Former Celta defender Fernando Caceres has revealed that he was once offered 500,000 pesetas to take Ronaldinho out of a game while he was at Barcelona.
Fernando Caceres played for the likes of River Plate, Boca Juniors and Valencia but some of his toughest moments would surely be from his time at Celta Vigo.
The Argentine looks back at one of his memorable matches of his career when he had to come against midfield maestro Ronaldinho.
Many have tried and failed to stop the Brazilian and on this occasion extra measures had to be taken to clear him out.
On one occasion, Caceres recalled he was even paid to literally take Ronaldinho out of the game with a nasty tackle.
“We were playing Celta vs Barcelona in Vigo and on the first touch Ronaldinho tried to make, I hit him from behind,” Caceres explained in an interview with the ‘Idolos’ YouTube channel.
“I helped him up and told him I’d been offered 500,000 pesetas (£2,700/$3,400) to take him out. He just looked at me and said: ‘If you can catch me.’
“I didn’t go to mark him anymore. I was scared, he was angry and when he got like that, he was very good; a strong and impressive player.”
Caceres never got to face Lionel Messi for Barcelona and was glad he didn’t.
“Luckily, I never faced Messi, but I would have found it challenging to deal with the things he can do with the ball,” he said.
“You see them and you can’t believe it. When Leo runs at you, what do you do? You don’t know, so you have to just kick him – it’s the only solution you have.”
