Profile of a Legend: Brazilian Footballer Socrates
Brazilian footballer, Socrates, who shares his name with the famous Greek philosopher, was an exceptionally talented and skilled player. He was a very interesting footballer who was extremely talented on the pitch and was very politically active off it. He was also a very interesting character who smoked two packets of cigarettes a day while also being a fully qualified medical doctor. He used his on pitch presence to further the cause of democracy in his country when it was under the grips of military rule and was captain and part of one of the greatest football sides Brazil has ever produced.
Socrates started his football career in 1974 playing for the club side Botafogo and debuted at the age of 25. In 1978 he moved to the Corinthians where he spent the rest of his career except for a brief stint at Flamengo during the later part of his career. Socrates was an unbelievable passer of the ball and as a midfield player he created plays that routinely fooled defenders and produced numerous scoring opportunities for his team. He was captain of the 1982 Brazilian side that featured at the World Cup although he failed to win the contest. He also featured heavily in the great 1986 World Cup squad that was unfortunate not to win the Cup. Throughout his career he was capped 60 times and he scored 22 goals. Even though his goal scoring and midfield plays became the stuff of legend, he was more famously known for his blind back heel passes which caught many defenders out and helped create scoring chances.
Socrates is a very strange footballer. He seemed to be more interested in his education than in the beautiful game. He was not a teenage star player, but actually delayed starting his professional career because he was still studying for his medical doctorate degree. We live in a time when children as young as 12 leave school and start playing football. The effect this has on them is that if for some reason they do not make it in the big bad world of football, they are left with no football career and no education to fall back on either. Socrates even continued studying medicine while he was playing professional football. This is so rare today that people still talk about this one feat of his with awe and wonder. After retiring, he has continued to practice medicine and can be routinely seen giving treatment to the sick. The strangest aspect of his life was that even though he was a medical doctor, he smoked up to two packets of cigarettes a day. This was before the time when it was known how bad they are for a person’s health, but his habit was a defining part of him. At least he did not smoke on the field of play.
Besides being one of the greatest footballers in Brazil and a qualified medical doctor, Socrates was also known for his political views. He was vehemently opposed to the military junta ruling Brazil at the time and was a staunch supporter of democracy in all its forms. He along with his team mates started the Corinthians Democracy movement at his club Corinthians. Players would wear Democracy labelled on their jerseys to games. Through their activism and campaigns they managed to use football to highlight their need for democracy and a free and fair Brazil not ruled by the military.
After retiring from football the great man has not stood still. He still smokes and drinks like a champion but he continues to practice medicine and he is also a commentator on football. He writes columns in newspapers about football, Brazil, politics and democracy. He is even writing a book on fiction about the World Cup about to take place in Brazil in 2014. He says that the greatest aspect of his football career was the fact that he got to see two sides of society and that has shaped his life. He got to see the glitz and the glamour of the rich and famous people he met and he also saw the underprivileged lifestyle amongst the people he interacted with. This aspect of seeing both sides he says has been the greatest part of his career. Spoken like a true philosopher, it seems he shares more with the Greek Socrates than just his name.
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