Story By: Juan Mayes, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
Heartbroken Cafu has spoken about his eldest son’s untimely death on a football pitch for the first time saying he “cries alone every day” and “I still have not taken in” his death.
Brazilian legend Cafu, 49, spoke with Brazilian weekly news magazine “Veja” about his son’s recent death.
Cafu’s eldest son Danilo Feliciano, 30, died on 4th September after suffering a heart attack during a football match he was playing with his father and friends in Barueri, a Brazilian municipality in the state of Sao Paulo.
Danilo Feliciano was transported to the Alber Einstein Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Local media report the heart attack was due to a coronary atheromatous, a disease in which plaque builds up inside the arteries.
When speaking to Veja, Cafu said when “I found my son convulsing I panicked because he had a delicate heart history.
“When we arrived at hospital, the doctor called me after thirty minutes. I told him ‘you do not have to say anything, I can see he is not responding.’ I just stood praying, asking God not to take my boy. It was not possible.”
When asked about how the recent weeks of mourning have been, Cafu opened up saying: “Burying a son goes out of the general context of what you feel throughout your life.
“I go to the cemetery every five days to visit his grave. I have not taken it yet. I have not had the courage to go into his room.
“My son Wellington picked up his things and donated them. I have never returned to the field where it happened.
“I do not know how to describe the feeling of throwing dirt over the casket of a son knowing he is never coming back again. The death of a child stays with a father and a mother for the rest of their lives.”
When dealing with the pain, Cafu said: “I cry every day alone. When I get home I try to show strength. In general, I cry in traffic and I call friends just to cry. They know and stay quiet and I cry and cry. Crying soothes the chest.”
Cafu plans to keep working saying “I need to work to keep my head busy” as an ambassador of the Qatar World Cup and part of an advisory board for FIFA.
With 142 appearances for Brazil, Cafu is the most-capped player in Brazil’s history and he won the World Cup in 1994 and 2002.
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