Treble winner Dante leads Nice to safety in his last game before retirement at 42
| Lennart Preiss/Bongarts/Getty Images |
Dante captained OGC Nice to safety in his last-ever game before retirement behind closed doors. The 42-year-old center-back played 78 minutes in Nice’s 4-1 win over Saint-Etienne that secured safety for the Eagles. The club from the southeastern coast of France have never been relegated from Ligue 1 since 2002, which is a year before Dante's Brazilian Série A debut for Esporte Clube Juventude.
Due to injury, Dante could only feature in 19 games in all competitions in his 10th season at the club. Before his return to French football, the Brazilian played for Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Bayern Munich, and Wolfsburg for a total of eight years.
In particular, his transfer to FC Bayern was one of the catalysts for the treble campaign in 2012/13. From nearly 800 games in his glittering career, 202 of them were in Bundesliga for the three clubs. Despite the elation of avoiding the drop in his farewell game, Dante leaves the field with mixed feelings as there were no fans present at Allianz Riviera due to Nice’s suspension.
