Cafu coming to J-League

Brazil's World Cup winning skipper Cafu has reached an agreement to play for J-League club Yokohama Marinos from July 1, club officials said Thursday.

The contract with the 32-year-old defender, who has played for Italian Serie A side AS Roma since 1997, will last until January 1, 2006, the officials said.

The Yokohama officials did not reveal what Cafu would be paid or the transfer fee but Japan's Jiji Press estimated his total salary at 3.75 million dollars.

"I believe Cafu will also improve our players a lot mentally," said new Yokohama coach Takeshi Okada, who led Japan to the 1998 World Cup.

Cafu, whose real name is Maraes Evangelista de Marcos, became the first man to play in three World Cup finals when Brazil defeated Germany 2-0 in June last year at the Yokohama stadium, the home stadium for his new club.

Cafu made his international debut against Spain in 1990, and enjoyed a successful start to his club career with Sao Paulo winning two Copa Libertadores and two world club championships.u played virtually the whole match after replacing the injured Jorginho after 21 minutes.

Having made the right wingback berth his own in the years afterwards, Cafu was back in the final in France in 1998, a match Brazil lost 3-0 to the hosts.