Socrates

By AM Friday, December 9, 2011

Share Tweet Share Share Email

A qualified doctor, renowned intellectual and an outspoken, pro-democracy fighter during Brazil's brutal military dictatorship, Socrates had defied many stereotypes - Helena DeMoura, CNN

Casually perusing through a newspaper in the house of a friend, a piece about an erstwhile world renowned footballer caught my eye. Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, concisely and universally known as Socrates, the former Brazilian soccer international, had died at the age of 57.

In 1982 Socrates was the gifted player who captained the finest Brazilian team not to lift a World Cup. That type of observation, despite being clichéd remains no less true. It is probably a cliché because its truth status is such that it is stated matter of factly, incurring little disagreement. The team had flair, skill, technique and charisma in copious quantities and undoubtedly has the distinction of being the only Brazilian team in 40 years to resemble the great side of 1970. It ranks alongside the outstanding Dutch team of 1974, a squad of champions denied the championship.  That was before the days when coaches like Dunga acquired licence to impose a pedestrian character on Brazilian national soccer teams. Make a team more like England and it will repay you by winning as much as England.

At the heart of the brilliant 1982 side stood Socrates. It has been written about him that he was a Maoist and enthusiast of both Che Guevera and John Lennon. Whether at that time he was an admirer of Fidel Castro, or if that only came later, I do not know. Either way it did nothing to diminish his élan. With his Che Guevera looks, soccer prowess, and medical training thrown in, he captured the attention of the sports aficionados.

At the time Zico, a colleague of Socrates, said he didn’t mind who Brazil met in the final, such was the confidence of the team that it would easily go the distance and emerge with the crown. That self belief may have proved their undoing coupled with the sudden discovery of form by the Italian striker Paolo Rossi. The rejuvenated Italians, who stumbled through the first stage winning not a single game, beat Brazil 3-2 courtesy of a Rossi hat trick. The rest is history. Italy, not Brazil, took the victor’s crown on the final day of the tournament.

The daring and panache of Socrates combined to produce some of the most memorable soccer of the 1982 competition. He outshone a lacklustre Maradona – who would come good, really good, four years later in Mexico – an equally unimpressive Mario Kempas, his own colleague Zico who was often referred to as the new Pele, and the brilliant Michel Platini.

That summer of the World Cup we were not out of the blanket protest a full year. The tournament we managed to see in fits and starts due to being confined to our cells every second evening. Soccer mad, it was excruciating to miss crucial clashes. The Italy-Brazil game was one of those denied us. We could snatch snippets from the black and white TV in the canteen and were in no doubt as to how it was going. The competition appeared to die with Brazil’s exit, only to be revived by a controversial France-West Germany semi-final.

Socrates had the reputation for being an intellectual, a rarity in a game more comfortable with David Beckham than Pat Nevin. He held a doctorate in philosophy, achieved after his retirement from soccer.  As well as being a medical doctor he was active in politics. Lula, the former president of Brazil and friend of the soccer player said ‘Dr. Socrates ... was an example of citizenship, intelligence and political consciousness, in addition to his immense talent as a football professional.’ He was also open about his passion for tobacco and alcohol although it was hardly the ‘hemlock’ one writer termed it in a tenuous attempt to synchronise the circumstances of his death with that of his illustrious namesake, the Greek philosopher.

A frequent public commentator, in one of his newspaper columns he denied the world’s premier football legend and fellow Brazilian, Pele, any resemblance to Martin Luther King. Bitingly, Socrates criticised him for not tackling racism in the sport with the words, ‘one thing we know for sure: Pele has never had a dream.’

Socrates, hirsute and erudite, emblazoned in gold and blue, the captain on a field of dreams.