Igor de Camargo: “I won’t be long without Belgium”
It was in the 65th minute of play, Saturday evening at the Pairay stadium, that the career of Igor De Camargo (38), flowered before the match by José Victoor, the delegate of RFC Seraing, who had known him well at Standard, ended when Vincent Euvrard, his coach, invited him to sit on the bench to launch Obbi Oulare into the fight. Or the ovation of the 7,200 spectators present. “At that time, I did not take advantage of it because I had to get out as quickly as possible since the RWDM had to register a but to be able to dream of division 1”, confides the Belgian-Brazilian striker. “The collective is always worth more than a player”.
The sentence perfectly sums up the way in which Igor de Camargo, team player par excellence, has functioned for twenty-two years, since his arrival in Belgium when he was playing in… division 5 in Brazil. This will have earned him the benefit, in the four rooms of the country, of a rating of sympathy and very high popularity, while respect, kindness and availability have always been part of his values. “At the final whistle, my whole career flashed through my head, incredible and magnificent flashbacks,” he says. Without his parents, who had arrived in Belgium the day before for a week and whom he had not seen for quite a while due to the Covid, his wife Giovana and his children, Enzo and Gabriela, all present in Seraing for the last, were able to enjoy the show until the end, having preferred to return directly to the player’s Brussels home when the incidents broke out.
On the lawn, but also before returning to the RWDM car, which he was unsurprisingly the last to join, Igor De Camargo answered all the requests, chaining interviews then selfies at a hellish pace. On this level too, the attacker will have ensured the blow, until the end, as a great professional that he is and has always been. “I’m a little sad that I couldn’t help the last club of my career to join the elite, but that doesn’t spoil all the good times I’ve had,” he said. “I’m proud to be able to finish at the highest level, even if it wasn’t the icing on the cake”.
Igor De Camargo stays a few more weeks in Belgium, the time that Enzo and Gabriela finish their school year, before leaving with the whole family to Porto Feliz, in the State of Sao Paulo. “For a well-deserved vacation,” he says. “We will first rest well, before considering the future”. That he sees as a coach, having already completed the course that will one day allow him to obtain the Professional License. Amusing detail: John Textor, the American businessman who heads RWDM, is also the owner of the Brazilian club Botafogo. “Botafogo is an hour’s flight from my home,” smiles De Camargo. “We still have to discuss my second career. What is certain is that as a player it is over and that De Camargo will not stay long without Belgium…”