1) Tabata is settling in well with his new club Al Sadd Sports Club in Qatar, where he has been training for two weeks. 2) The interview discusses Tabata's career path and support from his family from a young age. He expresses gratitude to his parents for supporting his dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. 3) Tabata speaks highly of his former coach Paulo Autuori who brought him to Qatar and helped develop his passing style of play. Tabata enjoyed success early in his career with Al Rayyan club in Qatar.

1. Rodrigo Tabata interview
Tabata is training with his new team Al Sadd SportsClub; he is completely in his element. The number
10 has only been a the clubtwo weeks butit’s clear that he has settled in well, he looks at ease onthe
ball and seems to be enjoyinghimself.
Still training even after all his teammates have headed for the showers;he is the consummate
professional, he does a longcool downandstretches extensively. Inthe twilight ofhis career, youcan
see that he knowsthe importance oflooking after himself. How did it all begin forthis wonderful
playmaker? Who encouragedhim at a youngage? Whosupportedhim? Andwhatdoes he still hope to
achieve in the game?
Sitting downfora chatwith qsl.com.qa at the Al Sadd stadium, the Brazilian animatedly explains how it
all began.
He describes how he owesa lot to his family whogave him their wholehearted supportfromthe tender
age of 12.
“My mother and father usedto drive me tomatches, it wasover an hour’sdrive but they supportedmy
dreams to become a professional player. Sometimes it was difficultbecause times where hard, soI
couldn’talways play. My father wouldalways supportme butnever pressured me. He wanted me to
enjoyit. It’sfunny,the first ever team I joinedI wasplaying in goal buta new coachcameand put me in
midfield. Thank God!”
Youcansee that he is aware of the debt he owesto his parents and the gratitude is clearly written
acrosshis face. He then observesthat there are many people on his journey,whohelped and given him
support.
Asthe conversationturns to the Qatar Stars League, inevitably PauloAutouri’sname cropsup;he is of
coursethe coachwhobroughtTabata to Qatar in the first place. His eyes suddenlylight up.
“Atthe time I wasplaying in Turkey,”states the number10 “They told me there is a Brazilian coach
called Paulo. I received a called from him one day andhe explained everything about Qatar to me. I was
playing in the EuropaLeague at the time buthe was a very goodcoach.So I was obviouslydrawn
towardsplaying for him, he got usplaying some great stuff, passand move, pass andmove. We
became a very good passingteam.” He is a blur ofhand signals gesticulating wildly aboutRayyan’s style
ofplay, the excitement and pride burstingout ofhim.
“I had goodluck becauseas soon as I arrived, in the first six monthsI managed to winthe Emir Cup,I
even scoredtwo goals in the final and so eventually Rayyan boughtme from my Turkish club to join
permanently.”
Tabata is a quality player, intelligent, incisive, a game changer.Luckhadnothing to dowith it, he is a
hard worker,a side tohis game not mentioned oftenenough.With hard workand a sublime touch,it

2. was nosurprise to the people in the know that he wasa wanted man andthat AlRayyan were keen to
make the move permanent.
He starts to talk in depth abouttactics andhis philosophy onfootball, eventually he picks upon a
thread to do withhow players evolve as they get older.
“I think the main thing is that you gain experience as youget older. When you are young,youwantto
do everything in the match butas I gotolder, I learned towait formy chance.Sometimes whenyou
stay in your position,it’s better than runningaroundand getting tired, you learn to be more disciplined.
It gets easier withage. ”
Clearly he understandsthe game at a deep level and couldtalk forhoursabout its many veneers of
complexity.
Unavoidably the topic ofwhat happenedat AlRayyan this season (relegated from the QSL) creeps up
and it obviousthat he feels sad abouttheir currentpredicament.
“I think it is a mixture of things,at the end oflast seasonthey changeda lot ofplayers, a lot of the
experienced players left and sothere were justyoungplayers left but in football you need to have a
balance.” …”It’snot that the youngplayers aren’t goodenough,the young onesat Rayyan have a lot
quality and potential. Intwoor three years they will be at a very goodlevel. Normally, whena team is
starting to winand is playing well, that is whenyouput oneor twoor three youngplayers into the first
team, butslowly so that the team canadjustaccordingly.”
Foranyone whohasn’t seen Tabata play, he belies his years and is a player with complete composure
and great vision. He wasvoted the player ofthe year in the 2011/12 campaign.Thatseason, his stats
spoke forthemselves with 17 goals and9 assists. A great season by anybody’sstandards.
He says excitedly “Yes,I will always cherish that moment, the last three weeks of that season I played
very well. I wasin the zoneas they say.”
Might he be able to recapturesome of that formgoing into the last few games for AlSadd this season?
Suddenly, seriousnesstakes over his demeanour as werace back to the present, “Atthe start of every
season I set myself some objectives, forexample I say to myself, I will try toscore 12 goals and give 12
assists.”
He adds, “Lastseason, I scored14goals and I gave 20 assists. This seasonI am disappointed but I had
too many injuries soI have to justacceptit. Things have been frustratingthis season,whenI start to
play good,I then seem toget injured butthat’s life sometimes.”
The talk turnsto Al Sadd, the 2011 AFCChampionsLeaguewinners. “I must state that it wasn’tmy
decision to joinSadd, it was ultimately Rayyan’s decision to let me changeclubs onloan.”
He adds, “The team was notin a goodsituation so I guess they felt like they wantedto act quicklyand
stop the team from sliding downthe table. They changedthe foreign players like me and Nilmar and I

3. guessthey wanteda fresh start with new players.” He says before turningthe conversationbackto
more positive thoughts.
“So now I am at AlSadd, on loan andI am very happy. Sadd toohave good players suchas Khalfan
Ibrahim whoI think is very special, there is also Hassan Haidoosand of courseRauland Nadir Belhadj.I
have looked at my Prozonestatsand they have improved a lot sinceI joinedthe Wolves, soI can’t
complain. I have doubled the amount oftimes I touchthe ball and Iam making even less mistakes so
that’s good.”
When asked what currentQSL player he’d like to see join him at Al Sadd, he smiles and withouta
secondthought,he says.
“I think to be honest we have a great team here at Al Sadd butI really like one defender whoplays for
Rayyan, his name is Nathan OtávioRibeiro. He is a great guy, he is my friend and a fantastic defender,
he is fast, he has quality and has a calm head.”
When asked about whowasthe best player he has ever played with in his career, his light-heartedness
and smiles are replaced with a thoughtful,consideredanswer. He takes his time, pausingfor a few
seconds,and then delivers his answer.
”Forme it wouldhave to be Ze Roberto,he played at Gharafa,if you remember him? He was a good
player, very professional; he always gave one hundredpercent. Everybodyliked him; nobody hada bad
wordto say abouthim. He wasa great team player; he gave plenty ofencouragement to all the
youngerplayers, a trueleader. I played with him a lot at Santos backin Brazil.”
Towardsthe end of the interview, the question whichmostfootballers dread, popsup,retirement.
However,Tabata seems to take it in his stride.
“PerhapsI will do it in Qatar, I like it here, butwhoknows?A lot ofBrazilian players go backto Brazil
and end their career playing there somaybe I will do the same.”
Finally the last question arrives, I ask him to tell me about a side to Tabata that people might notknow
about?
“Well to be honestI am a very simple kind of guy,being with my family is whatmakes me happiest. I
have a farm back in Brazil. It’sin the countryside,I am like a Brazilian Bedouin,he says with a smile on
his face.
“I don’t really like city life to be honest.The countrysideis beautiful in Brazil and Ilove to spendtime
there with my family.”