Diego Cavalieri

Back in July of 2008, the Brazilian shot-stopper Diego Cavalieri appeared to have a bright future ahead of him as the player was signed by Liverpool for a transfer fee of €3 million with the former coach of the Premier League club, Rafael Benitez considering Cavalieri to be good enough to compete against Pepe Reina.

At that time, Pepe Reina was the undisputed first choice goal-keeper of Liverpool but in order to keep the Spanish player at the tip of his toes and not lose his pace, Cavalieri was signed from Palmeiras but this signing didn’t turn out to be a good one as he only managed to make 10 appearances in 2 seasons for Liverpool.

One of the reasons on why Cavalieri appeared to be such an attractive player to sign was because of his consistently impressive performances that the Brazilian goal-keeper was doing in Brazil with Palmeiras but he failed to live up to the expectations of Rafael Benitez.

Ever since Cavalieri moved away from Liverpool, his career has been experiencing a downward spiral as he switched to the Italian side Cesena where he only lasted 4 months before being transferred to his homeland club Fluminense.

A few weeks ago Fluminense played against Botafogo in the knockout rounds of the Campeonato Carioca which is the annual competition of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro and this match decided which team was going to advance into the finals. It was a pretty important game to say the least.

This match was dragged on until penalty kicks and up to the point where the goal-keepers of each team had to take the set-piece which resulted with Diego Cavalieri taking his shot way beyond and above the net, his kick wasn’t even close from turning into a goal, meanwhile the goal-keeper of Botafogo did manage to score his penalty kick as he gave his club the victory.

It certainly isn’t the best of times for Diego Cavalieri as the veteran shot-stopperlost his chance on winning the Brazilian title which he hasn’t lifted since 2012.