To win the FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest honours a football player can possibly dream of having. Even in a time when clubs have become bigger commercial entities than ever before, playing for your national team remains an experience like no other and going all the way to lift the famous trophy gets you added in the pantheons of history and makes you an immortal part of the footballing legacy of a nation.
All the players in this piece are amongst the select few of those who have had the privilege of winning the World Cup, but the clubs that they finished their careers with are sure to raise a few eyebrows and that is what the focus of this piece will be on. Several players dream of playing their last professional game at their boyhood clubs, but they’re also a lot of players who aspire to travel the world and experience different leagues, even perhaps ones with a standard far below that they’re used to.
Here are the 5 World Cup winning players who have finished their careers at unexpected clubs:
Fabio Cannavaro (Italy) – Al-Ahli
Fabio Cannavaro hardly needs an introduction. The former Juventus and Real Madrid defender is one of the best players of all time in the central defense and was a sheer delight to watch. The way he organized and led the Italian backline in their 2006 World Cup winning campaign was masterful and he was awarded the World Player of the year award for his efforts, only the 3rd defender ever to have won the prestigious award.
Cannavaro had earned a transfer to Real Madrid after his magnificent World Cup campaign and found himself back in Turin three years later. Everyone expected him to see out his career with the Bianconeri but was keen on playing more football after his contract with them expired and ended up playing with Al-Ahli in the UAE League. Cannavaro had also agreed to play for Siliguri in the opening season of Premier League Soccer (PLS) in India, but the league never came to fruition.
Rivaldo (Brazil) – Mogi Mirim
Playing your last game for a club that you’re the chairman of? Well, that’s what Rivaldo managed to accomplish with Mogi Mirim before he eventually retired as recently as July 2015. Stunningly, Rivaldo was 43 years old when he decided to finally call an end to his playing career. The Brazilian played in Greece, Uzbekistan and even in Angola in the last years of his career before returning home to Brazil.
Mogi Mirim are currently in the 3rd division of Brazilian football and are no longer owned by Rivaldo, a player remembered fondly the world over for his scoring exploits in the 2002 World Cup. He was a phenomenal player in his day and played for some brilliant Barcelona and AC Milan teams before trying his luck at a whole host of clubs in his footballing career after he passed the age of 30.
Marcel Desailly (France) – Qatar SC
Desailly, the legendary French defender has had an extremely illustrious career. He’s won the Champions League with Milan and Marseille and also won the FA cup and the UEFA Super Cup with Chelsea. He was an imperative part of France’s 1998 World Cup win and their winning run in the 2000 European championships as well.
Desailly could operate as a center back and as a defensive midfielder and was very comfortable with the ball at his feet. After a successful six seasons with Chelsea though, he got a lucrative offer from Qatar and happened to see out the remaining two years of his professional footballing career in the middle east. He won the Qatar league in 2005 with Al-Gharafa before joining Qatar S.C, finishing second with them before he eventually retired.
Jurgen Klinsmann (West Germany) - Orange County Blue Star
The coach who just saw his USA team lose to Argentina in the Copa America semi-finals is also one of Germany’s most successful players and amongst their most prolific forwards. Klinsmann won the World Cup with West Germany in 1990 and also the 1996 European Championships with the Germans. He played in several different leagues and turned out for clubs like Inter Milan, Tottenham, Monaco and Bayern Munich, always maintaining a great goal-scoring ratio wherever he went.
Klinsmann played his last season at Tottenham on loan from Sampdoria in the 1997-98 season and was out of the game for 5 years before he decided to play a season for Orange County Blue Star, a fourth division team in the United States. Not many teams have the privilege of having the legendary German striker play for them, so imagine how thrilled the Americans must have been.
Carlos Marchena (Spain) – Kerala Blasters
Carlos Marchena is a Valencia legend, having turned out for the club 319 times in all competitions in his 9 years at the Mestalla. He was a mainstay in the center of defense and racked up 69 caps for the national team as well. Marchena was a solid, robust defender, an expert in breaking up play early and could also play in the middle of the park.
He won the World Cup with Spain in 2010, although he didn’t play as prominent a role as he would have liked but he would go on to be useful for teams like Villareal and Deportivo before he accepted an offer from the Kerala Blasters in 2015 to be their marquee player. Indian Super League fans will have fond memories of watching a player with such pedigree in the country, though his adventure was cut short because of personal reasons and he had to leave. He announced his retirement in January 2016.
