There is a saying that goes: “A wish without a plan is just a dream. But when you have a strategy, it becomes a goal.” There are many people who from an early age have dreamed of being great athletes, from swimmers, to tennis players or even soccer players. However, this dream is often overwhelmed by the harsh reality that sometimes makes them take another path, or on the contrary, it becomes an impulse to achieve their goals. This is the case of Carlos Henrique Raposo, or better known as ‘Kaiser’, the man who dreamed of being a footballer without playing football.
His story is very complicated, because it cannot be fully corroborated. From his mouth come truths that seem like lies and lies that after all are true. But in the end, what can be certain, is that Kaiser was one of the most sought after players in the 1980sdespite never having scored a goal.
To better understand how this footballer achieved fame without playing a single game, we must go back to his origins. Restrepo was born in 1973 in Rio De Janeiro. Or at least that is what he presumes, because in itself, his birth is a mystery.
There are two versions of the story. The first, documented by journalist Rob Smyth, says that his biological mother abandoned him with the woman who had ultimately raised him. It is assumed that he had entrusted it to him for a while, but he never came back.
(You may be interested: The mysterious star who triumphs locked up in his house since 1978 for fame).
The second version, told to Lisette Arévalo, a journalist for the ‘Radio Ambulante’ project, assures that her biological mother was a housekeeper in the house of a very important politician. When she got her pregnant, she gave him money to go away and raise the baby. That was when in Porto Alegre she gave it to an acquaintance – Kaiser’s adoptive mother – to take care of it for her, but when she returned, the woman told her that she had died.In other words, this liar’s life began with a farce. And this would have only been the first of many.
Botafogo: the beginning of everything
At 10 years old, Kaiser began training in the youth category, with one of the most important teams in Brazil: Botafogo. According to his account, after several auditions and tests, he was legitimately hired to wear the black and white shirt. Since then he let himself be involved in the world of sports and began to dream of being a great footballer.
But this was broken some time later, when he found out that his mother -who was an alcoholic and had financial problems- He had taken with his representative more than 80 percent of his first earnings as a footballer. He had been cheated and now the ball had been passed to him to play what would be the game of his life.
His main objective was to continue in the world of football, but without having to play it, because he had been very disappointed with his experience in Botafogo and did not want to continue training. But money and fame kept him in line. That’s why he managed to stay on the court, without lifting a finger.
Raposo’s ‘modus operandi’ was to fake an injury in the first training session. After this, it is said, It created a whole series of scenarios full of disabilities and medical conditions, which made him watch from the bench all the games he never played.
(Also: The millionaire businessman who denied his daughter for 38 years and had to compensate her).
He wore the striped shirt for a year, until incredibly Flamengo bought him, a team to which he had been recommended by his great friend Renato Gaúcho. There he spent a year ‘working’. It’s important to remember that Kaiser never walked away without cashing a check, but he did walk away without taking a penalty.
It was then that after four alleged injuries and hundreds of wonderful stories, the Puebla Soccer Club of Mexico included him in their team. The press played an important role at this time in his life. Many of the chroniclers who interviewed him believed his sayings and presented him as a soccer ‘ace’ who simply could not play due to his bad luck with injuries.
“He didn’t even know how to play cards. He had a problem with the ball. In a dispute against the biggest liar, Pinocchio would lose to ‘El Kaiser’. He is a great friend, an excellent person. Everyone loved him very much.”
– Ricardo Rocha on “Kaiser” Raposo. pic.twitter.com/r4cNhpWhax
— Diego Miranda (@_DiegoMiranda) June 19, 2022
In Puebla he went six months without playing a single game, but he did play at being ‘the bad boy’. According to the journalist Lisette Arévalo, the man faked bruises, fought with the team, the referees and was always provoking whoever was around him to justify his absences in some way. And in the end it would have worked.
He then returned to Rio to play with one of the teams with the most potential at the time: Atlético Bangú. His stay was short, but very fruitful, because that was when the greatest opportunity of his life opened up: going to the French league, specifically for the Ajaccio team. However, this was not really because of his abilities. His friend Fabio Barros, known as Fabinho, had recommended him by selling him as one of Bangú’s promises.
✍🏻 (THREAD)
Carlos Henrique Raposo is a former Brazilian player who became a legend without knowing how to play! More than a footballer, he was a great actor. How did he get to the top without touching the ball?
👉🏼If you like it, I appreciate a ❤️, an RT or a follow 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/ibSYqu1PPt
– Bian Soifer (@biansoifer10) January 12, 2022
He did very well there. But not because of his talent with the ball, but because of his social skills. He knew how to win over the team and, above all, how to conquer a fan who only saw him play once in his life, for a short 20 minutes. Or that is what supposedly had happened.
The story at this point is fuzzy. It is known for a fact that he returned to Bangu. Proof of this is that the newspaper ‘Jornal dos Sports’ published at that time an article with the title: “Bangu already has its king: Carlos Kaiser”. But it is not known if he had been independently or as a ‘loan’.
But what is known is that his great career was in the last minutes of substitution.
(Read on: The Woman Who Kissed Elvis for the First Time on Screen and How It Changed Her Life.)
The end of a career, but not of a story
Carlos had been nicknamed ‘Kaiser’ because of his athletic figure, which looked like a beer bottle of the same name. Or that’s one of the versions. The second suggests that he had been called that because of his great talent and in honor of the last German emperor ‘Dutche Kaiser’.
Still, regardless of history, Carlos Henrique Raposo’s greatness ended in 2003, when he suddenly ditched his boots and stayed out of the limelight.
In 2015, a British company made a film about the great known by some as the faker of the world of football. This includes interviews with Brazilian soccer legends such as Carlos Alberto, Zico, Júnior, Bebeto and Renato Gaúcho.
Among them is that of Fabinho, who said that Carlos had never set foot on a court in France. In other words, his visit to Ajaccio would have been a lie, and that his friend would have taken advantage of his opportunity to say that he was also part of the team.
At the end of the documentary you can see how the current life of the former soccer player is going. Until now, he remains firm in his stories and after the film they made about him, he continued to tell them for the media that call him.
He is a personal trainer in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he makes a living teaching classes in gyms and enjoys the attention he receives from those who want to know the story of the great soccer swindler.
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