Rafael Scheidt

Was he even scouted?

 

I don't think he was. was it not just videos barnes had seen?

 

It's almost 23 years on from one of the most bizarre transfers in Celtic's history.

Initially, the Hoops' acquisition of Brazil international defender Rafael Scheidt for £5million from Gremio created quite a stir in Glasgow's east end.

Rafael was supposedly a statement signing by the Celtic managerial dream team of John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish in December 1999.

It was originally a message to big-spending Rangers that the men in green and white could also compete and bring top talent to the club.




Dalglish was the instigator of the capture having watched Scheidt on the basis of impressive video evidence.

It was he who recommended Rafael to Barnes, who unashamedly admits he hadn't ever seen him play live.

The Brazil international defender - he was capped for the full national team three times in total - had reputedly represented his country 16 times but the cracks began to appear when it was discovered that 13 of those so-called matches were with the Brazilian Olympic squad.


To this day Rafael still disputes this narrative or insists that he was blissfully unaware of such details.

In an exclusive interview with The Celtic Way, the 46-year-old said: "I first learned about Celtic's proposal at the end of November 1999, when Grêmio called me and put Celtic's offer on the table.

"I knew very little about Celtic and very little about Scottish football at the time. I tried to study and ask people connected to football about the club's history.

"Celtic had some great players of different nationalities and I remember the 1998 World cup, where Brazil beat Scotland 2-1, that Tom Boyd and Paul Lambert played in that match. Henrik Larsson and Lubomir Moravcik were also famous alongside Eyal Berkovic, Alan Stubbs and others.

"Kenny Dalglish was a great player and I have a lot of respect for him as a person. Regardless of how the choice was made about me, it wasn't important and I didn't care.

"Back then I was being called up to the Brazilian national team consistently. I wasn't really surprised about the offer regardless of how it was done either by Kenny Dalglish or by other scouts at Celtic.




I respect John Barnes - and all football managers - but I don't understand how a coach can hire a player without watching him play. I never heard that during all my time at Celtic. If I did well then people wouldn't have said such things."

Rafael also refutes the notion that he failed to live up to his price tag in Glasgow - and it is fair to say the Brazilian lurched from one setback to another on his arrival in Scottish football.




He was rushed to hospital with appendicitis on the eve of his debut before serious knee ligament damage after colliding with a team-mate in training left him sidelined.

Rafael was also linked with a scandal involving a Brazilian national coach who was accused of taking bribes to let unknown players get a couple of matches for the national team in order to boost their value.

It would, however, be grossly unfair to say Celtic were stung on this particular deal. Rafael on the face of it possessed ability but he was never a fan of the Scottish style of football for a start - which did not augur well for his future.

The player himself also confessed that he never got the chance to fully showcase his talent as injuries certainly hampered him under Barnes before he fell foul of Martin O'Neill.



If Celtic paid what Grêmio asked for at the time, it's because they believed in me. If I had to analyse it I actually thought the price was low!" said Rafael, who is now a football agent.

"I believe that injuries were the pillar of my troubled start and stopped me from showing everybody how I could play and my real worth. If I didn't have my injuries then things would have been different.

"At the same time as the difficulties, I had to adapt to my body. In Brazil, I played with 76kg, in Scotland I gained muscle mass and weighed 81kg.

"Scottish football has some very well-defined characteristics, players hit a very long pass and there is a lot of physicality and strength and there were little touches of the ball which I didn't really like.

"Football seems simple but it is not. I'm not looking for answers or excuses but I also understand that my injuries got in the way during my start with the club. Celtic also changed their coach from to Martin O'Neill and the arrival of new players culminated in my early departure from the club."

Timing is everything and the backdrop to Rafael's transfer also has to be taken into consideration as some sort of mitigating circumstance.

The player arrived alone from South America and joined a team that was embroiled in managerial turmoil behind the scenes. Few could actually blame the player for not settling into his new environment.

In hindsight, it seems he was a bit of a * in a power play by Celtic who thought that laying out £5million would appease the supporters and show that they could compete with Rangers both on and off the field.


By February, Barnes had been dismissed after the Caley Thistle Scottish Cup debacle.

Celtic turned to Dalglish as a safe pair of hands to steer the ship for the rest of the campaign and for a brief moment things actually looked up for Rafael.




He featured in two matches - against Dundee in a 6-2 win in March 2000 and a 4-1 victory over St Johnstone 10 days later.

He was curiously the star attraction in both encounters but that was as good as his Celtic career got.

The arrival of O'Neill in the summer of 2000 spelled the beginning of the end for the Brazilian's short-lived reign in Paradise.

He was loaned out to Corinthians in December but not before vowing to come back and fight for his place under O'Neill.

By that point, though, he no longer met UK work permit requirements.

Rafael defiantly gave a rare interview to a broadsheet newspaper at the time and declared: "I want this year to be known as the Scheidt year. Those who doubt my ability are talking rubbish. If Celtic bought me, it was because they know I can play football at the level required. I have plenty of hunger and desire, all I ask for is a chance.”

O'Neill had given him a chance - fleetingly - but Rafael did himself no favours with a woeful display against Irish side Bray Wanderers in a friendly.




The Celtic boss it seemed had all made up his mind there and then and deemed him not good enough.

O'Neill broke the defender's fate to him by famously stating: “I like footballers who are notlike you. I like footballers who play well.”

Rafael said: "I don't agree with Martin O'Neill that I was not good enough to play for Celtic. Why would he say that?

"From my point of view, football is different in every part of the world. Maybe my style of play was not the model that Scottish football needed or rather, it wasn't ideally suited to Scottish football.

I remember a conversation with Martin where he told me 'either you change your style of play or you won't play for Celtic'. After Celtic, I returned to Brazil and played for three of their biggest clubs.

"I'm not trying to offend anyone but I believe if Martin O'Neill came to work in Brazil, he would have little success with his style of play.

"I was injured too much with John Barnes and we had a few moments but it was always respectful. With Martin O'Neill, I can't say the same thing as we had moments of discussion and disrespect on both sides."

Rafael does not shy away from the fact that his second name (pronounced much like the Scottish slang term '*') and the fact that he did not do himself justice in a Celtic jersey gave rise to him being a figure of fun in Scottish football.

However, he is not bitter or resentful. On the contrary, he is rather philosophical about it all.


Although he revealed that he wishes he'd toughed it out in Glasgow and become a success at Celtic.

He said: "I don't really remember many of the matches that I played for Celtic but I believe that if I had been patient and waited for the moment of turmoil to pass, understanding the changes and realising the differences that my body was going through, I could have had a different career at Celtic or maybe even another club in Europe.

"I remember Celtic tried to loan me to an English team but I don't know which team it was. I then had some big clubs in Brazil come in for me and I ended up deciding to return back home to try to recover my self-esteem and to return to the Brazilian team.

"At the time when I came back to Brazil from Celtic, I was going through a lot of difficulties and I thought that returning to Brazil would give me the chance to play regular football again and try to return to the national team. So at the time, I was happy.

"I think when people made fun of me and made jokes it was part of the show but the Celtic supporters didn't give me enough time.

"In truth, football is like that. When things are going well on the field, the surroundings are also good. When things don't go well on the pitch, it gets bad off the field. The fans do not patiently analyse the results.

"I really enjoyed living in Scotland. The country is very beautiful and, despite my injury problems, it was a period of maturation and learning for both me and my wife.

"We went through some tough moments but I don't look at this in a negative way or take things personally. The experience was something that made us grow a lot.

"Despite not staying with the club for a long time and living the full Celtic experience I learned to respect them. I wish good luck to this great team and their great set of supporters.

"The Celtic fans never stop cheering the players and they are very passionate about their team. At the same time, Celtic and its supporters are much bigger than any player.

"I've had good and bad moments in my career, like most players, but one thing that I take with me is that I didn't play long enough in Europe as I had done in Brazil.

"It really was a negative stain on my career and to this day I blame myself for not staying on at Celtic. If I did I could probably have made a go of it and been successful.

"I understand that all players go through different moments in their careers and that my time in Scottish football was not my best moment - but the only regret I have is not winning trophies with Celtic."

Regrets? The Brazilian has had a few. Then again too few to mention... yet moving to Celtic, surprisingly, isn't one of them.