Kolkata: After Diego Maradona’s confirmation of coming to the City of Joy, the football crazy city has got another aromatic news as Uruguayan football legend Enzo Francescoli is all set to visit Kolkata during the festive season of Durga Puja. A travel agency who did a promotional tour of South America to promote the Durga Puja, is bringing Francescoli to Kolkata during the biggest festival of the Bengalis this year, www.xtratime.in can confirm.
The elegant and skillful Uruguayan World Cupper played in Calcutta in the inaugural Nehru Cup in 1982. One of the most capped players in the history of Uruguayan football, Francescoli won the Nehru Cup and the hearts of soccer fans in the city with his dazzling display.
Due to his elegant style of play, Francescoli was nicknamed El Príncipe (“The Prince” in Spanish) or Le Prince (in French), and El Flaco, due to his slender frame. He played 73 times for the Uruguay national team between 1982 and his retirement in 1997, making him the most capped outfield player in Uruguayan international football at the time. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of Uruguay, perhaps the greatest to have never played for the two biggest clubs in the country. He was known for his classic and elegant style, like El Príncipe, in reference to Hannibal Ciocca, a former Uruguayan player from the 1930s and 40. He later was the only Uruguayan included by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list, and was chosen by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics as the sixth greatest player of his country and 24th of South America in the Twentieth Century.
No doubt, the arrival of the two maestros of world football on the eve of the much awaited U17 FIFA World Cup, will certainly set the tone of the gala footballing event.