Crazy goalkeeper Carlos Roa, the man who crushed Hoddle's World Cup dream with two saves in the penalty shoot-out against Argentina two summers ago, already knew it to be a gospel truth. In fact, Roa's devotion to the Seventh Day Adventist religious sect was so overwhelming that he rejected a guaranteed £2million payout from a likely transfer to Manchester United - and gave up football for the love of God.
Instead of becoming Peter Schmeichel's replacement with the Red Devils last summer, the 30-year-old Argentine star retreated to a ranch 750 miles from the capital, Buenos Aires, to tend turnips, round up cattle and preach to the locals.
The ranch is so remote that Roa doesn't have a telephone or a television. He hasn't seen or played a single game of football in the last eight months.
Who wants to be a millionaire? Not this God-fearing goalie. "I am living a simple but hard life," he said last week, a charming smile on his face. Farming involves plenty of sacrifices, looking after animals, cultivating the land. But in doing so, it brings me closer to God. Money isn't everything, God is more important - and I didn't take the decision with any fears or doubts. I am doing what I always wanted to do. I am really happy at this moment in my life. I think I'm very lucky. I have learned things that you don't learn on a football pitch, that people are kind, that they have big hearts, and that we're all the same."
Not everybody, though, has the gloved 'Hands of God' which knocked England out of France 98, when Roa saved penalties from Paul Ince and David Batty in that dramatic shoot-out in St Etienne. Not everybody would be so phlegmatic about turning their backs on a sporting fortune. Roa continues his explanation, saying: "I had asked God to give me the opportunity to play in the World Cup and He gave it to me. He gave me the strength to save those penalties against England.
"I had asked Him to have a place in a European club team and He also gave it to me. Finally, I wanted to fulfil my promises to Him and retire from football. The issue of the Sabbath, the seventh day, is the main reason why I left professional soccer. For the people of God and for those who trust His word, this is a very special day and soccer does not allow me to do what I want to do on the Sabbath. I never enjoyed the hard work of training and then 'working' on a Saturday, which, according to God, should be a day of rest. I don't miss soccer and everything it brought me."
During his career, Roa had been always different: they all knew that. His Argentine international team-mates nicknamed him "Lettuce" because of his strict vegetarian and teetotal diet. On Sabbath days during training camps, he would retreat to the privacy of his room all day and study the Bible rather than the habits of opposition strikers like Michael Owen.
Brilliance in goal brought him respect and affection, if not complete understanding, from colleagues such as Gabriel Batistuta. But quitting soccer altogether appeared madness.
And everyone tried to persuade Roa to keep his gloves on. Guillermo Reynes, the president of his last club, Spanish first division side Real Mallorca, offered the goalkeeper a £2m cut of a projected £4m transfer fee if he carried on playing and departed to Old Trafford. No deal, said the kooky keeper, not even with the prospect of another £1m a year in basic wages at United or any of the other European giants he could have joined.
The goalkeeper's distraught wife, Silvia, who knew the decision to quit football would come at some stage, admitted later that she cried for a month when her husband told her. But it made no difference. Argentina's technical director of football, Jose Pekerman, was another to query Roa's sanity, and pleaded for him to reconsider.
"I'm honoured he thinks I am still the best goalkeeper in the country, and I would like to talk to him," said Roa at the time. But he won't change my mind. Maybe I can teach him something about the Bible."
Mallorca fans displayed huge banners at the ground when they heard the news. "Roa, for God's sake stay!" was the message.
The sentiment fluttered uselessly in the balmy breeze of the holiday island of Majorca, where the club is based. That was exactly why Roa had flown off to his turnip patch in the sun. There have been other rare cases in football of religious beliefs halting careers. Peter Knowles famously quit Wolves in the Sixties despite being blessed with fine goal-scoring prowess. He became an evangelist knocking on doors round the Midlands instead.
Former Luton and Denmark striker Lars Elstrup abruptly left the game after helping to win the 1992 European Championships and joined the "Wild Goose" Buddhist sect in his homeland. But no one in sport had ever rejected a guaranteed £2m payday to fulfil a promise to God. Not ever. Maybe they still haven't. A form of reincarnation is among the beliefs of the Seventh Day Adventism that Roa espouses.
And it appears that the goalkeeper is beginning to believe he may come back in a new life in football. Last week he flew to Majorca, ostensibly to collect some cash due from the outstanding time left on his contract at Real, which was to have finished in 2002.
Roa stayed at the home of close friend Gustavo Siviero, who said that the goalkeeper's future is uncertain, that behind the public smiles his mind is in turmoil.
"He is currently fighting a battle deep inside himself," claimed Siviero, "and people should not bother him. The decision about his retirement or a return is up to him and we must respect that."
Is it a battle between football and religion? Is it a realisation that money is important after all - perhaps to his needy church? Roa is due to attend his first game for eight months today when Real Mallorca play Celta Vigo in the Spanish League. The stadium used to be full of scouts like Martin Ferguson, brother of United boss Sir Alex, watching him display his skills.
By Wednesday night Carlos Roa is scheduled to be back at the ranch in the remote Cordoba province of Argentina, without a TV or telephone to get news of the big match against England at Wembley. How much that hurts him may well determine the future of the craziest of all goalkeepers.
