“I promised at home that I was not going to cry because I already cried too much. I have to manage to express a little the gratitude I feel for everything this group did, this swollen…. It’s the most humane club I’ve ever known in my life”, declared the striker last night with a broken voice, after the 2-1 victory against Ceará.
Frederico Chaves Guedes has put an end to a successful two-decade career for health reasons. The experienced striker suffers from diplopia, a “double vision” problem that has forced him to bring his retirement forward.
The fans and the board of the Tricolor Carioca have turned to make the goodbye of their historic captain unforgettable. The tributes took place before, during and after this Saturday’s match of the 16th day of the Brazilian Championship.
There was no shortage of flares, spectacular mosaics, chants and masks with Fred’s face that filled the stands of the Rio de Janeiro fiefdom.
The high point came in the 75th minute of the match, when Fred stepped onto the pitch for the last time, teary-eyed, to replace Argentine striker Germán Cano. With the final whistle, all of his teammates went straight to hug him.
“I want to thank all the tricolors and tell them that I will always wear this shirt tattooed on my body. I did not expect all this, I do not deserve it, because if we analyze what they did for me, I have an eternal debt”, confessed the striker, who in the end could not hold back his tears.
Fred has scored 417 goals in his career, almost half of them with the ‘Flu’ shirt (199).
The entrance Brazilian Fred hangs up his boots with an unforgettable party at the Maracana was first published in diary TODAY.
