Playing for Flamengo for the vast majority of his career, Zico did venture outside of Brazil twice: once in 1983 for a two-year spell at Udinese before returning to his former club and then coming out of retirement in 1991 to play for Sumitomo Metals, now know as Kashima Antlers, in Japan.
Now the Technical Director at the Japanese side since 2018, the 67-year-old is currently having to stay at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic, meaning he had time to give an interview to Gazzetta dello Sport over the weekend, where he touched on the situation of his old club Udinese, and in the process, Watford.
Both the Hornets and the Serie A side are owned by the Pozzo family, which, for Zico, is detrimental to his beloved Italian club.
He said: “Unfortunately, the focus at Udinese isn’t like it was in my time, which was to make a competitive squad. The leadership has their head turned towards English football and don’t invest in Udinese anymore. They do at Watford and only raise boys at Udinese to sell them on.”
Zico thoroughly enjoyed his time with the Serie A club, scoring 19 goals in 24 Serie A games in his first season and was voted the 1983 Player of the Year by World Soccer Magazine.
However, he quickly became frustrated with the club’s lack of ambition and forced a return to Flamengo the next season.
He also made 94 appearances in a Brazil shirt and scored 48 goals.
