World2022. Portugal hosted four World Champions
In addition to Polga (Sporting), champion in 2002 for Brazil, Joan Capdevilla (Benfica) played in the I Liga, who was in the only scepter of Spain, in 2010, and Adil Rami (Boavista), winner in 2018 with France, while oo German Julian Draxler, who became famous in 2014, is playing for Benfica this season.
A year after having awarded the “screte” the conquest of the unprecedented “five”, in the 2002 Mundial, the central Anderson Polga arrived in Portugal to represent Sporting, assuming, from the outset, the status of the first world champion player to act in the championship Portuguese.
In the competition that took place in South Korea and Japan, the defense participated in two games for Brazil, in the triumphs against China (4-0) and Costa Rica (5-2), both in the group stage, which were the unique officials who played for the “canarinha” in 11 accumulated international caps.
Coming from Grémio, at no cost, Polga ended up staying for nine seasons at Sporting, playing 342 games and scoring four goals, in addition to having worn the captain’s armband.
With the greens and whites, they won two Portuguese cups and two super cups, having also reached the UEFA Cup final in 2004/05 – lost at home to CSKA Moscovo -, before ending his career at Corinthians, a few months after leaving Alvalade .
Less fortunate was the second world champion to play in Portugal, in this case Joan Capdevila, who signed for Benfica in 2011, after Spain won the 2010 World Cup, but who left Lisbon after a season, with only 12 games played by the reds and a League Cup under his belt.
With spells at Espanyol, Atlético de Madrid, Deportivo and Villarreal, the left-back left the “yellow submarine” to head to Luz at zero cost, already after having been a starter in the Spanish team that triumphed in South Africa (he was totalist) and also on the success of “la roja” at Euro2008.
With just a few minutes of use under the command of Jorge Jesus, Capdevila left Benfica in 2012 and still played for Espanyol, NorthEast United (India), Lierse (Belgium) and FC Santa Coloma (Andorra), the club where he ended up career in 2018.
Six years later, the main national level saw the arrival of a third world champion, Frenchman Adil Rami, who was part of the team that won the last edition of the competition, in 2018, although he did not score a single minute for Les Bleus in Russia.
The centre-back, currently at Troyes’ service, arrived to reinforce Boavista two years after the Gallic triumph over Croatia, but injuries in the first half of the 2020/21 season limited him to just 22 games with the “chessmen”, before return to France.
The last player to land in Portugal after lifting the World Cup was the German Julian Draxler, loaned by Paris Saint-Germain to Benfica this year, and who contributed with 14 minutes of use in the triumphant walk of the “mannschaft” in 2014, curiously all they in the rout (7-1) applied to the host Brazil, in the semi-finals.
At the age of 29, and after spells at Schalke 04, Wolfsburg and PSG, it remains to be seen what the balance of the attacking midfielder’s spell at Luz will be, and so far, it boils down to 300 minutes, divided into nine matches, one goal and a muscle injury contracted in the classic against FC Porto, in October.
The 2022 World Cup, which will take place in Qatar, starts on Sunday and ends on December 18.