BRAZIL NUTS
Inside Roberto Carlos’ wild life with 11 children from seven women as he faces divorce and battles for £133m fortune
The famous left-back also rolls back the years at non league stadiums in the UK
TWENTY-eight years ago, Roberto Carlos achieved the near-impossible – a legendary free-kick goal for Brazil that appeared to defy the laws of physics.
Enjoying huge paydays with Inter Milan and Real Madrid, the attacking left-back with the blistering shot was a constant presence in the Brazil national team.
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But his life away from football was as colourful as the kits he used to wear for his country — with 11 children to his name by seven women.
Now reports in Spain claim the 51-year-old is going through a bitter divorce with his wife of more than 15 years, Mariana Luccon.
Sports paper Estadio Deportivo says the pair have gone their separate ways and that a war has begun over his £133million fortune.
Carlos spent 11 years at Real Madrid – winning four Spanish league titles and three Champions Leagues. The paper alleges he had been sleeping at the club’s training ground — a claim he last night strenously denied.
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Before his split with Mariana, he told Italian paper La Gazzetta dello Sport: “I only had two wives. More difficult to count are the women with whom I had children.”
Not only does he have a football team’s worth of kids, he is best pals with former Brazil striker Ronaldo, aka the original Ronaldo or simply R9 after his shirt number.
And Carlos still likes to show off his football skills — recently turning out for a Sunday League side in Shrewsbury.
He has been wed to Brazilian Mariana since 2009 and they have daughters Manuela and Mariana.
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According to the TV show Fiesta, the pair have now decided to call time on their relationship.
Last night Carlos blasted the claims by Spanish media as “false and damaging”, hitting out at “baseless rumours about my living situation”.
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He added: “I remain at a private residence, supported by members of my family”.
Latina beauty Mariana managed to stay out of the limelight during her time with one of the most famed footballers of his generation, keeping her personal life off social media.
But she did appear in some Nike adverts, as well as on the red carpet with their two children.
In an interview in 2015 with Spanish journalist Josep Pedrerol, Carlos said he had fathered 11 kids.
A video clip of his revelation went viral on social media. He said: “Now I live with Manuela and I have several around. I have seven in Brazil. I have one in Mexico, one in Hungary who lives in Alicante, and the others live in Brazil.”
Three of those children, Roberta, Giovanna and Roberto Carlos Jr, were born from his first marriage to Alexandra Pinheiro.
She told Hola! magazine about the end of their time together: “Our relationship had worn out and to prevent it from deteriorating or us developing animosity toward each other, we preferred to end it and remain friends.”
Others born out of wedlock include Rebeca, Christopher and Carlos Eduardo. The identity of all 11 children is not known.
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Carlos appeared on Spanish kids’ show El Hormiguero alongside former Arsenal striker Julio Baptista in 2018, when the subject of children was brought up.
Baptista told host Pablo Motos: “He has enough to set up a futsal team and with some substitutes.”
As a youngster, son Christopher, now 22, appeared for CD Canillas — a feeder club for Real Madrid.
Daughter Giovanna, 27, gave birth to her first child in 2017, making Carlos a grandad at 44.
In the past, 5ft 6in Carlos has been linked with a string of stunning women. Before marrying Mariana, he was in a romance with Brazilian model Jane Borges. He also dated Hungarian model Alexandra Horvath, mum to his son Christopher.
But despite the women, it is “blood brother” Ronaldo he has spent more time “sleeping” with. In a hilarious interview with the late Grant Wahl for Sports Illustrated, R9 revealed: “My best team-mate was Roberto Carlos. I slept more in the same room with Roberto in training camps than with all the women I’ve been with in my life!
Heady heights
“I spent all my life with Roberto Carlos for 20 years — with the national team, with Real Madrid and with Corinthians.”
That “impossible” free kick came against France at a pre-World Cup match in 1997. Ronaldo then credits Carlos with saving his life a year later when he suffered a seizure before the 1998 World Cup final, also against France. It put his place in the starting 11 in jeopardy, as a riddle over whether he would play ensued.
“For me, it was so simple to take care of Ronaldo,” Carlos said in the documentary Brazil 2002: The Real Story. “We were sharing a room and it was something natural, instinctive — ‘OK, there is something happening, I need to help, to call a doctor and get the situation sorted out’.
“I just shouted for the doctor and the players who were in the rooms nearby, Leonardo, Edmundo . . . ”
Carlos added: “It could have been something worse if there was not someone in the room with him. Today, the players don’t share rooms, so . . . ”
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Across three decades, Carlos was one of the most bankable footballers on the planet.
ates with David Beckham and the original Ronaldo, he was one of the superstar Real Madrid players known as the Galacticos, sharing a pitch alongside his two friends as well as Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Raul. The World Cup winner enjoyed huge pay cheques at Inter Milan and Real Madrid, then seized an opportunity to join Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala in his later years, in a deal worth around £8.3million over two years.
Alongside his playing contracts, he enjoyed sponsorship deals with Nike, Adidas, Pepsi and Gillette.
He announced his retirement as a player in 2012 at the age of 39.
Although, that did not stop him from lacing up his boots to play in the Indian Super League with Delhi Dynamos, where he was player manager during the 2015-16 season.
Astonishingly, for the heady heights Carlos reached in his career, he once rolled back the years to play for a Sunday League outfit in Shrewsbury.
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He came on as a sub for pub side Bull In The Barne United in 2022, scoring from the penalty spot during his brief cameo.
But it was not enough to help his team avoid a 4-3 loss in the friendly match.
Carlos said before the game: “I’m excited to play for Bull In The Barne in Shrewsbury, paying homage to when I nearly signed for Birmingham City in the 90s, which is very close by.
“I’ve heard that the team’s been down a number of players this season, so here’s hoping my training is enough to help them up their game and bring what Bull In The Barne’s fans want to see!”
Carlos’s estimated £133million fortune has been earned from a series of savvy investments, including a property portfolio, on top of his glittering football career.
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That may now come under threat as a divorce battle with Mariana gathers pace.
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