Author: Amrit Santlani
Brazilian striker Richarlison admitted the pressure that the number 9 shirt brings with it, when talking about the difficulties in his life in a recent interview. Paying homage to legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo, arguably the most dangerous striker to wear the number 9 shirt, Richarlison said he hopes to live up to the fans’ expectations.
Throughout his career, the Tottenham striker has had his fair share of ups and downs. Richarlison, 26, has overcome many obstacles in his life. Coming from a humble background, he recalled the time when his career almost came to an end before it really began.
Richarlison traveled to Belo Horizonte as a teenager on a one-way ticket, hoping to try his luck after being rejected by many teams. América Mineiro gave the youngster a chance and that was the start of a career that would lead to the Brazilian inheriting the famous number 9 shirt.
“You have to be able to deal with the negative comments, but also the positive ones, so that everything doesn’t go to your head,” Richarlison told the official Olympic website.
The striker said that he wears the Brazilian national team shirt with pride, but he knows that it comes with a lot of expectations from the fans, who expect him to score a lot of goals.
“I’m very proud to wear the number 9, but now I understand the weight that Ronaldo carried and that others had. great players who carried it” he added.
The Tottenham star also said: “Because when you wear the number 9 shirt, the expectation that you’re going to score goals is always huge. Every time you play, you have to do your best, you have to try to score, because it’s a very heavy shirt to wear.”
Richarlison has scored 20 goals in 47 appearances for his country, as well as scoring twice and providing the same number of assists for Spurs in all competitions so far this season.