Good morning.
I'll try to tell you what I think,
what I believe led me to be here this morning
speaking to you at TEDx,
which is of great importance to the whole world.
On a February night in 2014,
in Peru, in a small city,
in a football game
where I was playing for Cruzeiro in the Libertadores Cup
upon entering the field for the second half,
every time I saw the ball coming towards me
and I got the ball,
I heard a monkey sound, and well ...
This was increasing every minute of the game.
Since we were losing the game, we were tuned into the tension of the match.
Since it was an important match,
I didn't even sense what was happening.
This wasn't the first time that it had happened;
we were getting used to it and were overcoming all that.
There was only a little time left before the end of game.
I was on the sideline
when the match ended, and the press was already on the border of the field.
The press came in my direction,
and I was imagining that they would talk about the result
because we had lost the game.
In my head, I was ready with a quick response
because football questions are normally all the same,
so the answers are also all the same.
(Laughter)
So I had the answers ready. Easy, right?
I thought that they would ask,
"Why did you lose?", "Why didn't you score?"
So I was ready with all those answers.
And to my surprise - this was only the three to five seconds
after the game was finished, it was very quick -
the question was different than all those I had ever heard at the end of a game.
The question was the following:
they asked me what I felt
or how I felt
after having won so many titles,
played in so many countries,
to be suffering that act of racism or racial insult -
I don't remember very well how he spoke -
in a neighbor country to ours.
And that question surprised me
because, as I said, I assumed it would be the usual question.
And that surprised me, and I was not prepared with an answer.
I seized that opportunity.
As I didn't have an answer,
I seized the opportunity when he spoke of achievements and titles
that I had won in my career.
And I simply said that I would trade all my titles
for racial and social equality, anyway ...
That is what I said, but it was real quick.
At the end, I went to the locker room,
took a shower ...
There was no cell phone reception in the stadium; the city was underserved.
The reception was very weak at the hotel, too.
I arrived at the hotel and it was already late here in Brazil, it was one o'clock.
I grabbed the telephone and, as was my practice, I called home.
When I called home, my family, my wife, my children,
everyone was asking what had happened and how I was.
I said, "I'm okay, we lost the game, right?
I'm upset, but it's the way it goes.
Sports are like this, you win, you lose ..."
I thought it was about this that they were asking.
My family said, "No, this that happened," and such, and I wasn't aware of anything!
There was no internet, nothing in the room, the situation was precarious.
Then they said, "No, it's coming out on all the websites all over the world,
the country's president talked about it, our president too,
and various athletes across the world, many people are talking about this issue."
I was worried because I am a guy that doesn't like much the media thing,
I always liked to be valued only for my work, for my accomplishments.
I don't like this thing of -
So it started to frighten me.
I went downstairs to talk with the press agent about what was happening,
and when I arrived, there were many people in the reception area,
press from all the places that were covering the game.
I went upstairs fast, he came to my room, "Look, people want to talk to you."
I said, "No, I have nothing to say.
Tell them that I am sleeping, that I'm going to sleep, or something."
And when I woke up the next day, we caught the flight, arrived in Brazil,
and the thing continued, even bigger.
And that frightened me because I didn't want to see my name spinning like that.
Of course, I didn't look for that.
What I did was simply
give an answer like anyone unprepared for the issue would,
but it was an answer that came from my heart.
I think that in every battle, in every war, or whatever,
the only solution for me is in love.
So, that's what I said, that I would trade all my titles for equality.
That was what came to my mind, and I seized that opportunity,
And the thing started to be talked about more and more,
and then my phone rang.
It was Dinorah and Manuel,
who are representatives of CUFA, Central Única das Favelas.
We've set up a few football projects together,
so, we were already partners in other activities,
and we talked about -
because the thing was so big -
creating a campaign, a project, something,
and we started to talk about names, about what could be done ...
I remember that, out of the various names being considered,
one was "Chutando o Racismo," "Kicking Racism,"
as we were talking about that, and the World Cup was coming up.
We reached a conclusion.
I thought the name should be "Chutando o Preconceito," "Kicking Prejudice,"
and they immediately agreed because there was this idea,
that we should talk not only about racism, but all types of prejudice,
because I believe that when I am lecturing and talking about prejudice,
I don't need to talk about what I suffered or what I am going to suffer
for the color of my skin, or for my hair,
just as I believe also that when we are talking about a disabled person,
someone in a wheelchair or an obese person,
we don't need to talk about what they have suffered
or are going to suffer from their problem.
With our eyes, we can see and imagine many things,
and all of us have a little prejudice in our hearts.
Both the black and the white, anyway, we have it.
What I try to convey is that we first accept that we have this,
and then try to evolve, to improve.
And then we created the project "Kicking Prejudice."
The project's first action was at Shopping Total.
We did a really cool activity, many participated, influential people,
both from football and the media.
And this ended up running all over Brazil
where I gave 16 lectures in 2014.
I didn't give more because I was playing and didn't have time.
Many of these lectures used a question-and-answer model,
and what surprised me a lot was that each time I lectured,
there were always some repeated questions,
about how I overcame it,
how I had the calmness
to overcome or live with it and be calm.
Because it wasn't the first time that this happened to an athlete,
this has already happened many times, especially in Europe, it happens nonstop,
and in the majority of cases, athletes, whether entitled or not,
react to it in a different way.
Many leave the football field, many throw their shirt,
many react by cursing the fan.
I believe that each one reacts in one way,
and the way that I reacted was that I only gave a short sentence,
but I think that this is what made a difference and an impact.
So they asked this a lot, how I, as a person, had reacted like this.
I couldn't say why I reacted in this way
without talking about my life
because we don't do anything for which we are not prepared.
My preparation, my base -
I always say that I had a very good base.
I will explain to you about my family base which was very good,
a base in which I was raised practically by my mother alone.
When I was seven, my father abandoned us, it was just my older sister and me.
A base where my mother left for work at 7 a.m.
and came back home at 6 p.m.
This is one of the things that I remember most,
that my mother, when Friday, Saturday and Sunday arrived,
mainly Friday and Saturday, as she worked at a club,
there would be parties, dancing, at the club,
so she worked extra hours.
And that was an extra source of income.
I remember that I liked to play football,
I arrived at 6 p.m. at home and my mother said,
"Son, don't make any noise because I have to go out again at 10 p.m. to work."
There were three short hours that she had to sleep and to return to work
because she worked all night.
So this is the base that I have,
and the memory that I have of childhood is a memory of work,
that I arrived at home,
my mother had just arrived from work and was already resting to work again.
I woke up in the morning and she arrived at seven, eight o'clock in the morning,
bringing something different,
maybe something to eat that I hadn't had all week.
So, in my head, I imagined
that work, honesty, her discipline to the schedule that she kept,
sleeping just a bit to then leave again, this brought good things.
I would wake up in the morning and stay at the window waiting.
She would come carrying bags and I would run to get them.
I was growing up imagining that work
and meeting schedules was a good thing
because when I asked for sneakers or something, she said,
"This week I will work longer so I can buy the sneakers."
So the base that I had was of work, of honesty, of keeping a schedule.
And these were things that I carried into my career,
since I arrived in Grêmio, at 15.
I always say that I was educated inside of sports,
and, for this reason, I strongly encourage all schools that have sports, music,
or whatever thing that teaches discipline and maintaining schedules.
I ended up carrying this through my entire life,
so I always tell people
that having a schedule, a work schedule, was my base.
Why do I say this?
Because I see a lot of people taking a stand
and, sometimes, even using as an excuse the fact that they had no base,
that they've been raised only by their mother, or by their father,
and that was what they lacked.
I don't see this, I can say that my mother raised me alone with a good base,
and she was working, practically the entire day.
So truly, as we've discussed here, we choose our destiny,
we choose what we want to take by example.
I could very well use this as an excuse,
I was raised by my mother and practically didn't see her, only saw her at night,
and could use this as an excuse
and become a person without objectives, without focus, without a profession.
And many people say, "Oh, but he was lucky."
I did have much luck,
and every time that luck found me, it found me working.
This was the great luck that I had.
When luck came to me, it always found me doing something.
I was always working, waiting for it.
This is the luck that I have in my life,
of having had my mother's example,
an example of much struggle, of much work.
I'd like you to know
that I am proud to see,
on a Saturday morning,
persons of different ages and professions
worried about so many issues that are going to be discussed here.
This shows that we are capable of being a better country, of being better people.
This encourages me because on a Saturday morning,
although we could be doing many other things, we are here
to listen to different stories, different lives.
This shows that we have dedicated people,
people that can change the world, like was said here.
If each one of us changes our world,
we are going to reach a higher goal, each one trying to change their world.
And this was one of the things that encouraged me,
each day, to not only become a player, but to become a person
because I always thought about the day when I would stop playing football;
I would have to deal with Paulo César, the person.
Even with failures and successes because we are human, we are like that,
I always seek to have a life that I can follow after football,
with respect as a man.
I believe that when we have a talent or do something,
many times people put up with us because of the talent we have,
but when we are men and have a discipline,
people put up with us, in fact they respect us,
they like us for our character.
This is one of the things I have learned, and I wanted to pass on to you:
through work and through honesty,
we can reach our goals.
I have learned in recent years
the great "trickery" of the century.
When I say this word, people get scared,
and I don't like it either,
but I have learned this,
I have lived this in the most recent years of my career,
mainly by working outside of football too,
as much in the social part as other areas,
that the great trickery of the century is honesty.
This is something that seems very simple,
but today, honesty is the great trickery of the century, in business,
in day to day routine, and for people
it is very difficult to have.
Today everyone is thinking about their own advantage, where they can win,
or what they will have to do to get there, so it is very difficult to live this.
I have lived this way the last years of my career,
and it has given me great joy.
I was not supposed to do it, but I am going to confide in you here
and say that I am going to stop playing in April.
I am telling you firsthand.
I felt the need to say this here, now.
I am going to stop with great honor.
(Applause)
(Applause) (Cheers)
Thank you.
Maybe what every player and every athlete dreams of
is to announce this in a full stadium as those where I've lived my entire life,
but for me, my biggest pride
is to be announcing this in a room with so many educated people,
so many trained people.
My dream from when I started
was to be able one day to be on a stage
talking for people who truly are idols.
For me a true idol is a teacher, a doctor,
those that educate, those that form.
For me, this is the true idol,
those that save lives, those that care for lives.
So I could do this in a packed stadium,
but I have great pride in the fact that I can do this -
I don't know how many people are here,
but I know that those who are here are persons that truly influence lives.
Thank you so much.
That's how I kicked all the difficulties I came across in my life.
I want to know how you are going to kick
the difficulties you come across in your lives.
(Applause) (Cheers)