When you’ve won the World Cup, you can’t have too many regrets in your career.
Add the Champions League and Serie A to your list of triumphs and, it’s an incredible one.
Brazil and AC Milan icon Cafu, though, admits it would have been nice to have spent some time in the Premier League.
The English top-flight would have been lucky to have had the right-back, too, with his dynamic displays on the flank seeing him likened to an express train.
And so good was his spell in Italy with Roma that one Premier League side attempted, without success, to sign him.
“Chelsea made an official approach, but Rosella Sensi [Roma’s president at the time] told them, ‘Forget about it – nobody takes our boys from here and we are going to keep this team for a long time’,” Cafu told FourFourTwo.
“He used to say that we were all his children. It would have been a nice experience to play in the Premier League – in 2001 it was already one of the biggest leagues at the time – but we couldn’t reach a deal.”
A move to the Premier League would never materialise but Cafu is unlikely to complain.
He eventually left Roma for AC Milan in 2003 and won Serie A in his first season before winning the Champions League in 2007.
This came at the expense of Liverpool, but it turns out the Reds are the Premier League side he’s got a big soft spot for.
“I still follow the Premier League and I love watching Kevin De Bruyne – he plays with such ease, it’s impressive,” Cafu says.
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“I’m a Liverpool fan, though,” he admits. “I’ve visited the club a few times and I enjoy their history, their stadium atmosphere, their songs.”
One moment in particular stood out for the iconic full-back too.
“I even got the chance to meet Jon Flanagan, who was dubbed ‘the next Cafu’, and we took a picture together. I still remember that day.”
Flanagan, though, was forced to retire, aged 29, due to recurring injuries after spells at Rangers, Charleroi, and HB Koge.
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