Ricky Felisbino

Popularly known as Ricky, Richarlyson Barbosa Felisbino is a professional footballer from Brazil who plays as a defensive midfielder. Ricky is, primarily, a utility player and can play in a number of positions including left-back and central defense. However, the main reason for his fame are the doubts and controversies regarding his sexual orientation.

Ricky graduated from the Ituano Futebol Clube as a promising youth footballer set for the bigger stage. After spending three seasons, 1998 to 2001, at Ituano, Ricky decided to make his break into professional league football and signed up with Esporte Clube Santo Andre in 2002. For three seasons, Ricky set about making his mark in the team and finally ended up being a regular first team player by 2005. 33 games and 9 goals was all he had to show in his first season for foreign clubs to come in and take notice.

He moved, on loan, to Fortaleza Esporte Clube in 2003 and played 16 games before being swooped up by FC Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian league. His move to Austria didn't really work out as Ricky failed to get into the starting line-up on a regular basis and played just 27 games over two seasons. He came back to Brazil and signed up with Sao Paulo in 2005.

It turned out to be the best thing to do because he ended up winning the 2005 FIFA World Club Cup title as well as three consecutive league titles in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2007, Ricky had two events that would change his life forever - the first was winning the Silver Ball, given to the second best player in the Brazilian League. The second incident was the unfortunate statement delivered by Jose Cyrillo Junior, director of Palmeiras, in an interview on a television show.

The director stated, "Even though Richarlyson was almost signed by Palmeiras… but Palmeiras will not have a gay player in the squad." Ricky went to court, filing a legal complaint against the Palmeiras director, but the court threw the case out stating that football is a "virile, masculine sport, and not a homosexual one." It also went on to state that Ricky "should be forever banished by FIFA and not be allowed to play football again," for that very reason. The matter went to the Justice Council of Sao Paulo and Ricky became a household name in Brazil.

Between 2005 and 2010, Ricky made over 145 appearances for the team, scoring six times in the duration. He moved to Atletico Mineiro in 2011, but has yet to start playing for the first team. In 2008, Ricky also made his international debut, playing a couple of games for the Brazilian national team. However, that was to be his only action with the team so far.