GOING to Greece hasn't earned Samba superstar Rivaldo the prestige that might have come his way had he plied his trade in the Premiership, or the pots of cash which would have been guaranteed by a move to the Middle East.

But last summer's switch to Olympiacos has finally led to something that has been strangely absent throughout the most illustrious of footballing careers - the public adoration that one of the game's greatest players has consistently been denied.

Rivaldo's reward for helping Brazil win the 2002 World Cup was undisguised hostility in his homeland.

"There are times when the people make me feel sad," said the former World Player of the Year. "They shout 'Rivaldo, go away' - I never thought Brazilian fans would treat me this way".

For their part, Brazil's fans accuse Rivaldo of favouring club over country and, incredibly, even suggest he might get his less-gifted twin brother to stand in for him in meaningless home games.

Things haven't been much better in Europe. Rivaldo's mind-boggling hat-trick on the final day of the 2000-01 season fired Barcelona into the Champions League.

It also brought down the curtain on a campaign which had been blighted by the Catalan supporters constantly barracking their Brazilian striker for his perceived lack of effort.

Artistic attacking moves, glorious goals and almost systematic success - yet Rivaldo remained a player grudgingly admired but utterly unloved.

All of that changed, though, in July last year when the 32-year-old arrived in Athens to the raucous acclaim of 3,000 delirious fans.

Here, at the twilight of his career, was the adoration he had craved.

While Rivaldo has had his run-ins with Olympiacos coach Dusan Bajevic, his rapport with the fans has never changed.

"He didn't play on Sunday because he had an ankle injury and I think Olympiacos wanted to make sure he was fit for the game against Newcastle," explained Harry Pzanis, a sports writer with the Athens News Agency.

"But he watched the game in the bar at the stadium and was absolutely mobbed by the other fans who were there to see the game.

"He's been the star of the side this season. Thousands of fans turned out to greet him when he first arrived in Greece and, whatever else has happened, he has never lost that love of the fans.

"He's the biggest name in Greek football - one of the biggest names in the world - and I think Olympiacos fans take a lot of pride from the fact that he is playing for their club.

"It was a major coup when they signed him in the summer and I don't really think the novelty of that happening has ever worn off."

Rivaldo's displays were not enough to keep the Greek side in the Champions League - Steven Gerrard's dramatic late winner at Anfield saw to that - but the Brazilian has helped Olympiacos claim top spot in their domestic competition.

Last weekend's 1-1 draw with PAOK Salonika allowed bitter rivals Panathinaikos to draw level .

But while Rivaldo is unlikely to match the 20 goals he scored in his best season in the Nou Camp, his successes have tended to come when Olympiacos have needed them most.

"He hasn't scored a lot of goals," said Pzanis. "But the ones he has scored have tended to be quite important.

"He won't be in double figures in terms of the goals he's scored, but he's scored at important times.

"A lot of his goals have been free-kicks and I suppose they're always particularly eye-catching for the fans."

Those goals could have been catching the eye of Newcastle's fans had things turned out a little differently last summer.

After cancelling his contract with AC Milan in November 2003, Rivaldo returned to Brazil and played 11 times for Cruzeiro.

But, after becoming a free agent, he attracted the attention of a host of leading European suitors including, for a time, both Newcastle and Middlesbrough.

The North-East duo were eventually put off by wage demands rumoured to run to almost £80,000 a week, but Premiership rivals Bolton were confident they had secured his services for far less than that.

Rivaldo met Sam Allardyce in Salford's Lowry Hotel and gave Wanderers' officials a verbal assurance that he would put pen to paper on their proposed deal.

Less than a week later he was in Qatar discussing a multi-million pound move to the oil-rich state, before turning up at Olympiacos after also holding talks with German side Werder Bremen.

"What is hard to take is that he didn't just tell us he didn't want to come here," said Bolton chairman Phil Gartside.

"In some respects, it shows the measure of the likes of Jay Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff, who were honourable people to deal with.

"They were probably a better class of player - certainly a better class of person, which is as important as the football in some respects."