Brazil's Caio Canedo once starred for Nantucket High. Now, he's got his sights on the 2026 World Cup — playing for UAE.

Boston Globe

14-02-2025

Like many Brazilians, Caio hoped to compete for the Seleção. But that possibility diminished, despite a promising start to his career in Brazil. The US came calling, but Caio could not procure a green card. Finally, the UAE offered citizenship, and Caio made an impact as the team came close to 2022 World Cup qualification, converting the equalizer in a 2-1 playoff loss to Australia.
'This year, I feel we are much more mature and prepared,' Caio, 34, said recently from Dubai, where he is a forward for Al-Wasl FC. 'I strongly believe we can go and go direct without being third or fourth place in a playoff. We have a lot of nationalities getting passports and they are making the team very strong.'
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The UAE stands in third place in Group A with four games remaining in Asian Football Confederation qualifying.
'If I tell you as a kid I knew I had a chance to make it to the World Cup, I'd be lying,' Caio said. 'Brazil, we have too many players, and the US, I was really sad when I didn't have a chance for [junior national teams].
'So when the door opened here, I didn't think twice. I'm enjoying the moment because time flies and it seems like yesterday when I was playing for Nantucket.'
Caio arrived in Nantucket as a 10-year-old and, during recess, his juggling drew a crowd, to the point his teacher, Janet Brannigan, telephoned her son, Rich.
'She said, 'There's this kid, and he can't put the soccer ball down,' ' recalled Rich Brannigan, the Nantucket High boys' soccer coach. 'I said, 'What do you mean?' And she said, 'He juggles and the ball stays up all recess.' '
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Rich Brannigan drove over from the high school and, sure enough, Caio was still juggling. Thanks to Brannigan, Caio joined a club team, but he quickly outdistanced the competition.
Talk about 'playing up,' Caio joined his father, Luiz Alberto 'Lula' Canedo, a former pro, in a local adult league at age 13. Caio gave away experience and size but more than held his own, and those contests helped prepare him for interscholastic competition.
Caio's high school stint was brief but spectacular. At 16, he scored 34 goals as Nantucket advanced to the 2006 Eastern Mass. Division 3 South final, a 3-1 loss to Old Rochester. Notre Dame and St. John's expressed interest, but Caio took a gamble by going for a tryout to his father's club in Volta Redonda, Brazil — over his mother's objections — and never looked back.
'My mom went crazy. She said, 'Are you crazy? Everything we have, you are throwing away, going back to Volta Redonda,' ' Caio recalled. 'They argued and my father said, 'He needs to go now.' And I like to take the challenge and prove to you I can do things. I didn't imagine it would be so difficult but I enjoyed every moment from the day of the decision.
'It's all about confidence. And I always believed in myself and it was a challenge to give my family a better life. I would see father work so much painting houses, and sometimes the houses didn't have a heater, it's freezing cold, and he's [scraping] the walls. My mom, all those chemical products on her hands cleaning houses. I wanted a better life and I felt I could give something back.'
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Caio is included among several players with New England connections contending for the 2026 World Cup, thanks partly to the field expanding from 32 to 48 teams.
Caio rose quickly in the competitive cauldron of Brazil. After only eight matches (two starts) with Volta Redonda, Sao Paulo FC came calling. At Botafogo, Caio became a super sub, converting seven times in 17 games in winning the 2010 Taça Guanabara.
In 2012, Caio moved on loan to Figueirense, becoming a full-time starter and producing nine goals in 26 games. Then, it was off to Inter Porto Alegre, where he was coached by Dunga (who captained Brazil's 1994 World Cup winner) and paired at striker with Uruguayan Diego Forlan, player of the tournament in the 2010 World Cup. In the UAE Pro League, Caio has won two championships, and now Al-Wasl has clinched a place in the AFC Champions League second round, despite a 4-0 loss to Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr FC in Saudi Arabia on Monday.
'I was doing well in Brazil, but I told myself if I have a chance to leave the country I will take it,' Caio said of moving to Dubai. 'Life is good here, it's very safe. I had offers from China and they were paying a lot of money. But my wife likes it here, the club is amazing, good school for my two kids, people love me, weather's amazing — it's not cold — so why move?
'The country has given me so much, so when I received the offer for a passport I took it right away. I just want to give back and try to help the team maintain the dream.'
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Caio has scored plenty of goals — more than 170 in all competitions (nine in 54 appearances for the UAE). He also adds tactical sense and technical ability, as well as displaying leadership and people skills. Multilingual, Caio often has acted as interpreter while playing for more than 22 coaches, who arrived from Eastern and Western Europe, Central and South America. Brannigan is probably the only coach Caio has had whose first language is English.
'Caio's personality, he's just a bubbly personality kind of guy, always smiling, bringing good to the day,' Brannigan said. 'He's one of those guys that's a magnet, and people want to be around. He's positive, exuberant, doesn't let distractions pull him down, and doesn't pull down teammates or coaches with a bad attitude. He's willing to be flexible, he's receptive, he's endeared himself to pro coaches with his work ethic. When he has to rehab he puts his nose to the grindstone. A lot don't have that mentality and that separates guys that have long careers, that work ethic and mentality.
'People here are still keeping tabs on him. He's getting close to the twilight of his career, and it would be amazing if he can get to the US with the national team.'
Players with New England ties in contention for 2026 World Cup
AFC (1)
F — Caio Canedo (Nantucket High School), UAE.
CAF (10)
F — Ousseni Bouda (Millbrook School/Black Rock FC), Burkina Faso; D — Mamadou Fofana (Revolution), Mali; F — Ignatius Ganago (Revolution), Cameroon; F — Siad Haji (N.H. Classics/NEFC/Manchester Central/Lawrence Academy/N.E. College), Somalia; M — Bilal Hersi (Lewiston, Maine/Seacoast United), Somalia; F — Kei Kamara (ex-Revolution), Sierra Leone; M — Jojea Kwizera (Rhode Island FC), Rwanda; M— Allan Oyirwoth (Revolution), Uganda; F — Ismael Tajouri-Shradi (Ex-Revolition), Libya; M — Alhassan Yusuf (Revolution), Nigeria.
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CONMEBOL (3)
D — Xavier Arreaga (ex-Revolution), Ecuador; F — Leonardo Campana (Revolution), Ecuador; D —Christian Makoun (ex-Revolution), Venezuela.
CONCACAF (19)
F — Patrick Koranky Agyemang (East Hartford/Eastern Conn./URI/Western Mass. Pioneers), US; M — Isaac Angking (Providence/Revolution/Rhode Island FC), Puerto Rico; F — Khori Bennett (Northeastern), Jamaica; GK — Andre Blake (UConn), Jamaica; D — Moise Bombito (Seacoast United/UNH), Canada; M — Tajon Buchanan (ex-Revolution), Canada; GK — J.D. Gunn (Revolution II), Panama; M — Zach Herivaux (Brookline/Beaver Country Day/Revolution/Rhode Island FC), Haiti; D — DeJuan Jones (ex-Revolution), US; F — Cyle Larin (UConn), Canada; D — Damion Lowe (University of Hartford), Jamaica; F — Frantz Richard Pierrot (Melrose High/Seacoast United/Boston Bolts/Merrimack/UConn), Haiti; F —Frantzdy Pierrot (Melrose High/Seacoast United/Northeastern), Haiti; D — Colby Quinones (Bedford, N.H./Seacoast United/Revolution II), Puerto Rico; M — Damian 'Tico' Rivera (Cranston, R.I./Bayside FC/Ex-Revolutuon), Costa Rica; D — Nicolas Samayoa (ex-Revolution), Guatemala; M — Jacob Shaffelburg (Berkshire School/Black Rock FC), Canada; F — Orlando Sinclair (ex-Revolution II), Costa Rica; GK — Matt Turner (Fairfield University/Ex-Revolution), US.
UEFA (5)
M — Esmir Bajraktarevic (ex-Revolution), Bosnia & Herzegovina; F — Adam Buksa (ex-Revolution), Poland; GK — Djordje Petrovic (ex-Revolution), Serbia; GK — Henrich Ravas (ex-Revolution), Slovakia; M — Arnor Traustason (ex-Revolution), Iceland.
Born in US (6)
— Agyemang, Angking, Bajraktarevic, Quinones, Rivera, Turner.
Born in Canada (3)
— Buchanan, Larin, Shaffelburg.
Raised in US (8)
— Caio, Gunn, Haji, Herivaux, Hersi, Kamara, F. Pierrot, Fd. Pierrot.
Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at