Parties and ‘getaways’ from concentration are not rare in football; remember famous stories in Brazil and abroad

On Tuesday, John Kennedy and three other Fluminense athletes were removed for acts of indiscipline during the training camp for the classic against Vasco, on Saturday: they allegedly threw an “above all” party and invited women to the hotel. It wasn’t the first time that players found a way to “escape” the pre-game schedule. Parties and escapes have already led to several gatherings in Brazilian and international football. EXTRA remembers some of them.

Brazilian Team

Former player Romário has already publicly admitted that he left the club several times and even with the Brazilian national team. One of the most emblematic stories is precisely when he was the team’s top scorer at the 1994 World Cup. He said he fled before the first and third games, against Russia and Sweden, respectively.

— Nobody saw it, not even me — he joked.

In the 1997 Copa América, Baixinho “twisted” the young Ronaldo Fenômeno to escape the comfort of concentration in Bolivia. The “escape” was planned by Romário, according to his companion himself.

— It was a cinematic escape. I was still a kid and Romário told me: “let’s go, kid!” How could I not? I went. He took me to the back of the hotel and stood with one foot on the wall and his back against the wall, like a ninja. We went down and took the stairs to another wall until we found the taxi waiting. It was all orchestrated — recalled Ronaldo, in an interview with the program “Resenha Espn”, in 2016.

The best-known case in the Brazilian team involves Renato Gaúcho, current coach of Grêmio, who was left out of the squad for the Mexico Cup in 1986, after a similar episode during friendly matches in preparation for the World Cup. Alongside Leandro, former Flamengo right-back, Renato returned to concentration at Toca da Raposa, in Belo Horizonte, well after 11pm, the time established by the technical committee — they had spent the night between a pub and a nightclub. Coach Telê Santana didn’t remove anyone immediately, but two months later, he left Renato off the list of players who would go to the World Cup. Leandro was called up, but withdrew from participating in the World Cup on the day of departure.

Outside selections

In 2017, Arboleda, a São Paulo defender, and four other Ecuador players fled the team’s concentration days before a match against Argentina in the World Cup qualifiers. At the time, the Ecuadorian federation confirmed that the athletes left after the set time and only returned around 2:30 in the morning. As a result, they were removed from any call-up for an indefinite period.

Before that, in 2011, one of the biggest concentration scandals occurred in the Mexico national team, during the Copa América in Argentina. Right at the beginning of the competition, eight players were removed for having organized a “party” with call girls. Amidst the controversy, the team was eliminated from the group stage with three defeats in three games played.

Brazilian football

Ronaldinho Gaúcho also made a “little escape” in concentration. While he was a Flamengo player, he was caught by security cameras when visiting a guest’s room during the 2012 red-black pre-season, at a resort in the interior of Paraná. After the scandal, coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo asked him to leave, but the commander himself was fired some time later.

Among the former Brazilian athletes who have already spoken openly about the controversies surrounding the concentration, Marcelinho Carioca and Serginho Chulapa draw attention for their relaxed manner when they talk about the subject. Both confessed that they had already “escaped” more than once during their time at Corinthians and São Paulo, respectively.