A Week in Football: Cafu, 38, still stirs the fans

Icon ... Cafu has been linked with Gold Coast United (Getty Images)

The patience and belief of Australian football fans is nothing if not admirable.

Consider this. Three Brazilian iconic players have been recruited into the A-League in recent years, all of them flopping badly.

Jardel was barely more than a lard-ass in slow motion, Romario spent four games hardly raising his energy output beyond breathing, and wee Juninho got clobbered out of the league before getting a chance to show his class.

Yet someone whispers the name Cafu, another ageing ex-dancer from the land of the samba, and people pant with breathless excitement.

The prospect that Cafu, the world’s only twice World Cup winning captain, might be a marquee signing by debutant A-League club Gold Coast United next year, gathered some good numbers at the box office.

The story that broke the news was the most read on this site last week, a week that was dominated by interest in the A-League and especially its new season. Six of the top ten ranked stories, including the top four, were A-League related.

I have to say, the story that had much more substance than the Cafu titillation, was the one that ranked second, the report that Craig Moore is fiddling with the prospect of a Socceroo comeback.

Fiddle on Craig, old son, we need you. I assume you watched some of Australia’s World Cup qualifiers recently, not excluding the calamitous defending against Iraq in your home town in June. If you did, you’ll know what I mean.

Ranking third in the ratings was something headlined Merrick completes player jigsaw.

This was a yarn about how Ernie Merrick has concluded that he’s relieved at having assembled a Melbourne Victory team capable of challenging for the title again.

Sounds familiar?

Said Merrick: “One of the things we learned last season was that we did not have enough depth in the squad”.

Really Ernie? Tell that to Ljubo Milicevic and Kaz Patafta whom you hardly used last season.

Mark Bosnich, a once wayward pin-up boy, is always good copy and two stories concerning him made it into the top ten. His auditions for the Central Coast Mariners stirred the readers. His comeback ranked fourth in the ten and you should be prepared that the boy, assuming the Coast will persevere with him, will generate much of the same in forthcoming months.

Mariana Rudan’s Off the Pitch column came in at number five, an entertaining read which included an item about squash legend Chris Dittmar’s son, Tom, trialling with Adelaide United, and more speculation on where Mark Milligan is headed once someone releases the pause button on his career.

Then, in sixth place, came the mandatory story on Harry Kewell, this time about how he’s unlikely to move into ‘management’ once he retires from playing.

He said: ‘I don’t think I could ever be a manager, because I’ve seen the pressure you get put under in that job, and it’s phenomenal.’

I don’t know. Gary Moretti doesn’t seem to mind. He’s the manager of our national team.

Then, in seventh spot, came another story about Bozza trialling with the Mariners before we hit the only global interest story of the top tem: the report confirming that Ronaldinho will be an AC Milan player for the next three years.

Ronnie, Kaká and Pato in the same attack. Now there’s a mouthwatering combination. It’s sure to light up the Uefa Cup.

At number nine came a story that Mark Viduka is happy at Newcastle United and wants to end his career there.

Dooks stunned us all by saying Kevin Keegan is a very good manager. ‘He’s so positive and very knowledgeable about the game,’ said Mark.

This is the man who quit as England coach several years ago after discovering, and admitting, he knew nothing about tactics.

Rounding up the top ten was another piece on Cafu being wooed by Gold Coast United, with Miron Bleiberg pledging that the Brazilian, who’ll be 39 by the time the Gold Coast ream is activated next year, will undergo a thorough physical before he’s signed.

One assumes that includes stepping on the scales.

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