Sunday, December 04, 2011

Socrates dead!

The Brazilian soccer star, thanks to whom even a football nincompoop like me stayed up late in the night to watch the World Cup, has died:
He had been in a critical condition with an intestinal infection since being admitted to intensive care on Friday at a hospital in Sao Paulo.
Socrates, who was widely regarded as one of the greatest ever midfielders, was moved onto a life support machine on Saturday.
He played in two World Cups, won 60 caps for his country between 1979 and 1986 and scored 22 goals.
The following is what I had blogged a year-plus ago:
All I remember from that World Cup was one name: Socrates.  It was a simply awesome tournament ... TV was just about being introduced then in the part of India where I lived, and it was the good ol' newspaper and radio that we had to work with.  I wonder if that made it all the more exciting, come to think of it ...

Guess what happened to Socrates?
Sócrates is a doctor of medicine, a rare achievement for a professional footballer (he is a graduate of the Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto). Even rarer is the fact that he earned the degree while concurrently playing professional football. There are persistent rumours that Sócrates turned out for the University College Dublin. However, the player himself has denied this saying that he has never even been to Dublin[citation needed].
He is also noted for being an intellectual (he holds a doctorate degree in philosophy), a heavy drinker and smoker, and for his height (193 cm, 6 ft 4 in).

Dev Anand and Socrates on the same day :(

1 comment:

Rahul said...

I feel lucky to watch 1982 & 1986 glimses of his touch football & I can surely say he was splendid with zico as his partner. Really a great loss for the world football.