Courtesy: Press Box


Cabral's Secondary Goals Earn Him Warn Welcome

By Staci Wolfson


What Denison Cabral lacks in size, he makes up for in heart.

The 5-foot-4 forward tops most of the Baltimore Blast’s all-time statistical lists. He was a member of the team’s three championship lineups, and he has earned five All-Star nods. But over the course of his 11-season career, these are not the accomplishments that bring Cabral the most pride.

“It makes me proud of myself, the fact that I made a lot of friends,” he said. “I made a lot of friends through the years that I've played. … Every team in this league, I can get on the field, I can talk to the owners of other teams, I can talk to managers of teams, I can talk to coaches, I can talk to players, I can talk to staff from other facilities, staff from other teams. I can talk to them, knowing that I respect them the same way they respect me.”

For Cabral, scoring goals and winning games are second only to the relationships he has forged with his fellow players, the organization, the community and its fans. These priorities have turned him into the face of the franchise, one of the most recognizable names in the MISL and a fan favorite.

It’s as if he brought the warmth of his native Brazil with him when he moved north.

“We have to appreciate fans, we have to appreciate people who pay to come and watch us play,” said player/assistant coach David Bascome. “And I can tell you Denison appreciates that. …

“He has a way about him. He has this personality about him. You’re looking at guys coming in from all different countries, coming in from all different places. You’re saying, ‘Hey, who’s going to pick him up at the airport?’ There’s Denison right there, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll help out.’ Who’s going to take him out for lunch, who’s going to help him out? Denison’s there and he takes pride in it. He doesn’t do it just to be popular, he does it because that’s him, that's his way and that's what's made him popular."

The veteran didn’t always have such a solid home with a professional team. When Cabral was 15, he left his family in Florianapolis to pursue a professional career in another part of Brazil, a choice he calls the toughest decision he ever had to make. While he was playing futsal, a Brazilian five-on-five version of indoor soccer, an agent approached him with an irresistible offer, one Cabral thought he could use to help his family.

“You come to an 18, 19-year-old kid and say, ‘Listen, you make it to this team, we're going to give you $30,000 cash,’” Cabral said of the agent. “And at the time, $30,000 back home was worth almost $100,000. So I trained every day, three times a day. Once I got there, I went through all of the processes, I passed, everybody liked the way I played this and that, and they said, ‘The only problem is we don't have money.’”

Misrepresented and then stranded without money by the agent, Cabral eventually found himself playing futsal in Florida. It was there he was introduced to American indoor soccer and found out about a team holding tryouts in Washington, D.C.

Although he said he was doubtful of the game’s authenticity at first, he quickly fell in love with it and signed a contract with the Washington Warthogs of the Continental Indoor Soccer League. Still, it took him time to free himself of his past.

“As soon as the agent in Brazil found out, he made a trip to the U.S.,” Cabral said. “All of a sudden he appeared [and said,] ‘I want to be a part of this.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’”

After giving the agent a third of his salary, Cabral was ultimately able to cut ties with him. And while he was playing in Washington, Kevin Healey, the Blast’s current general manager, recruited him to the U.S. Interregional Soccer League Baltimore Bays.

Cabral played for the Bays for two seasons in 1995 and ’96, where he met current Blast owner Ed Hale, who told Cabral he wanted him to be a part of his soon-to-be-formed Blast.

Cabral joined the team in 1998 and has become a league star, the heart of the Blast and an honorary Baltimorean.

“Denison is a guy who feels very much at home out there mingling and talking with the people," said Blast coach Danny Kelly. "He really enjoys the city of Baltimore and the people of Baltimore.”

In addition to leading the Blast, Cabral coaches boys varsity soccer at St. Mary’s High School and has opened the Maryland SportsPlex in Millersville. Last May, he officially became a U.S. citizen.

When his professional soccer career is over, Bascome said that will not be the last the community will see of Cabral.

“I would not be surprised if he enters into professional coaching, but I think his love of being around young people and developing young players may take over,” Bascome said. “I can see him pushed toward that more, helping out young players, building programs, traveling, doing whatever it takes to develop this area.”

That is, indeed, what Cabral has in mind.

“My dream is to hopefully one day become an agent to do the opposite of what [my agent] did to me,” he said.






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com