| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio S. V. Oliveira | ||
| Date of birth | 19 February 1954 | ||
| Place of birth | Belém do Pará, Brazil | ||
| Date of death | 4 December 2011 (aged 57) | ||
| Place of death | São Paulo, Brazil | ||
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) | ||
| Playing position | Attacking midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1974–1978 | Botafogo-SP | 57 | (24) |
| 1978–1984 | Corinthians | 297 | (172) |
| 1984–1985 | Fiorentina | 25 | (6) |
| 1986–1987 | Flamengo | 20 | (5) |
| 1988–1989 | Santos | 5 | (2) |
| 1989 | Botafogo-SP | 0 | (0) |
| 2004 | Garforth Town | 1[1] | (0) |
| Total | 396 | (207) | |
| National team | |||
| 1979–1986 | Brazil | 60 | (22) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
|||
Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, MD (19 February 1954 – 4 December 2011), simply Sócrates, was a Brazilian footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He was also a qualified doctor.
He played for Botafogo-SP before joining Corinthians in 1978. He then moved to Italy to play for Fiorentina, returning to Brazil in 1985 to end his career.
Sócrates was a technical playmaker, known for great through passes and his vision on the field, as well as his physical strength. He was also a two-footed player and a prolific goal scorer. His ability to read the game was highly valued, and his signature move was the blind heel pass.[2] He was considered to be one of the greatest midfielders ever to play the game.[3] Easily recognizable for his beard and headband, he became the "symbol of cool for a whole generation of football supporters".[4]
Sócrates played for Brazil during seven years, scoring more than 20 goals and representing the nation in two World Cups, captaining the team in the 1982 edition; he also appeared in the 1979 and 1983 Copa América tournaments, and was named South American Footballer of the Year in 1983, being selected to Pelé's FIFA 100 list in 2004.
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Sócrates was born in Belém do Pará.[4] He began playing football professionally in 1974 for Botafogo Futebol Clube in his native Ribeirão Preto, but spent the majority of his career (1978 to 1984) with Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, scoring 172 goals in 297 Série A games.[5]
In 1984–85, aged 30, Sócrates had his first experience abroad, playing in Serie A with ACF Fiorentina. He returned to his country after that sole season, representing Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, Santos FC and former club Botafogo-SP, and retiring in 1989.[5]
In 2004, more than a decade after retiring, 50-year-old Sócrates agreed to a one month player-coaching deal with Garforth Town of the Northern Counties East Football League in England.[6] He made his only appearance for the club on 20 November, against Tadcaster Albion, coming on as a substitute twelve minutes from time.[7]
Sócrates was capped 60 times for Brazil between May 1979 and June 1986, scoring 22 goals.[7] He captained the national team at the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and also appeared in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.[5] In the latter edition, he scored twice, starting with the game's only goal against Spain in the group stage.[8] he added another in the round-of-16 4–0 win over Poland, shooting his penalty kick without running; in the following game, against France, he tried to convert it in the same fashion, but had his shootout attempt saved by goalkeeper Joël Bats.[9]
Sócrates also represented the country at the 1979 and 1983 Copa América tournaments. In the latter he appeared in only one game, the second leg of the final against Uruguay (1–1 home draw, 1–3 aggregate loss).[10]
| Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Brazil | League | Copa do Brasil | League Cup | South America | Total | |||||||
| 1973 | Botafogo-SP | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 1974 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 1975 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 1976 | Série A | 19 | 5 | |||||||||
| 1977 | 16 | 9 | ||||||||||
| 1978 | 22 | 10 | ||||||||||
| 1978 | Corinthians | Série A | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 1979 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| 1980 | Série A | 16 | 13 | |||||||||
| 1981 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| 1982 | 9 | 5 | ||||||||||
| 1983 | 20 | 15 | ||||||||||
| 1984 | 13 | 7 | ||||||||||
| Italy | League | Coppa Italia | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 1984–85 | Fiorentina | Serie A | 25 | 6 | ||||||||
| Brazil | League | Copa do Brasil | League Cup | South America | Total | |||||||
| 1985 | Flamengo | Série A | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 1986 | 13 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 1987 | 7 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 1988 | Santos | Série A | 5 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1989 | Botafogo-SP | 0 | 0 | |||||||||
| England | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
| 2004–05 | Garforth Town | 1 | 0 | |||||||||
| Total | Brazil | 132 | 70 | |||||||||
| Italy | 25 | 6 | ||||||||||
| England | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Total | Club | 158 | 76 | |||||||||
| Brazil national team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1979 | 6 | 5 |
| 1980 | 8 | 2 |
| 1981 | 15 | 6 |
| 1982 | 9 | 4 |
| 1983 | 8 | 2 |
| 1984 | 0 | 0 |
| 1985 | 5 | 1 |
| 1986 | 9 | 2 |
| Total | 60 | 22 |
Sócrates lived in Ribeirão Preto with his wife and six children. He was a columnist for a number of newspapers and magazines, writing not only about sports, but also politics and economics. He frequently appeared on Brazilian TV programmes as a football pundit. At the time of his death, Sócrates was writing a fiction book about the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.[12]
Sócrates was a doctor of medicine, a rare achievement for a professional footballer (he was a graduate of the Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto).[13] Even rarer is the fact that he earned the degree while concurrently playing professional football. After retiring as a player he practised medicine at Ribeirão Preto.[4]
He was also noted for being an intellectual, a heavy drinker and a smoker.[9] His younger brother Raí was also a footballer and an attacking midfielder, being a member of the Brazilian team that won the World Cup in 1994, notably playing for São Paulo FC and for Paris Saint-Germain FC.[14][15][16]
During his time at Corinthians, Sócrates co-founded the Corinthians Democracy movement, in opposition to the then-ruling military government. Sócrates and his team mates protested against the regime's treatment of footballers, and showed support to the wider movement for democratisation, by wearing shirts with "Democracia" written on them during games.[17] Sócrates has stated that three of his childhood heroes were Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and John Lennon.[18]
Pelé named Sócrates as one of the Top 125 Living Footballers in March 2004 and World Soccer named him one of 100 best footballers in history. In October 2008, he was inducted into the Pacaembu Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame.
Sócrates was admitted to intensive care in the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo on 19 August 2011 with gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to portal hypertension[19] and was put on life-support, suffering from septic shock.[20] On 4 December, it was announced that he had died at the age of 57.[21] He was survived by his wife and six children.[22]
President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff paid tribute, saying Brazil had lost "one of its most cherished sons". "On the field, with his talent and sophisticated touches, he was a genius. Off the field... he was active politically, concerned with his people and his country."[3]
Corinthians fans held up signs in tribute and there was a moment of silence before the team's match against Palmeiras (a 0-0 draw which secured Corinthians their first Brazilian title for six years).[3] Fiorentina held a minute's silence before their league match against A.S. Roma, and the players wore black armbands in tribute.[3]
Former Brazil striker Ronaldo tweeted: "Sad start to the day. Rest in peace Dr. Socrates."[3] Zico called him "unique".[3] Italy's Paolo Rossi described the death as "a piece of our history that's broken off and gone away".[3] Garforth chairman Simon Clifford paid tribute to the "great grace" of Sócrates.[1]
There is a persistent myth that Sócrates studied medicine in Dublin, Ireland, and that during this time he played reserve football for University College Dublin A.F.C. The rumour gained some credibility following articles in several newspapers apparently confirming it, in one case even citing a confirmation by a named source within the Football Association of Ireland.[23][24] The story is, however, untrue, and has been debunked in other newspaper articles,[25][26][27] and denied by the Dublin college.[28]