Zé Elias: Ronaldo told Mancini, ‘Keep quiet, I’ll give you my autograph after’
From almost giving up football and then breaking through at Corinthians, to playing with Ronaldo, and to winning the UEFA Cup with Inter, Zé Elias has got some unbelievable stories to tell.
Sat in the café in front of the stunning art deco façade of São Paulo’s Pacaembu Stadium, a smile breaks across the face of Zé Elias as he recalls the May night in Paris when he and his Inter team-mates swept Lazio aside to win the 1998 UEFA Cup.
“For me, personally, it was the most important [trophy].”
Victory, of course, is always sweet. But when it comes in the face of adversity, the sense of fulfilment is so much greater. And that tournament, for Zé Elias as an individual and for Inter as a team, had been a tale of reversals and redemption.
“The priority at the beginning of the year was the league; the team was made to win the league,” Zé Elias says. “So, in the games against Neuchâtel Xamax and Strasbourg, they put out a second string.
“It was only when they realised that we could go on to win it that [Luigi Simoni] started playing the first team.”
That decision to prioritise Serie A benefitted Zé Elias, who was at that time only 21 and part of that second string. The UEFA Cup was his chance to force his way into contention for a place in the first team.
“At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t even in the reserves,” he says. “I was sitting in the stands, watching. So I kept training and training and my first break came against Neuchâtel.”
Zé Elias’ breakthrough
It was an opportunity he grasped with both hands, scoring the second goal of the match to seal a comfortable 2-0 win away from home: “From then on, I started getting more chances to start games.”
“The campaign was fantastic because we managed to overturn some negative results. Against Lyon we turned the game, there in Lyon. Against Strasbourg, too, we had a few problems and managed to reverse the situation.”
In the second game against Strasbourg, in Milan, an illustrious trio of Javier Zanetti, Diego Simeone and Ronaldo all scored to overcome a 2-0 first-leg deficit.
That set up a showdown against Schalke 04, a replay of the previous year’s final, which Inter had lost.
“It was war. Marc Wilmots and I…” Zé Elias’ sentence tails off, but he bashes his clenched fists together and his point is clear.
“There were punches, there were kicks. There weren’t so many cameras at that time, so the game was a lot more intense.”
The Inter of the late 90s had a distinctly South American flavour to their squad, and in the semi-final against Spartak Moscow Zé Elias was joined on the scoresheet by compatriot Ronaldo and the magnificent Iván Zamorano, guaranteeing a 4-2 aggregate triumph.
It was, of course, Serie A’s golden era, and Zé Elias is keen to highlight the quality of opposition he faced on a weekly basis.
“We had Bergomi, Zanetti, Simeone, Djorkaeff, Ronaldo and Zamorano. You go to Milan, they had Costacurta, Maldini, Albertini, Boban, Weah, Savisevic. Juventus had Del Piero, Conte, Di Livio, Zidane. Legends, only legends. It really was a strong league.”
When asked to choose the most belligerent of his on-pitch rivals, though, he doesn’t hesitate for a second: “My battle was with Edgar Davids. He was horrible. Horrible. He always came in over the top, trying to hurt you.”
Ronaldo>Lazio
Given the power of Italian football at the time it was fitting, then, that Inter’s adversary in the UEFA Cup final should be one of their domestic rivals: Lazio.
The Biancocelesti were the favourites, but Ronaldo had other ideas.
“I roomed with Ronaldo, and before the final they chose two players from each side to speak to the press,” Zé Elias says.
“From Lazio it was Nesta and Mancini, and they said that if one of the two sides really deserved the trophy, it was Lazio, because they had got to the final without losing, without having to overcome any bad results.
“Ronaldo was sat there next to them and said, ‘Tomorrow, I’m going to make these two into figuras di merda’,” using an Italian phrase that roughly translates as ‘look a fool’.
“I went to him and asked, ‘Ronaldo, what are you doing?’ He looked at me and said, ‘They talk too much.’”
With a knowing smile, Zé Elias glances up before continuing, “The next day we won the game 3-0. Ronaldo had a field day. He scored a goal, nutmegged someone.
“Mancini came up to him during the game and Ronaldo said, ‘Not now, keep quiet. If you want, I’ll give you my autograph after the game.'”
The other two goals were scored by Zanetti and Zamorano, cementing the importance of Inter’s South American connection.
The leadership of Simeone
On the subject of another one of that contingent, Diego Simeone, Zé Elias is emphatic. “We knew [he would become a manager]. You didn’t even need to play with him, living alongside him was enough.
“He watched football from six in the morning until midnight, slept from midnight until six, woke up and started watching football again.
“You went into a match and he already knew how the opposition were going to play. Five minutes after it started, he would change the way of playing. He’d say, ‘Zé, stay a bit more to the left or a bit more to the right, let’s swap positions.’”
Zé Elias, like many others, sees a lack of that sort of leadership in today’s game and puts it down to two things, firstly, the power of big-name managers to dish out instructions and, secondly, the financial situation young players find themselves in.
“Today there is a lot of money for young players, so they grow up without any difficulties. They are educated in a comfortable situation. With that comfort you don’t develop leadership skills. You don’t need to fight for anything if you already have it all.”