Long before becoming a legend at Club América as a coach, André Jardine dreamed of being a football player. He took his first steps in the Gremio academy, where he played next to one of the greatest players in the history of Brazili: Ronaldinho Gaúcho.
“I had the dream of being a player, and I had a start at Gremio, and I was lucky to have Ronaldinho as a teammate for a few years,” said the 44-year-old strategist in an interview with the official channel of the Mexican club. The truth is that the Azulcrema coach is only a few months younger than Dinho, but they both took completely different paths.
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Jardine’s memory of his early days in football
While Dinho, born in March 1980, made his pro debut at the Porto Alegre-based club in 1998 and then had an unforgettable career both at the club and international level, Jardine (born in August 1979) leaned towards futsal. As he explained, he didn’t feel having the conditions to play on an 11-a-side field.
“Early on, I saw that it wasn’t the path, and I didn’t have enough strength. Physically, it was tough for me. I was a player who always got tired on the field, I was big. I had power, strength, but endurance cost me, and I suffered. I stopped playing football and switched to futsal,” he explained.
Nevertheless, that didn’t change his passion for Tricolor Gaúcho back then: “As a child, I was a tremendous fan who went with the team, I didn’t allow myself to boo the team before the game ended. I wanted to play my role as a fan helping the team.”
