How Marcos Evangelista Moraes got the name Cafu?

Born in 1970 – the same year Brazil won their third World Cup and became the sport’s most successful nation – Cafu cited his birth year as his inspiration for becoming a footballer. A mere two weeks after his arrival into the world, Carlos Alberto scored one of the greatest team goals of all time in the competition and would cement his status in Brazilian football folklore along with his teammates who dismantled a fine Italy side.

Born as Marcos Evangelista Moraes in Jardim Irene, a tiny favela in São Paulo, he got his popularised nickname from Cafuringa, a former professional player for sides such as Fluminense and Botafogo, after spending his early days on the right side.

The rough streets of Jardim Irene – one of the poorest regions in the city – taught him to never give up. It was a lesson he carried throughout life, as local giants São Paulo FC snapped him up as an 18-year-old following a series of rejections from some of the country’s other big clubs, including Palmeiras and Santos. It took a friendly against his prospective side, for another local team called Itaquaquecetuba, to finalise his transfer, as academy coach Carlinhos Neves needed more convincing to bring him on board. In the end, however, it worked out, as the then-right midfielder was given the chance to make his career in the game.

This was Cafu, in development.

Cafu owes a lot of his success to the legendary Telê Santana, the revolutionary Brazilian coach who is renowned for bringing the attacking mind back to Samba football, spectacularly displayed in Brazil’s iconic 1982 World Cup side. His methods invited Cafu to switch from being a right midfielder to a right-back, and while that was slightly influenced by an injury to São Paulo’s first-choice right-back, Zé Teodoro, it was one of the most innovative moves in Brazilian football history. It also gave the country one of its greatest-ever footballers – and on a lighter note, satisfied Jamie Carragher’s playful theory.