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Socrates
(Brazil)
One of
the most elegant midfield generals in soccer history,
Socrates, began his career in Botafogo. He was never a
teenage star and didn’t make his debut in the
Brazilian national team until he was 25. He was
blessed with wonderful skills, vision and seemed to
have so many options when he was on the ball. He was
able to play the ball wherever and whenever he wanted.
His heel-kicks became famous world wide. These rare
skills combined with the fact that he was a medical
student more than justified him being nicknamed “the
doctor”. Socrates captained Brazil’s fantastic
World Cup team of 1982 partnering Cerezo, Falcao and
Zico in midfield. He scored twice in that tournament,
one of them being a marvellous goal against the Soviet
Union when he dribbled past two players before firing
it home from long range. Brazil didn’t reach the
semifinals in that tournament, but played some
wonderful soccer.
Socrates was not an
ordinary athlete, infact he didn’t look at himself
as an athlete. He smoked a pack of sigarettes every
day, and that was one of the reasons to why he never
settled in Italy when he arrived there in 1984 to play
for Fiorentina. The lifestyle didn’t suit him and he
went back to Brazil a year later.
In 1986, Socrates again
was instrumental for Brazil in their attempt of
winning the World Cup, but France and Platini won on
penalties in the quarterfinal after a wonderful match.
Socrates missed one of the penalties in the shoot-out.
He was the only player of the survivors of the 1982
team who really reached the same level, but it
wasn’t enough to take them through. He scored more
than a goal every third game in average for Brazil,
which is excellent for a midfielder and added two more
to his account in the Mexico World Cup.
At clublevel he played
most of his career for Botafogo and Corinthians for
whom he won three Sao Paulo state championships.
Socrates also played for Flamengo winning a Rio state
championship before ending his career in 1990 playing
for Santos.
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