So, you know how sometimes you just get a stupid idea stuck in your head and you can’t shake it? That’s exactly what happened here. I wasn’t sitting down thinking, “Gosh, I need a detailed career map of the 2006 Brazil squad.” No, it started because my wife was complaining about the noise I was making late one night.
I was watching some old clips—pure nostalgia, that Zinedine Zidane headbutt—and it got me thinking about that whole tournament, specifically the Brazil squad. Remember that team? Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaká, Adriano, Roberto Carlos, Cafu. They were supposed to walk it, right? Total superstars. But they flamed out against France. We all know they retired, but what do these absolute legends actually do now, aside from just enjoying their piles of cash? That was the trigger.
I figured this would be a quick 30-minute Google job. Turns out, finding the actual, verifiable, current gig of these guys is a nightmare. Most searches just hit you with the same three headlines from 2018 saying they retired or are “involved in football.” But “involved” is too vague. Are they a kit man? A technical director? Do they own a chain of pizzerias?
I started digging. I opened up the official FIFA 2006 squad list—the 23 men. My first action was to compile the list on a physical piece of paper, because my desk is a mess and I needed something tangible. Then I went player by player. The biggest struggle was the guys who weren’t the “Galaxticos” stars—the rotational players. Finding out what Cicinho is doing now is harder than finding a quiet spot in my house on a Saturday afternoon.
My process involved a lot of triangulation. First, I’d punch the name into English news sites. If that failed, I’d switch to Portuguese sites. If those were paywalled or just gave vague updates, I’d go to their professional social media accounts, not the flashy public ones, but the LinkedIn profiles if they had them, looking for keywords like Empreendedor (Entrepreneur) or Comentarista (Commentator). You had to really filter out the noise from the actual reality.
The Great Divide: The Businessmen vs. The Coaches
What I quickly realized after spending three solid evenings—my wife was genuinely concerned I’d started researching local conspiracy theories—was that the 2006 squad generally split into two camps: the savvy operators and the guys who just stayed close to the pitch.
I tracked down some truly weird and wonderful paths. For instance, finding out what Ronaldo “Il Fenomeno” is up to wasn’t hard, but the scope of it is nuts. He’s not just sitting around. I had to verify his ownership structure. He owns a majority stake in Real Valladolid in Spain. That’s proper big business, not just an ambassadorial role. I had to cross-reference that with old Spanish football finance reports just to be sure he was really running the show, not just the face of it.
Then there was Kaká. He’s super religious, everyone knows that, but he’s also been studying to be a sports executive, traveling a ton with FIFA and UEFA. He seems to be taking the high-road administration route. I had to read through three different interviews just to understand his current educational focus. It’s not just random appearances; it’s calculated management study.
But the real fun was digging up the stories of the guys who didn’t go the executive route. Gilberto Silva, the defensive midfielder, now works as a technical secretary, which is basically an in-house expert trying to manage the sporting side of things at Panathinaikos for a bit. He didn’t want the spotlight, he wanted the gritty backend work. I had to translate an entire Greek article using some rough tools just to get the specifics of that role.
The Messy End for Some
Of course, you can’t talk about that squad without mentioning Ronaldinho. That was the easiest name to research, but the hardest to pin down because his life is a whirlwind. I didn’t even need to look for his current job; I just needed to check the legal status of his current situation. The man has had run-ins involving passport issues and pyramid schemes. His career transition is less “boardroom” and more “music video production and solving legal problems.” That’s a career path only Ronaldinho could pull off.
And then there are the guys who are just quiet, which I respect. Emerson, the tough defensive mid. He mainly focused on running a foundation, helping kids in his local area. I found a small snippet from a local Brazilian newspaper—I think the site was built in 2003, it was that old—that detailed his foundation’s annual football tournament. No flashy PR, just real work.
My Takeaway After All That Digging
After all the hours I invested, mapping out 23 lives, what did I learn? That being a world-class athlete doesn’t guarantee you an easy second act. Some of them transitioned flawlessly into coaching (Júlio César is coaching keepers, Roberto Carlos is an ambassador but heavily involved). Others are just trying to figure it out, sometimes messy, sometimes quietly. I had to sift through so much conflicting information that I basically became an amateur investigator of retired Brazilian football players.
But the final records are complete. I’ve got the full 23 listed, their current primary hustle, and I can now absolutely destroy my friend in our next argument about who had the best second career. It took three nights and threatened my marriage slightly, but the knowledge is mine. And now, it’s yours.
- I gathered the original 23 names from FIFA archives.
- I verified their current roles using cross-language searches.
- I categorized their new careers into executive, coaching, or charitable work.
- I confirmed the specifics of Ronaldo’s business ventures.
It’s a massive list of talent, still working hard. They just swapped cleats for suits, or in Ronaldinho’s case, maybe a DJ booth.