Moscow gave Vágner Love a final night in red and blue, as 27,000 supporters filled the VEB Arena on Saturday to celebrate the Brazilian forward’s retirement. CSKA Moscow staged a farewell match between club greats and a team made up of Love’s friends, marking the close of a career closely tied to the Russian capital.
The 41-year-old announced in March that he was stepping away from professional football. His final club was Retrô in Brazil, but no stop featured more prominently in his career than CSKA.
Quick facts
- Vágner Love was honoured at the VEB Arena in Moscow on Saturday.
- About 27,000 fans attended the retirement celebration.
- He played 259 matches for CSKA Moscow and scored 124 goals.
- The Brazilian won four Russian league titles and the UEFA Cup with the club.
- His final playing spell came with Brazilian side Retrô.
Love arrived in Moscow from Palmeiras in July 2004, shortly after emerging from the São Paulo club’s academy. His first CSKA association stretched across eight years, though it included loan returns to Palmeiras and a spell with Flamengo.
He came back for another brief CSKA stay in 2013, spending six months with the club. Across those two periods, he became one of the defining foreign players of CSKA’s modern era.
The forward’s honours in Moscow reached well beyond his four Russian championship medals. He also lifted the UEFA Cup, the tournament now known as the Europa League, alongside six Russian Cups and four Russian Super Cups.
For CSKA, the occasion was a salute to a player whose goals helped carry the club through its most decorated continental and domestic years. For Love, it was a farewell delivered before the supporters who saw more of his club career than any other crowd.
