Brazil national team players are not very popular here these days, following the team's elimination from the World Cup, local media said on Thursday.

Brazil's Gilberto speaks to media as he arrives at the Tom Jobim International airport in Rio de Janeiro July 3, 2006, as the Brazilian national soccer team returned from Germany after being knocked out of the World Cup.[Reuters]

Wingback Gilberto spent this afternoon at the local Transit Department to have his Audi A3 back.

Gilberto, who plays for Hertha-Berlin, was driving yesterday on Linha Amarela, a major highway that crosses Rio, when the police stopped the car and asked for the license and registration of the Audi. According to the police, the player had not paid in 2002 the vehicles annual fee and they immediately towed the car.

Gilberto said it was a technicality, as the fee was paid in other state, where he used to live. He indicated the cops would have overlooked the problem, if he were not a national team player.

The chief of the local Police precinct colonel Roberto Penteado supported the officers act, adding that Gilberto was friendly and did not argue with the cops.

But the fans have been unfriendly with the national football team. Early this week, people vandalized a statue of Ronaldinho that was in a square in Chepeco, a town in Santa Catarina state. They completely destroyed it and hanged a Brazilian flag on the metal pillar that supported the statue.