On several occasions this season, West Ham have had scouts present at Ludogorets games with their eyes on the Bulgarian side’s Brazilian winger Jonathan Cafu, most recently last week during a Europa League clash with FC Copenhagen.
But, who is he and is he as good as his compatriot and name-sake, legendary right-back Cafu? Probably not, but Jonathan has dazzled since his 2015 move from Sao Paulo and projects to be a sought-after player in the summer transfer window.
Get to know Jonathan Cafu with our fact file and what he could offer West Ham.
The basics
Born in Piracicaba, Brazil on July 10th, 1991, Jonathan Cafu is a 25-year-old winger who started out in his native country.
Having had spells with Desportivo, Boavista and Piracicaba in his youth career, Cafu moves to Ponte Preta and then Sao Paulo in January 2015 where he impressed in a six-month spell before moving to Europe with Ludogoretz for a reported £1.9m in July later that year – a club-record fee.
He could've played with Neymar
At the age of 16, the winger spent six months at the Santos academy in a bid to make the first-team, but things didn’t work out and he was released.
Cafu didn’t take the criticism well and he considered quitting football altogether after seeing his dreams crushed, but he was persuaded to continue by his mother and brothers which set him on his journey to European football.
His debut season in Europe
Following his July move, it took Cafu a little time to settle in Bulgaria but he eventually made his Ludogorets in September 2015.
During the 15/16 season, Cafu played a starring role as his eight goals in 24 appearances help fire Ludogorets to the A Group title.
Second-season-syndrome? Nope.
Cafu did not suffer from ‘second-season-syndrome’ as he carried Ludogorets through the Champions League qualifiers and into the group stages with two goals and three assists in the preliminaries.
He caught the eye of English clubs with an impressive outing against Arsenal in the groups, scoring and assisting in a 3-2 home defeat but despite the result, clubs were aware of his talent.
Back in the A Group, Cafu has eight goals and two assists this season operating primarily from wide, taking his tally to 12 goals and seven assists in 30 appearances across all competitions.
At what cost?
How much would it cost to bring Cafu to West Ham? Well, they’d need to fend off reported interest from Leicester and Everton, but the Bulgarian club have named their price.
“There is no chance that Cafu will go for €6m. They can take pictures of him for that money. We told the player that he will not be sold for less than €10m,” Ludogorets president Kiril Domuschiev said.
Does he have Hammer potential?
‘Cafuzinho’ or ‘little Cafu’ has certainly adapted to European football and has scored goals at Champions League level.
Despite only spending the best part of two years in Europe, he’s taken to it like a duck to water and, for the fee mentioned, he’s someone worth taking a punt on.
Under contract until the end of next season, it could be time for Ludogorets to cash-in on Cafu and West Ham clearly have significant interest.