Rivaldo's outlook was determined by his upbringing.
In 1991, an 18-year-old stood in a bakery in Paulista, a rundown region of Recife in north-eastern Brazil, waiting to be interviewed by local media. He didn't look like a footballer.
His brown shirt hanging off his shoulders and long legs with a bow-legged gait is a sign that he is deficient in vitamins D and D3.
His cheeks were sunken due to having lost most of his teeth in his early teens.
He made headlines recently when he looped in a perfect, neck-straining debut for Santa Cruz. A TV reporter wanted to discuss his career ambitions with him.
The modest young man replied between sips of a fresh coconut, "My dream is already being realised, to play for Santa Cruz." I want to become an idol for the club's fans.
Rivaldo, who turns 50 in April, achieved a lot. He can look back on a career that exceeded his expectations and disproved the belief that we must dream big to achieve great success.
He won the Ballon d'Or, was named the World Player of the Year, and scored a hat-trick for Barcelona within a decade.
He was part of Brazil's fearsome frontline, and he helped lift the World Cup in 2002. He won the title with AC Milan.
They say to dream big. Unless your upbringing allows it.
Rivaldo told an Argentine magazine in 1999 that he had to live in poverty to know what poverty was. You work all day to have little to eat.
It is hard to dream in Paulista.
The middle child of five, Rivaldo Vitor Borba Ferreira grew up in a favela where tourists never stray and people are considered delusional.
As a young boy, he would help his parents work at weekends by helping them sell chewing gum and ice lollies at the beach. On match days, he would set up outside the home of his beloved Santa Cruz.
Rivaldo's teachers describe him as timid, but better behaved than his two older brothers. He liked playing football barefoot and was a fan of Zico and Diego Maradona.
Friends recall how he was the most skilled, controlling the ball with his feet and hitting it with surprising power for a skinny child. He loved playing football, but he was more interested in catching insects or training animals for fighting.
Rivaldo received his first boots from his father at 13 and was invited to train with Santa Cruz three years later.
Romildo was killed by a bus two weeks before the trial. His son was left distraught, ready to give up the game and surrender to his surroundings, convincing himself that happiness and success were not for boys from his bairro.
After an intervention by his mother, Rivaldo's trajectory changed. She looked at her son and said that his father would want him to be a professional footballer. Go for it.
So he did.
Rivaldo moved to Barcelona in 1997.
The trial was a success, but there were new challenges. Rivaldo was forced to make a 30 km return journey on foot each day because Santa Cruz's training centre was 15 km from his home. His bow-leggedness became more pronounced when he left tired. Praise was hard to come by despite his commitment. He was judged harshly and would continue to be for most of his career in Brazil.
He became a scapegoat for the club's troubles after he hadIrregular performances.
He was jeered by fans and dismissed by managers, but he was eventually used as a makeweight in a player exchange. Joao Caixeiro, Santa Cruz's former president, called it the worst deal in the club's history.
Rivaldo did not find widespread acceptance after four years.
He scored from the halfway line at Mogi. He was named player of the season and scored on his international debut in 1993 after scoring 22 goals in 58 starts for the top-flight club. He left the stadium hidden inside a bag of footballs, so that the club's followers would not be able to pressure him.
He was named player of the season once more after lifting the 1994 Brazilian league title. The consistency was rewarded with further national team call-ups, but coach Carlos Alberto Parreira decided the 22-year-old was too selfish and unreliable, leaving him at home as Brazil went on to win the 1994 World Cup.
Rivaldo was included in the national squad for the Atlanta Olympics after Parreira left. He was blamed once again.
He lost possession in the middle and Nigeria scored a goal to make it a three goal game. Rivaldo broke down in the changing rooms after they scored twice more to eliminate the favorites.
The expectation was that we would bring home the gold medal, and the game against Nigeria was a shock for everyone. Rivaldo received a lot of criticism and everyone was sad because it was an atypical game. He was always a player with a lot of confidence in himself.
Rivaldo said that he had a bitter memory of that period, but that it allowed him to show the criticisms made of him were unfair.
Rivaldo's chances of representing his country were dismissed by the coach who was tasked with leading Brazil to the World Cup in France in 1998. He and the many other detractors could not have imagined what was about to happen.
It would be logical to assume that Rivaldo was looking for a move overseas because of the constant criticism from his countrymen, but the truth is that Palmeiras had already agreed to sell him to Parma before the 1996 Olympics. He ended up in Spain because of a disagreement over contract details. He was unveiled at the Deportivo La Coruna, where 7,000 fans were hoping he could fill the shoes of departed Brazilian Bebeto.
Rivaldo stayed in Galicia just one year, enjoying great personal success and netting 21 times in 41 games as Deportivo climbed from mid-table mediocrity to third in La Liga, tied with Barcelona, who were now paying very close attention.
Rivaldo had a variety of goals. A Panenka penalty that almost went wrong was just one of the many examples of tap-ins, bullet heads, bending free-kicks, rip-snorting strikes from distance and even a clever Panenka penalty that almost went wrong. His family said they hadn't watched the game because they were interested in Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Rivaldo was ready to do everything he could to switch to the other side when the Catalan giants agreed to pay his four billion pesetas release clause.
Modern folklore is the next chapter. Between 1997 and 2002 the boy was dismissed by his first club for being too weak, but he dominated Europe and the world with pace, power, magnetic control and an endless array of technical excellence.
He scored an amazing number of wonder strikes, mixing missile-like accuracy with regular rabonas, pinpoint assists and pirouettes. Mogi scored from halfway against Atlante Madrid to prove his goal was no fluke.
He won the Ballon d'Or and the World Player of the Year in 1999 after scoring 130 times in his time at Camp Nou.
Rivaldo was at Barcelona the longest. He was brought in as a replacement for the new Inter Milan player.
In 2001 there was a hat-trick against Valencia.
It was the final game of the season and Barcelona needed to win to qualify for the playoffs. His first goal was a rocket of a free-kick that rattled off the inside of the post, and the second was an unstoppable strike from distance. His third came when the game was tied and two minutes to go. Facing away from goal, he controlled a chip pass on his chest before hitting an overhead kick from the edge of the penalty area.
Simao Sabrosa, a teammate of the Brazilian at Barcelona, told the British Broadcasting Corporation that he watched the work of art as a spectator. It was an amazing night.
He did it in training, but never far from the goal. He decided to make history in that game since he had never done it before.
He was a star, always exemplary, very calm, focused on his job, working every day to be better. He was very shy, but also kind. When he won the Ballon d'Or, he made a point of thanking us individually by giving us each a plaque with a mini golden ball.
Rivaldo was the best player at the 2002 World Cup.
Rivaldo scored three times in the 1998 World Cup final, but they lost to France. He was named the player of the tournament after scoring two goals in the final to finish as the top scorer. He scored in Brazil's first five games at the 2002 World Cup as the country won its fifth title.
The clearest sign of how much his game had improved came when he was asked who he thought was the best player in the 2002 squad. Is itRonaldo? Ronaldinho? Cafu? Roberto Carlos?
Rivaldo was the player that helped Scolari the most. People forget the tactical side of the team. Rivaldo was the best player on the team.
Luizo agrees. He says, before catching himself, "well, the majority of the Brazilian people." Rivaldo was the best player at the 2002 World Cup.
After a short time with AC Milan, Rivaldo went on to play for Greece, Uzbekistan, and Angola before returning to Brazil.
He retired in 2015, but only achieved one final feat.
Rivaldo bought Mogi Mirim, the club that signed him in 1992. He was a player for the season. He played in a Brazilian second division match at the age of 43, and his son Rivaldinho did the same.
The picture was not as rosy as it could have been. Rivaldo changed the name of the stadium to honor his father, despite not having any connection to the team. He transferred the training centers into his own name to make up for the investment he had made. His wife became vice-president and his son chairman.
He put the club up for sale in December of last year because he was facing growing criticism and had more than R$10m in debt. The sale ended in July of 2015.
Rivaldo still lives in the United States, but he still goes back to his hometown of Recife and Paulista sometimes, even though he is persona non grata in Mogi.
"As a poor child, the idea of one day being considered the best player in the world, to be a world champion with the Brazilian national team, to play for Barcelona... it never crossed my mind," he said earlier this year.
I wanted to be a professional in Santa Cruz. For me, that was enough.
