Marcos Evangelista de Morais (born 7 June 1970), known as Cafu (), is a Brazilian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a right-back. Known for his pace and energetic attacking runs along the right flank, he is regarded as one of the greatest full-backs of all time, one of the best defenders ever to play in Serie A, and as one of the greatest Brazilian and South American players of his generation. He is also the most-capped player for the Brazil national team with 142 appearances. At club level, Cafu won several domestic and international titles while playing in Brazil, Spain and Italy; he is best known for his spells at São Paulo,

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

and AC Milan, teams with which he made history, although he also played for Zaragoza, Juventude and

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

throughout his career. In 1994, Cafu was crowned South American Footballer of the Year, and in 2004, was named by

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. He was additionally named to the FIFPro World XI in 2005, and in 2020 was included in the

Ballon d'Or Dream Team The Ballon d'Or Dream Team is an all-time all-star team published by ''France Football'' on 14 December 2020 after conducting an internet poll of fans to select a football dream team starting from October 2020. The final team was selected by 140 ...

. Cafu represented his nation in four FIFA World Cups between 1994 and

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, and is the only player in history to have appeared in three World Cup finals, both overall and consecutive, winning the

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and

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editions of the tournament, the latter as his team's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

where he lifted the World Cup trophy. With Brazil, he also took part in four editions of the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

, winning the title twice, in

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and

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; he was also a member of the national side that won the

1997 FIFA Confederations Cup The 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup was the first Confederations Cup to be organised by FIFA. The tournament had previously been played in 1992 and 1995 as the King Fahd Cup. This edition of the tournament was hosted by Saudi Arabia, as with the previ ...

Early life

One of six children, Cafu was raised in the Jardim Irene favela of São Paulo. At the age of seven, he was able to attend a football academy and soon moved up to the junior sides of Nacional-SP, Portuguesa and Itaquaquecetuba. He also played futsal for two years. In the early 1980s, he was rejected from the youth squads of Corinthians,

, Santos, Atlético Mineiro and Portuguesa, but it was not until 1988 that he made the youth squad of hometown club São Paulo, and subsequently won the ''Copa São Paulo'' youth tournament that year, but he did not play during the next season as São Paulo won the 1989

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional association football, football league in the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo. Run b ...

Club career

It was during this time, however, that São Paulo youth coach Telê Santana became Cafu's mentor. He suggested that Cafu move from wingback to midfield, a spot into which Cafu made the transition with ease despite never previously playing the position. He had soon anchored onto the first team, as São Paulo won back-to-back

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

and World Championships in 1992 and 1993. In 1994, he was named the South American Footballer of the Year. Halfway through the 1994–95 season, Cafu joined Spanish side Real Zaragoza, winning the

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Cup Winners' Cup with them (though he had injury issues and did not play in the final). He then left Zaragoza to join Brazilian club Juventude. After a brief stint back in Brazil with Palmeiras in 1996, Cafu returned to Europe once again the next year, this time with

, and won the ''

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (Italian language, Italian for: "little shield") is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in ...

'' in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, followed by the

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

. It was during his tenure at Roma that Cafu earned the nickname '' Il Pendolino'' ("The Express Train" or "The Commuter"). Despite making the Coppa Italia final in

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with Roma, he moved to AC Milan, after turning down a move to Japan with Yokohama F. Marinos. With the ''Rossoneri'', he won his second career Scudetto in 2004, followed by his second

, and he played in his first UEFA Champions League final in 2005. The following season, he made fewer appearances for Milan due to injury and difficulties in his personal life. Despite his success with Milan, he continued to hold fond memories of his Roma years, and it was for that reason that on 4 March 2007 – the day after Milan eliminated

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

in the first knockout round of the

2006–07 UEFA Champions League The 2006–07 UEFA Champions League was the 15th season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded from the European Cup, and the 52nd season overall. The final was contested by Milan ...

– he candidly revealed in a UEFA.com chat that he did not want Milan to be drawn against the ''Giallorossi'' in the quarter-final round. He got his wish, as Milan were drawn against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. Milan's successful Champions League campaign saw Cafu finally pick up a long-awaited winners' medal, in a rematch of the 2005 final. Cafu signed a contract extension in May 2007 that would keep him with Milan until the end of the 2007–08 season, during which he won another UEFA Supercup, and his third world title at club level and now his first

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

. On 16 May 2008, it was announced that Cafu and compatriot Serginho would be leaving Milan at the end of the season. In Cafu's last game of his Milan career, and of his professional career, he scored a goal in their 4–1 victory over Udinese. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani stated that the door would be open to him to return to work for the club. He is a member of the AC Milan and the

Hall of Fames.

Passport controversy

Cafu was accused along with several other Serie A players, including Roma teammate

Fábio Júnior Fabio is a given name descended from Latin ''Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). Its English equivalent is Fabian. The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented ...

and

Gustavo Bartelt Gustavo Javier Bartelt (born 2 September 1974) is an Argentine former footballer who played as a forward. Career Bartelt started playing for All Boys in 1993. He then played for Lanús, Roma, Aston Villa (on loan from Roma), Rayo, Gimnasia ...

, countryman and later Milan teammate Dida, of using a forged passport in their attempt to dodge regulations regarding the number of non-European players allowed on Italian club rosters. However, the charge was cleared by the

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

(FIGC) as Cafu's Italian passport was real and issued by Italian officials, but 13 others – including Dida – were banned. But Cafu faced another controversy that similar to Juan Sebastián Verón, accused that Cafu's wife, Regina used falsified documents to claim Italian nationality through Italian descent. Cafu acquired Italian nationality through marriage. In 2004, Cafu and Roma club president Franco Sensi went to court. On 12 June 2006, less than 24 hours before Brazil were to begin their

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

campaign against Croatia, Rome prosecutor Angelantonio Racanelli called for the imprisonment of Cafu, his wife and his agent for nine months following the resurfacing of a false-passport scandal. The very next day, however, Cafu, his wife and agent were acquitted of all charges.

International career

Cafu is the most- capped Brazilian men's player of all time with 142 appearances, including a record 20 World Cup games. He has won two World Cups in

and

, as well as being the only player to participate in three World Cup final matches. Cafu also held the record of winning the most matches in World Cups with 15 (along with two games Brazil won on penalties), before being surpassed by Germany's Miroslav Klose in the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

. He earned his first cap in a friendly against Spain on 12 September 1990, and played sparingly for Brazil in the early 1990s, making the 1994 World Cup roster as a substitute. He appeared in the final against Italy, following an injury to Jorginho in the 22nd minute. After that, Cafu was soon a regular in the starting eleven as Brazil won the

and

, the

, and reached the

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

final.

Brazil endured a rocky qualification for the 2002 tournament, during which Cafu came under heavy criticism from coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo, who stripped him of the team captaincy after he was sent off in a qualifier against Paraguay. Shortly after that, however, Luxemburgo was out of a job, and replacement Luiz Felipe Scolari made Emerson his new choice for captain. However, Emerson missed the cut after he dislocated his shoulder in training, which allowed Cafu to regain the armband. After Brazil defeated Germany 2–0 in the final match (Cafu's third consecutive World Cup final), he stood on the victory podium during the postmatch celebration and, as he raised the World Cup trophy, shouted to his wife, ''"Regina, eu te amo!"'' ("Regina, I love you!"). Cafu and Brazil fell short of high expectations placed on the squad four years later in

, as Brazil meekly exited in the quarter-finals after a 1–0 defeat by France. Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was criticized for featuring fading veterans, most notably the 36-year-old Cafu and 33-year-old Roberto Carlos, in the starting XI in lieu of younger players. Cafu was one of only a few Brazil players who spoke to the press in the midst of a hailstorm of criticism from Brazilian fans and media alike following the team's return home. He nonetheless expressed interest in participating in the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

; however he did not, as he retired completely from football in 2008.

Style of play

Regarded as one of the greatest full-backs of all time, one of the best footballers of his generation, and as one of Brazil's best ever players, Cafu was a dynamic, hard-working, offensive-minded, and energetic right-sided wing-back who is mostly remembered for his great pace, stamina, tactical intelligence, distribution, and technical skills, as well as his ability to make overlapping attacking runs down the right flank and provide accurate

crosses Crosses may refer to: * Cross, the symbol Geography * Crosses, Cher, a French municipality * Crosses, Arkansas, a small community located in the Ozarks of north west Arkansas Language * Crosses, a truce term used in East Anglia and Lincolnshire ...

to teammates in the area. In addition to his footballing ability, he was also known for his discipline, leadership and his characteristically cheerful demeanour. Although he usually played as an attacking right-back, he was also capable of playing as a centre back, due to his defensive skills, or in more advanced positions, and was often deployed as a right winger. During his time in Italy, he was given the nickname '' Pendolino'', after the country's express trains.

Personal life

Cafu is separated from his wife Regina Feliciano, who he married in 1987. The couple have three children together: two sons (Danilo and Wellington) and a daughter (Michelle). On 4 September 2019, Danilo suffered a heart attack whilst playing football at his family home, after complaining about feeling unwell. Danilo was taken to hospital, where he later died.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cafu goal.''

Honours

São Paulo *

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

* Copa CONMEBOL:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

Supercopa Sudamericana The Supercopa Libertadores (English: ''Libertadores Supercup''), also known as the Supercopa Libertadores João Havelange, Supercopa João Havelange or simply Supercopa, was a football club competition contested annually between 1988 and 1997 by t ...

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana ( pt, CONMEBOL Recopa Sul-Americana), known also as the Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as the Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club association football, football compe ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

Real Zaragoza * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1994–95 Palmeiras *

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Roma * Serie A: 2000–01 AC Milan * Serie A: 2003–04 *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

* UEFA Champions League: 2006–07 * UEFA Super Cup:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

;Brazil * FIFA World Cup:

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

Individual * South American Team of the Year: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 * South American Footballer of the Year:

* FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 2002 (Reserve) * FIFA 100 * UEFA Team of the Year: 2004, 2005 * FIFPro World XI: 2005 * Sports Illustrated Team of the Decade: 2009 * ESPN World Team of the Decade: 2009 *

A.S. Roma Hall of Fame This is a list of List of A.S. Roma players, A.S. Roma players who have been inducted into the club's Hall of Fame. A.S. Roma's Hall of Fame has been launched in 2012 as part of the initiatives for the club's 85th anniversary. Exceptionally for t ...

: 2012 * World Soccer Greatest XI of all time: 2013 * AC Milan Hall of Fame * World XI: Team of the 21st Century *

: 2020 * IFFHS All-time Men's Dream Team: 2021 * IFFHS South America Men's Team of All Time: 2021

Orders

* Officer of the Order of Rio Branco: 2008

References

External links

*
Official Cafu Foundation site

Cafu profile by Aaron Marcus
– acmilan-online.com
Career stats
– acmilan.com * * {{navboxes colour , title=Brazil squads , bg= #FEDF00 , fg= #009B3A , bordercolor= #002776 , list1= {{Brazil squad 1991 Copa América {{Brazil squad 1993 Copa América {{Brazil squad 1994 FIFA World Cup {{Brazil squad 1997 Copa América {{Brazil squad 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup {{Brazil squad 1998 FIFA World Cup {{Brazil squad 1999 Copa América {{Brazil squad 2002 FIFA World Cup {{Brazil squad 2006 FIFA World Cup Living people 1970 births Footballers from São Paulo Association football fullbacks Brazilian footballers Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Brazil international footballers São Paulo FC players Real Zaragoza players Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras players A.S. Roma players A.C. Milan players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players La Liga players Serie A players Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Italy FIFA 100 FIFA Century Club 1991 Copa América players 1993 Copa América players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1997 Copa América players 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1999 Copa América players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players FIFA World Cup-winning captains FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players Copa América-winning players Brazilian emigrants to Italy Naturalised citizens of Italy South American Footballer of the Year winners UEFA Champions League winning players Afro-Brazilian sportspeople Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy