‘You can’t compare it to our era’: Cafu on Brazil’s decline, 28-year World Cup drought and India clash

Former Brazilian player Cafu (Getty Images) Navi Mumbai: His words were in Portuguese. However, his expression reflected love and happiness, as did the way he played the game.Cafu stood on stage and addressed the spellbound students of Pillai University and was in awe. The smile on his face was constant and matched his on the poster in the background with that permanent image – holding the 2002 FIFA World Cup trophy above his head.More than 24 years later, the hair on his head may have thinned. His popularity clearly hasn’t waned, judging by the increasing decibel levels as he spoke to the young crowd, many of whom came wearing Brazil’s iconic Canaries jersey.Excitement all around peaked when the Brazilian great showed off some of his skills in a brief ball-juggling exchange with Indian international Nikhil Poojary.Perhaps a small preview of the bigger Brazil-India clash in Kolkata next month when Khalid Jamil hosts the five-time world champions in an international friendly.The high-profile device has been the subject of debate. Ranked as low as 138th, what will India really get by taking on the football giant? According to Caf quite a lot.“Well, if you go by the rankings, there is a significant difference between Brazil and India, but football has modernized. Today, everyone plays on the same terms,” ​​the charismatic former AC Milan and Roma right-back told reporters later. “You saw it in the World Cup. In the World Cup, national teams like Curacao, teams like Cabo Verde played on the same terms as all the big national teams.”“We hope that Brazil and India can play a great game. It will bring a lot of benefits to the Indian people and the Indian national team to play against a team that is a five-time world champion. I think creating this connection between these countries when FIFA has expanded the FIFA World Cup and opened up the space to other countries will be important for India as well.”But what about Brazil? How does the only man in history to play in three consecutive World Cup finals explain the decline of the once-mighty Selecao since guiding them to their fifth star that night in Yokohama 24 years ago?“We see that every change is necessary in football. Brazil has been going through a difficult period in terms of the national team because it has been more than 24 years – completing 28 years until 2030 – without winning a World Cup title,” Cafu, now 56, said.“You can’t compare it to when we played, when we played in three consecutive World Cup finals. That was an era that has passed. It’s a new generation, it’s new players and we have to root hard for this new era and these new players to achieve what we achieved: to reach the World Cup final.”But even under one of Italy’s most decorated coaches, Carlo Ancelotti, a man Cafu knows very well, the challenge of returning to the top of world football remains complicated, the two-time World Cup winner pointed out.“The World Cup is not an exact science. The best don’t always win and the champion is not always the best team. It’s a series of factors that make you win the World Cup,” said Cafu, who won the UEFA Champions League in 2007 with AC Milan under Ancelotti.“I am very hopeful when I talk about the Brazilian national team. I hope that Brazil will now win the World Cup in 2030 and end this 28-year drought.”When asked if the growing trend of prematurely moving Brazilian talent among European football’s elite was somehow to blame for the national team’s struggles, Cafu felt conflicted about the argument.“I’m biased to talk because when I played in the third World Cup final in a row, I played in Italy,” he said.“That’s very relative. All the national teams, apart from the 1994 team, had most of their players playing outside the country, playing in other teams that weren’t Brazilian clubs.”“Today, young Brazilian players go to other countries earlier, and therefore they may not develop an identity with the Brazilian national team, an identity with the Brazilian people. This is perhaps what our Brazilian national team lacks the most: a little more Brasilidade (Brazilianness) in these players – to feel the weight of what it means to play for a Brazilian club, then go only to the Brazilian national team and leave only to the Brazilian national team.”Cafu, hailed as one of the game’s greatest defenders who captivated fans with his charging runs up and down the right wing, said modern tactics meant the position today did not offer players quite the same freedom.“Everything has changed in our position. In our time, the full-back was a full-back. He covered the midfield, covered the wings, went to the far post, crossed and came back.”“As a full-back I ran 22km in one game. That was the intensity we played with,” Cafu said. “Today, I see most wingers struggle a bit more because most coaches play with systems that limit the full-back’s overlapping runs and prevent them from reaching the touchline.“But we were stubborn wingers. We didn’t listen to what the coach said and we loved to play. That’s why we attacked and defended with equal intensity.”Towards the end of his media interaction, the big smile reappeared when one Cafu asked who would he choose if he had to choose between Ronaldo, his former Brazil team-mate, and Lionel Messi? “Ronaldo phenomenon,” he grinned.