🎥 Rewinding to Cafu's most famous duel on his birthday | OneFootball

Ask most football fans who the best right-back is of all time and you will get a host of names depending on their generation, but for many, iconic Brazilian defender Cafu stands tallest in the crowd.

Across a glistening career that spanned over 20 seasons in Brazil and Italy while featuring for iconic clubs São Paulo, Palmeiras, Roma, and Milan, Cafu's consistent brilliance helped define an era at the club and international level.

Twenty years ago, aging yet still influential, Cafu would come up against a young Cristiano Ronaldo during the 2004/05 Champions League campaign when Milan locked horns with Manchester United at San Siro.

Despite the age gap, Cafu showed what made him the ruthlessly efficient and reliable defender he always was, stepping up and showing age was just a number on the pitch.

Now 55 and still in and around the football space, Cafu can sit back and boast a career that would make most professionals blush.

All told he would lift the World Cup twice (1994, 2002), log over 700 appearances at club level, earn 142 caps for Brazil, claim a Champions League winners' medal, and numerous major honours along the way.

One of the true greats of the game.

📸 CARLO BARONCINI - 2004 AFP