‘He carried the bucket to help the kit boy’

As his team-mates trooped in to pay their respects at 11.30 am today, following 17 hours of travel by train and bus from Bangalore, they spoke about the player whose last goals got them their latest trophy…

• As we got off the bus for the final, the kit boy was carrying three bags. Realising he wouldn’t manage the bucket with the towels as well, Cristiano simply picked it up and walked to the dressing room.
— Mauricio Afonso, assistant coach

• We were roommates and the one thing I noticed was that Cristiano was never stressed. He was always smiling. Always reading the Bible. He’d advise me: ‘Follow your religion very well’
— Lazarus Fernandes, midfielder

• It was his memory that impressed me most. When we met after he joined our team, he came up to me and said ‘Remember I scored against you last year at the NFL, despite you marking me constantly?’ I shot back, ‘Remember I equalised?’
— Stanley Colaco, team captain

• I was one of his roommates and he confided in me that he missed home, his mother and his brother who’s a teacher in Brazil. He said after his contract ended in April, he’d go back home. He was tired of being away.—
Melwyn Rodrigues, defender

• We were both strikers and were both foreigners and though we didn’t speak Konkani (the language of Goa) for some reason Cristiano was fascinated by the term ‘‘arre baba’’ and we’d greet each other with it all the time.—
Ranty Martins, striker

• Every time we stepped on to the field, Christiano would place his hand on each one’s head and say ‘‘Jesus be with you’’.
— Sameer Naik, team captain for Sunday’s match

• I remember his words before we played the final. He said ‘Big trophies have always eluded Dempo, today we have to write our names in the history books’’. He believed firmly we’d win. But the trophy’s worthless without him.
— Bolaji Majek, defender

— NADIA MENEZES (photographs by Kevin D’Souza)