Rogério Hetmanek

Following his successes during the late 1960s, Rogério would catch the interest of the Brazilian Football Confederation to play for Brazil. However, he would only officially play in three friendlies in 1970 with a 0–0 draw against Paraguay, a 1–0 victory against Austria and a 1–5 victory against Chile.^[2] The reasoning for his relative lack of participation was due to a foot infection that Rogério had managed to acquire that year. Manager João Saldanha had told him that he would wait for his recovery for the upcoming 1970 FIFA World Cup with Mário Zagallo giving him the same amount of support. However, following the friendly with Austria, he would experience persistent muscle fragility and despite travelling with the rest of the team to Guadalajara, his condition wouldn't recover and was becoming ever clearer that he couldn't meet the expectations of the ever-increasing difficult training regiments that the Brazilian players underwent. It later became apparent that his condition was chronic and when deciding on the final 22-man squad to represent Brazil at the tournament, he chose to resign on his own volition. However, rather than immediately head home, captain Carlos Alberto would convince Rogério to stay alongside him as a part of the coaching staff as a technical observer of Brazil's opponents. This would be the case throughout the tournament with special attention during the knockout phase with Rogério carefully eyeing and taking notes on strong teams such as Peru, Uruguay, West Germany and Italy. His contributions within the tournament would be recognized following Brazil winning the tournament and Rogério being bestowed the honorary title of the "23rd player" of Brazil.^[3][4]

Following his participation in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, he would be called up to play for the Brazil Independence Cup two years later but despite appearing on the roster, he would continue to struggle with regaining his old and ideal form with this being the final opportunity for his international career.^[3]

Due to his persistent injuries throughout the early 1970s, he would seek out a renowned hematologist where he would then begin to take prescription drugs. A few weeks later however, his leukocyte rate would drop significantly which resulted in an indefinite intake of harsher prescriptive drugs. He also decided to take pesticide-free natural medicine as well as take jōrei from his local Messianic Church where he would also be familiar with the works of Mokichi Okada. This would affect his career as following his retirement, Botafogo president Charles Borer attempted to convince Rogério to play as a manager for various smaller clubs but he was ultimately uninterested as he had begun getting interested in Messianic philosophy.^[3] He currently serves as a reverend for the Messianic Church with a degree in philosophy in Paraná as well as a master's degree in São Paulo as well as president of the Mokiti Okada Foundation since 2007. He currently has four children and five grandchildren.^[5][6]