Rivaldo, Biggest Name in Legends Line-Ups

There may be no Ronaldinho at Stade Saputo for the Legends game on Sunday, but there’ll still be four players from Brazil’s 2002 World Cup winning squad present, including captain Cafu and former World Player of the Year, Rivaldo, who scored in five of Brazil’s seven games during the tournament.

Dunga, another Brazilian World Cup winning captain (1994) will manage the side.

Making up the quartet of World Cup winners is Gilberto Silva, also a Premier League winner with Arsenal under Arsene Wenger, and Klebersen, whose performances in Japan and Korea during the tournament earned him a move to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Another couple of interesting, but less well-known, Brazilians have made the journey to Montreal. Arthirson and Djalminha, both internationals, each just missed out on squad inclusion for the 2002 showpiece.

Arthirson won 5 Brazilian caps between 1999 and 2003 and is best known for his time in Brazil with Flamengo. He did play briefly in Europe after giants Juventus and Barcelona vied for his signature in 2001, the former winning the day. But after only 5 Serie A games the attacking left-back/wing-back was loaned back to Flamengo and played out the rest of his career in Brazil, apart from two seasons with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

Photo by Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images

Djalminha’s fiery temperament coupled with the then high level of competition for midfield places restricted him to 14 caps over a 6 year period. He was however, an influential member of the Deportivo La Coruna side which won La Liga in 1999/2000 and part of the Brazil squad that triumphed in the Copa America in 1997.

But it was a highly publicized training ground spat in May 2002 with Depor coach, Javier Irureta that probably put paid to the player’s hopes of World Cup inclusion, and sent his career into tail-spin.

Brazilian coach Luis Felipe Scolari decided against selecting the La Coruna man, instead choosing a 20-year-old, Kaka.

The row prompted Djalminha’s move away from Spain, ending up on loan at FK Austria Wien, before ending his playing career in Mexico with Impact’s old friends, Clube America.

Impact
For the Impact Legends, two of their three Wall of Famers will be on duty in Greg Sutton and Nevio Pizzolitto.

There’s a return to Stade Saputo for Didier Drogba of course, who is likely to get the chance to play up-front alongside former Impact boss, Mauro Biello.

From MLS days, Justin Mapp, Cameron Porter and Wandrille Lefevre will line out, and Hassoun Camara exchanges the mic once again for a pair of cleats.

Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images

Rewinding further back to pre-MLS days, the names of Leduc, De Santis, Placetino, Sebrango and Limniatis will need no introduction to Impact fans, while who better to marry the two eras together than the Capi himself, Patrice Bernier.

Tickets
Tickets are still available from $25.00

Le Match des Légendes 2019 :

le 4 août 2019, à 17 h, au Stade Saputo

Site officiel : www.montrealsoccerfest.com

Achetez vos billets dès maintenant Billetterie : 514.328.3668


The Line-ups for Sunday ...