Friday night will be The Last Dante. The Brazilian will play the final game of his professional career as OGC Nice seek to save their skin and retain their top-flight status in a promotion/ relegation play-off against AS Saint-Étienne.
The 42-year-old won’t bow out in the way he wanted. The consequences of defeat would be huge for Nice, who are the subject of takeover talks. It remains to be seen how relegation would affect those talks. And his final game will take place in an empty Allianz Riviera, due to the pitch invasion that followed the draw against FC Metz on the final day of the regular season. Fans won’t even be able to gather outside the stadium, due to measures implemented by local authorities. “Of course that affects me [emotionally],” said Dante in Thursday’s press conference attended by Get French Football News.
He added, “It is disappointing. Punishments, punishments, that’s all I hear. They have been punished enough. It isn’t normal. It is a shame for everyone. They would have helped a lot, even from outside the stadium.”
However, the former Brazil international sought to find the positive from the situation. “We know the context. The group is aware. We have to find the right balance between responsibility, the tension, which will be there, the pressure, but can also not forget that there is a positive aspect. We have to win a match at home to stay up, to save people’s jobs at the club, to make fans happy, and then to finish the season worthy of the players we are, of the club, the fans, the employees. It is a good [type of] pressure. We have an incredible opportunity to make people happy,” said Dante, whose playing career will draw to a close tonight inside a hollow stadium.
