Cafu: Indian team will benefit from international friendly against Brazil

Former Brazil captain Cafu on Friday said the Indian team will learn a lot from its first-ever international match against his country in Kolkata next month, though he admitted to the significant gap in the rankings between the two countries. India will face five-time World Cup champions Brazil in an international friendly at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on October 3.

“We hope that Brazil and India can play a great game. It will bring many benefits to the Indian people and to the Indian national team, which will face a team that is a five-time world champion,” Cafu told reporters during his visit to the Pillai University here. “Well, if you go by the rankings, there is a significant difference between Brazil and India, but football has modernised.”

Cafu also said India should benefit from FIFA’s proposed plan to expand the number of participating teams to 64 from 2030 World Cup onwards from the 48 in 2026. FIFA is yet to take a final decision. The 56-year-old Cafu pointed at how smaller nations like Curacao and Cape Verde “played on equal terms” with bigger teams in the 2026 World Cup In USA, Mexico and Canada.

“Today, everyone plays on equal terms. You saw this in the World Cup, teams like Curacao and Cape Verde played on equal terms with all the big national teams,” Cafu said.