Lula receives Cuban national soccer team jersey

Havana, September 16 (JIT) - The former president of Brazil and candidate for that position again, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, received a T-shirt of the Cuban national soccer team sent by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

The shirt, also given on behalf of Inder and the Cuban Football Association (AFC), was handed over by Marcos Bocatto, an experienced coach belonging to the Brazilian Coaches Union.

Bocatto gave several courses in the Greater Antilles last May, as part of a group of experts. That project was sponsored by the Landless Movement of the South American Giant.

"The gesture is nothing more than a token of gratitude to Lula, who has close ties of friendship with Cuba," AFC president Oliet Rodríguez Méndez told JIT.

"For us it is very significant that Lula has one of our jerseys. We are honored that he received it with pleasure and we would like him to keep it as an act of gratitude after the help offered and the exchange in the interest of improving Cuban soccer," the executive added.