Well-known as a midfielder for Bayern Munich in Germany and playing for world-champions Brazil, Zé Roberto actually grew up in a very poor family in Brazil. His name then was Jose Roberto da Silva Junior and his family were so poor that at times they struggled to have the necessary items for living.
Life has changed a great deal since those early difficult days. “Since I started to play football I strived to become a professional player. After I became a professional, I worked to make the Brazilian national team and then the soccer World Cup,” says Zé.
After playing in Brazil’s 1998 World Cup runner’s up squad, he missed out on selection for the 2002 Korea-Japan World cup where Brazil triumphed. This year he joins the Brazilian team that could make history by winning their fifth World Cup.
Despite his high-profile success Zé is quick to acknowledge that although soccer is an important part of his life, it is not the most important. “Since I was a child running in the street, with a ball underneath my arm, I have always dreamt of being a professional player, but I thank God for enabling me to fulfil my dream.
“My Christian life started from the moment that my mother accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. It was through her prayers that a change of heart came about for my brother and me. She never forced us to go to church.
“One day God brought about a transformation in my life when He revealed everything to me; my need of a personal relationship with Him. As I came to know the same God my mother knew, He changed my life. It was like going from darkness into the sunlight, such was the nature of the change in my life.”
For Zé, Christianity and success in the soccer world has brought big changes in the day to day world. “Once I had nothing”, explains Zé, “today I can have everything, but ‘the everything’ I can have is not fame or money, but the joy of being spiritually alive through Jesus Christ. I am a happy person who has fulfilled his dreams.
“I realise the money I earn will finish, and the fame will all too soon be forgotten. But God is eternal. I know God is with me today, tomorrow, and I will enjoy eternal life with God in a wonderful place called heaven.”
Zé has also discovered that God allows various things to happen in his life as a means of helping him to grow in his Christian life. “In those difficult moments God strengthens me in my faith. The Bible says in the book of Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4; ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.
“I have learnt as a Christian that ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength’. I can achieve everything because I believe in God and with Him all things are possible.
“It is a privilege to know God personally, and to pass His love on to others, so that many may know the joy and happiness that I have as a result of God’s changes in my life.”