And here is....who?

Day -568 WorldCup2018.

I'm moving away from Toronto FC news and excitement for today. There will be a lot more to come and hopefully beyond next Wednesday.

What caught my attention today is a story I saw about the 2017 Confederations Cup. The tournament is held a year before every World Cup as a warm-up for the host country. All the continental champions compete plus the current World Champions. The draw for next year's edition is being held in Russia on November 28th. All good and normal so far.

The special guest at the draw, as announced happily by TASS, the Russian news agency, is Julio Baptista. Reactions to reading this, I imagine, probably lie somewhere between who and why. Baptista played 45 times for Brazil with whom he won the Confederations Cup twice, he scored a few goals, and played for Arsenal, Roma and Real Madrid. There's the "who" which blends nicely into the "why". He was good but not great. Kaka and Robinho were part of the the team that won the 2005 and 2009 Confederations Cup with Baptista. I would think they are both much more recognisable names. Draws of major international tournaments always have a big name picking the coloured balls out of the pots; somebody of the stardom calibre of Pele, Maradona or Zidane. But Julio Baptista?

The answer to the "why" may lie in availability, a good agent and an appearance fee. And that is just a wild guess