Barreto: The Ball-charmer from Brazil with 'Legs of God'

Make no mistake. God resides in Jose Ramirez Barreto's goals. Or you could attribute the gamut of his accomplishment to the ‘legs of God'.
A religious man to the hilt, the new sensation in Indian football believes that everything - even his free-wheeling prowl in the attacking third, often culminating in some extraordinary goals - has a purpose in itself, because he is under spiritual obligation to serve God.
"Jesus is my word, every breath of my life... my everything. Whatever I do, I believe, is what He wants me to do. I am always under an obligation to Him," is how the 23-year old describes himself.
Goals against Punjab Police, East Bengal and Churchill Brothers in the ongoing National Football League, have given him "cool satisfaction", he admits, but hastens to add that these are "fruits of my love for Jesus".
"Each day, I pray to God to give me more power and strength... to help me play better. I hope I don't have to wait too long for that moment," Barreto said in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph.
The wily striker has the words "Jesus my Saviour" scripted on his jersey and it was following some friends' suggestion that he had the words translated into Bengali. "But the real power comes from within," he clarified.
Perhaps out of this God-fearing temperament, comes an unmistakable sense of bonding with his more mundane provider of livelihood - Mohun Bagan. "I feel proud to play for Mohun Bagan. The club has given everything - I mean, mentally and economically," he maintains.
The indignity, meted out to him during the trials for Mohun Bagan in September, 1999 (coach Subrata Bhattachara had him sat on a bench under blazing sun for a couple of hours), is still vivid in his mind, but he has never thought of leaving India's national club.
"A more lucrative offer - be it from an Indian club or a foreign one - may force me to ponder switching. But I leave it to the God. I always cherish those moments when I was of some help to Mohun Bagan... I have a special attachment with it," Barreto modestly observes.
He has respect for East Bengal and picks out India captain Bhaichung Bhutia and his teammate Basudeb Mondal for special mention. But that's it. He never wants to stir up a world he lives in, which is very much his own.
Barreto, thus, put an end to speculations over his likely desertion from the green and maroon brigade in the next season.
Incidentally, it was on another "spiritual mission", he came to India and joined Mohun Bagan despite knowing that football in this part of the world lies "in preliminary stage", as compared to his motherland Brazil and other European countries.
"I really don't know why I came here. Maybe there were some spiritual objectives that insisted on my landing in India," Barreto said.
Every afternoon, a bunch of chirpy little students, on their way back from school by bus, makes a stop-over in front of his Salt Lake residence. Leaving everything aside he comes out to wave to them, sometimes with his two-year old daughter, Natalia, in his arms.
But unfazed by such accolades and adulation, he strives for more. "My best is yet to come," says a grinning Barreto, who wants to mould himself after Zinedine Zidane (for his allround ability) and Romario (for his appetite for goals).
This also has an obvious relation to his past back home. "I came from a very poor family. My father (Aldo) used to work in a market in my hometown of Bage (south Brazil). We had to struggle a lot, really a lot, to overcome the economic recession at that time," he maintained.
As he set out to come to terms with the hard road to success through his childhood passion, his love for Veronica, his wife, helped bring order to his life. "Our marriage (in 1997) was result of a two-year courting. Apart from Jesus, my family has always been an inspiration to me," Barreto said.
Together, they also see a dream - dream of playing for Brazil. "I don't know if it will ever be possible. But I have faith in God. It is Veronica's dream, my dream too."