.
Rodrigo said that as soon as he joined Real, they loaned him back to Brazilian club Flamengo where he struggled to get into the team.
He was later loaned to Santos in Brazil, Valladolid in Spain and Sporting Lisbon in Portugal but did not have a chance to settle at any of them.
"I had a good start at Sporting but I got injured and then ended up in the reserves. The Portuguese didn't field me because they wanted to buy me. But they were afraid that if I played well, Real Madrid would ask a high price. Can you believe it?"
Rodrigo said that all he wanted now was to stay at Gremio.
"I hope they (Real) can reach an agreement. It's what I wish for ardently."