I SEE LOTS OF MYSELF IN TRENT. . . HE’LL BE A STAR AT THE WORLD CUP
Brazil’s legendary right back Cafu tips Anfield ace for glory
NO kid wants to grow up and be a Gary Neville. Even from the other side of the world in sunny Sao Paulo, Cafu is laughing at Jamie Carragher’s infamous assertion.
The Brazil legend understands the sentiment, but protests: ‘ No, no, Gary Neville was a fantastic full back. He would genuinely get to the by- line. He played without fear. He was a leader.’ What about Carragher? ‘He was very good, too.’ Less effusive, but polite all the same.
Carragher made his claim about young players not aspiring to be right backs in 2013. Roll on seven years and England are blessed with talent in the position, a fact not lost on Cafu, the most decorated right back in history and owner of a record 142 caps for his country.
So, if not Neville, who did influence Trent Alexander-Arnold, Reece James, Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker and Aaron Wan-Bissaka?
Perhaps, we venture, it is the man talking to Sportsmail, sitting at home to the backdrop of a personal trophy cabinet to rival that of any top club.
We tell him that, in this country, any promising right back with a desire to cross halfway is readily labelled ‘the next Cafu’. Even Alan Hutton.
‘That makes me happy,’ says the two-time World Cup winner. ‘I hope I do inspire these young English players. Previously, no one wanted to be a full back, so we are pioneers of our position.’
For Cafu, though, there is one who stands out — Alexander-Arnold. He nods and smiles at mere mention of his name.
‘He can take the position of right back to another level,’ declares the 50-year- old. ‘I see Trent in myself. I think we’ve started changing the narrative, the way people view full backs.
‘It is totally wrong that some great players never won the Ballon d’Or because of their position. Nowadays, full backs should be seen as the main protagonists in the game.
‘And right backs now should be the highest-paid players in every team! Strikers just have to score. Midfielders, they pass. Goalkeepers make saves. Full backs have to mark, cover centre backs and midfield, get forward and cross, take shots and provide the link to strikers.
‘A team with two great full backs poses a far greater threat. You won’t do very well without that.’
Cafu’s teams, it should be noted, did very well. So are there any regrets from his playing career?
He swivels in his chair, arms outstretched towards the silverware behind him. That’ll be a ‘No’, then.
MARCOS Evangelista de Morais was born on June 7, 1970. What else was happening that afternoon?
‘Brazil were playing England in the World Cup!’ booms Cafu, who was later nicknamed after a flying right- sided player for Fluminense. Now if you want to capture the Brazilian obsession with football, what Cafu says next is a sound starting point. ‘My dad was saying to the nurse, “Let’s go, let’s go, I want to watch Brazil, this boy needs to be born now”. But the nurse wanted to watch the football just as much as he did! ‘So I was born right in the middle of the match. Brazil, 1-0, Jairzinho! I think it’s from that moment I was destined to become world champion.’ Cafu delivers the scorer’s name with all the verve of a Latin commentator, just as he did when recreating the goal as a child in the Jardim Irene favela in Sao Paulo. ‘I made balls out of socks, filled with newspaper, pages from schoolbooks. We’d play on the street with flip-flops for goalposts, barefoot on the concrete and come home with our big toenails missing from kicking the ground. It was the happiest thing in the world.’
Cafu never got the chance to meet the player he was named after. Cafuringa died aged 42 in 1991 after contracting sepsis from an injury playing football.
‘I would have loved to meet him,’ he says. ‘He was my inspiration, we played the same way.’
The subject is not an easy one. Last September, Cafu’s eldest son, Danilo, died aged 30 after suffering a heart attack while playing football. Cafu carried him from the pitch on his shoulders and drove him to hospital, but doctors were unable to revive him.
We have been asked not to talk about Danilo because the loss is still too raw and we respect those wishes. He has not been able to enter his son’s bedroom since. The only time he has spoken about it, Cafu revealed that he cries every day to relieve the pain.
But we do talk about his grandchildren and Cafu beams with pride, especially at the mention of a video of him teaching his grandson to take penalties.
‘He’s much better than me,’ he smiles.
Cafu did not take a penalty during Brazil’s shootout victory over Italy in the World Cup final of 1994 — he jokes that even Diana Ross was ahead of him in the pecking order — and, come 2002 in Japan, they did not need spot- kicks as Germany were beaten 2-0.
Only 11 living mortals can answer the following question and Cafu is one of them.
What is it like to lift the World Cup as captain? ‘Pele handed me the trophy, I looked at it and thought, “Lord, we did it”. It feels like fireworks going off on the moon. Only those who have held that trophy can know what I’m talking about.’
Cafu was asked to stand on a tall glass plinth before lifting the World Cup.
‘I didn’t care if I was going to fall and hurt myself or if the podium was going to break. You’re so overwhelmed with joy. If it had collapsed I would have got up and lifted the trophy all the same!’
It should come as little surprise that Cafu’s great hobby away from football involves travelling at speed. ‘ Every Sunday I go out on my motorbike. I think I need that speed, it replaces the thrill of running down the wing!’ On Wednesdays he distributes meals to the homeless. He also has the Cafu Foundation in Jardim Irene. ‘The foundation is about giving children opportunities and empowering them as full citizens, instead of losing so many to the world of drugs,’ he says.
Cafu’s status in Brazil allows him to make a difference. He admits, though, that conversation with the man on the street never gets far beyond World Cup memories.
But he also wants to talk about the next tournament in Qatar, for which he is an ambassador. Two years from now we will know the winners, the final having been played yesterday.
There is one myth he is keen to address. ‘The weather will not be a problem,’ he says, with average temperatures around 22° C. ‘Remember, I played in the 1994 World Cup final in California at 1pm — it was like there was a sun over each player!
‘And that World Cup was so spread out. This, in Qatar, it will have the intimacy of the Olympics, completely different to what we’re used to. Fans will not regret coming to Qatar. The stadiums are incredible. I think this will be a unique tournament.’
And the winner? ‘Brazil will beat England in the final!’
Now that would make for a good World Cup.