Category profile
- Dominance
- 82
- Peak
- 84
- Longevity
- 90
- Honours
- 88
- Statistics
- 78
Career timeline · Goals per season
| Season | Goals per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 3 | |
| 1991 | 4 | |
| 1992 | 5 | |
| 1993 | 6 | |
| 1994 | 4 | |
| 1995 | 5 | |
| 1996 | 3 | |
| 1997 | 4 | |
| 1998 | 5 | |
| 1999 | 3 | |
| 2000 | 4 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 2002 | 3 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 |
Data sources
- FIFA
- UEFA
- Transfermarkt
Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method
Why Cafu ranks #47 in Football
Cafu ranks 47th among Football athletes on GOAT Rank and 187th of 1063 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 84.6 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 82, Peak 84, Longevity 90, Honours 88, Statistics 78. Those categories are normalised against the full Football reference universe of 875 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.
The record covers 1989–2008 with 17 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 1993, which sets the Peak component at 84. Longevity is the defining strength of the profile at 90 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes world cup titles 2, brazil caps 142, champions league titles 1, copa libertadores titles 2.
Immediately ahead sits Franco Baresi on 85.4, a gap of 0.8 points. Directly behind is Lilian Thuram on 85.1. The position moves whenever the verified record moves: new titles, new seasons or a corrected source all feed straight back into the same formula, and every change is dated on this profile.
Cafu GOAT Score explained
- Dominance82/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Cafu stood above the field while competing. Scored 82/100 against the full Football cohort.
- Peak84/100 · weight 20%
- Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 1993. Scored 84/100.
- Longevity90/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 19 years of competition and 17 recorded seasons. Scored 90/100.
- Honours88/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 88/100.
- Statistics78/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 78/100.
Top Cafu comparisons
Cafu — frequently asked
- Is Cafu the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Cafu ranks 47th in Football with a GOAT Score of 84.6, behind Cristiano Ronaldo on 95.5.
- What is Cafu's GOAT Score?
- 84.6 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 82 (25%), Peak 84 (20%), Longevity 90 (20%), Honours 88 (20%), Statistics 78 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Cafu rank all time?
- 187th of 1063 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 47th within Football.
- Cafu vs Franco Baresi: who ranks higher?
- Franco Baresi, on 85.4 against Cafu's 84.6 — a margin of 0.8 points.