The father of Brazilian midfielder Jonatas was kidnapped earlier this week. (Luis Bagu/Getty Images).
Soccer: John F. Molinaro
Success comes at a price for some Brazilian players
Last Updated Friday, Dec. 15, 2006
by John F. Molinaro
Although famous for its coffee and soybeans, Brazil's greatest natural resource is its special brand of soccer.
Over the past 50 years, Pele, Garrincha, Ronaldinho and a host of others helped make Brazilian soccer what it is today: a symphony of samba-like ball movement and dribbling dervishes from wildly creative geniuses, resulting in a relentless wave of attacking play that is the envy of other nations.
Brazilian soccer is the epitome of the "beautiful game," but an ugly social trend has developed in the country, one that also plagues Brazil's national sport.
This past Tuesday, the father of Jonatas, a 24-year-old midfielder with Spanish club Espanyol, was kidnapped from his home in Fortaleza, Brazil by two armed men. Police haven't heard from the captors, but based on recent history, it's only a matter of time before they demand a ransom.
Such kidnappings aren't unique to Brazilian soccer - the abduction of players' relatives has been going on for years in Argentina, Colombia and several eastern European countries - but it's almost an epidemic in Brazil.
This latest case just underscores the culture of kidnapping that has become disturbingly prevalent in South America's largest country: Jonatas's father is the eighth relative of a soccer player to be snatched in the past two years.
On Nov. 6, 2004, the mother of striker Robinho, who was in the middle of completing a transfer to Real Madrid, was kidnapped. Dubbed the next Pele, Robinho agreed to pay a ransom of $75,000 US for her release after 41 days.
When he eventually completed his transfer to Real Madrid in September 2005, Robinho took his family with him to Spain. No doubt, the possibility of another kidnapping was a major factor in his decision.
This year alone, the sister of Palmeiras defender Michael and the mother of Santos defender Kleber were abducted. Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano, Fluminense defender Rogerio, Le Mans striker Grafite, and Corinthians defender Marinho also had their mothers kidnapped. In all six cases the victims were eventually released unharmed.
Last month, two gunmen broke into the home of Maria de Lourdes Silva de Oliveira, the sister of AC Milan forward Ricardo Oliveira. They gagged and tied her husband and her eight-year-old son before kidnapping Ms. Oliveira. She is still missing.
Ricardo Oliveira was the top scorer in Spain in 2004 with Real Betis, bagging 22 goals for the Seville-based club. This year in Italy he's struggled with just one goal in 13 appearances, but you could hardly fault him for his poor offensive output in light of what else is going on in his life.
The snatching of soccer players' relatives is symptomatic of a much larger problem in Brazil - according to a recent BBC report, one person is kidnapped every two days in Sao Paulo, a metropolis with a population of 20 million.
It's become such a big problem in Brazil that most city and state police forces have anti-kidnapping divisions, and prisons are starting to build exclusive wings to house convicted kidnappers, in the hope that isolating them will stop them from passing on the tricks of the trade to other inmates.
So why, exactly, are the relatives of so many Brazilian soccer players being kidnapped? The answer is as simple as it is obvious: money.
Home to 187 million people, Brazil is a nation of startling contrasts. It boasts one of the world's largest economies, and yet, roughly eight per cent of the population lives in poverty.
It's a testament to the nation's staggering economic inequality that countless rickety shanty towns beset by poverty, widespread drug use, crime and gang violence overlook luxurious beach resorts in Rio de Janeiro, where the rich and famous frolic.
In these favelas, crime is often the simplest way of making money, and the relatives of players -especially the mothers of players for big-name teams in Europe such as Oliveira and Jonatas - are the prime targets.
It's a problem that has no easy solution. Brazilian authorities have struggled for years to come up with answers on how to combat this epidemic.
In the interim, the affected players are left in the unenviable position of being damned if they do (by paying the ransom money, they give plenty of incentive to future would-be kidnappers) and damned if they don't (by not paying the ransom, they run the risk of seeing their loved ones killed).
It used to be that teenagers playing in the streets of Brazil's favelas dreamt of escaping poverty through soccer, much like Pele.
Today, in a unique twist, more and more Brazilian teenagers look to make a buck by kidnapping the relatives of soccer stars they once played with in those same streets.
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