EUROPEAN football expert Graham Hunter’s wonderful piece on two Portuguese brothers who may yet take Euro 2016 by storm.
IT was in summer 2002 that ex-managing director of Chelsea Colin Hutchinson phoned me to tell me about the Gypsy and the King.
He called them different names back then - Quaresma and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Colin and I had been friends since a night in April 1998 when I woke him up by phoning from Wembley after England beat Portugal 3-0 to demand confirmation of my tip that Brian Laudrup had rejected a move to Manchester United and was leaving Rangers for free to sign for Chelsea.
Didn’t like being woken up, but didn’t mind admitting that he was impressed with the information. Respect thereafter.
Thus, four years later, when he was working for Wayne Rooney’s agency he called to say: ‘Just keep your eyes peeled for two wingers at Sporting Lisbon. ‘United are very keen on one of them, Arsenal are trying for him ... their names are Quaresma and Ronaldo.
And while Quaresma’s scoring more goals, made more progress, I think that Ronaldo might turn out to be the better of them.”
Jump forward to this week on the French Rugby Training centre pitch at Marcoussis.
The King of Portuguese football, from time to time the King of world football, Ronaldo turned to welcome a little shaven-headed barrel of talent with teardrops tattooed on his cheek as he trotted out to train.
‘Hey! It’s the little gypsy!’ [Lelito!] CR7 roared affectionately.
No insult was taken, none was meant. Far from it.
Ricardo Quaresma is of gypsy stock and very proud of it.
Keen on rings, jewellery, big noisy flash cars, music, dancing - revelling in his Roma roots.
So keen, in fact, that in January 2012, while driving through the notoriously gang-plagued Lisbon neighbourhood of J de Chelas, his 4x4 was stopped at gunpoint and the then Besiktas winger was robbed of cash, flash and bling worth upwards of €44,000.
His diamond encrusted chain was the bulk at €25,000, his ring came in at around €7k. That’s big bling.
Months later he was detained by police for his behaviour towards a woman he believed had robbed his mother.
Last year, without any regrets admittedly, he confessed: ‘Perhaps I could have done more with my career but in life there are opportunities that either you take or they pass you by and sometimes we fail at those.’
And there’s the difference between the two men.
Ronaldo went on to become the 24 karat diamond, Quaresma remained the diamond in the rough.
Valuable but never polished.
Often traded but not as glitteringly wonderful as he might have been.
A kind of Koh-i-Noor and a D’Oh-i-Noor
When Ronaldo was coming through the ranks at the Sporting academy he was a little younger than Quaresma but the test that awaited him wasn’t that different.
Alone, lonely and the product of a home where his father was an alcoholic he was a kid utterly determined to prove himself - to excel.
Quaresma wasn’t just a natural buddy, he was a figure to admire.
Older by a couple of years, quicker into the first team but just unbelievably talented.
Which partly explains why when Barcelona were offered first shot at buying either of the two wingers, encouraged by a club which needed money and which had already cashed in, heavily, when they transferred Luis Figo to the Camp Nou a handful of seasons earlier, the Catalans plumped for the Gypsy, not the king in waiting.
At the Camp Nou he couldn’t quite adjust to the systematic demands of an era where Frank Rijkaard was introducing Cruyffian principles and the ball was to be moved according to rules and geometry - not instinct
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