Kaiser: The Greatest Footballer Never To Play Football

synopsis

In Brazil in the '80s, soccer superstars had it all: the adoration of millions of fans, the frenzied attention of the world's sports media, and all the glamor Rio de Janeiro's nightclubs had to offer. But among the ranks of the country's elite athletes, one of the biggest sports celebrities of his generation harbored a secret: He had never played a single game. Weaving together tales of fake injuries, of gangster club owners, and of Rio's steamy nightlife scene, Louis Myles's rollicking documentary uncovers the stranger-than-fiction double life of Carlos "Kaiser" Henrique Raposo, a self-styled football V.I.P. whose 26-year club career spanned continents and some of Brazil's most famous teams—even though he never set foot on the pitch. A stylish, celebratory, and surprisingly sensitive look at the man behind the myth, Kaiser revels in unraveling the half-truths and alternate realities behind of one of the biggest fraudulent stories in the history of sports.