The Brazilian titan - Didi

When people talk about football in the 1950s and 1960s they talk about Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Pelé, Garrincha, Bobby Moore, Eusebio, Lev Yashin or Francisco Gento, but what about Didi? The Brazilian Titan goes under the radar, enjoy the story of Didi!

by - Sven (footy_community)

Waldyr Pereira, better known as Didi, was born on the 8th of October 1928 in Campos Dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Didi was one of the many players who learnt his skills playing barefoot on the streets, but there was always a chance that he would never have been able to take to the field in the first place... an injury to his right knee became infected when Didi was 14 years old. This infection left him in a wheelchair for six months. Didi showed resilience and arose to become one of the greatest players of all time.

“It is the ball that has to run, not the player.” - Didi

Career - Until 1958

Didi joined the youth academy of Sao Cristóvao in 1944 as a 16-year-old, Didi went through multiple youth academies in the upcoming years, before signing his first professional contract in 1947 for Brazilian club Madureira. After two seasons for Mudreira, Didi made a move to Brazilian giant Fluminese.

Didi played seven seasons for Fluminese, winning two trophies (Copa Rio and the State Championship) in the early 1950´s. After a couple of good seasons at Fluminese, Didi got his first call up for the the national team in 1952, two years before his first World Cup in Switzerland. Brazil won Group 1, Didi scoring twice in the group stage and Brazil advanced to the quarter-finals. The Seleção faced Hungary and lost 2-4 vs a phenomenal side with the likes of Puskas, Czibor, Bozsik and Hidegkuti.

Didi moved to another Brazilian giant, Botafogo. He won one title during his first spell at Botafogo, the Campeonato Carioca in 1957. Didi impressed Brazil already with his performances for Fluminese, Botafogo and the national team and it was time to impress the world in 1958.

1958 World Cup

Brazil entered the 1958 World Cup as favourites. They won the group stage with an easy 3-0 victory over Austria in the first game, a 0-0 draw against England and to secure the first place in the group, they won 2-0 vs Russia (Soviet Union) in the final group stage game. The quarter-final was played vs Wales and won by the Brazilians, 1-0. Didi was amazing so far, but it became better in the semi-final and the final.

The semi-final, Brazil faced Just Fontaine his side. Vavá scored an early goal in the 2nd minute. Fontaine scored a quick equalizer before the clock hit 10 minute mark. Our man Didi scored the 2-1 (!) just before half-time. The second half was mind blowing, Pelé scored an hattrick and Fontaine socred once. Brazil 5, France 2!

Brazil faced home country Sweden in the final. Only four minutes into the final and Liedholm opened the score for Sweden, Brazil was shocked, the team, the fans, apart from Didi. Didi slowly walked into the goal, put the ball under his arm and calmly walked it back to the centre-circle, as if nothing went wrong. His teammate Zagallo shouted: ´come on Didi, we´re losing!´. In a manner that no one else besides Didi could pull off, Didi looked at his teammates and said

“Calm down, we are still the better team than they are. We´ll turn this game around soon enough” .

Brazil scored 4 minutes later, 1-1. The final became a crazy game and Brazil scored four more! The final whistle blew and Brazil won their first World Cup after a 5-2 win over France. Many say that the outcome would have been different if Didi wasn´t that calm.

Didi was selected as the best player of the tournament and won the Golden Ball, the whole world met a new superstar from Rio de Janeiro.

Real Madrid

After this amazing performance at the World Cup, Didi got his move to an European giant, Real Madrid. Unfortunately, Didi only played 19 games for Loc Blancos. The problem? Real Madrid already had a leadership figure in Alfredo di Stefano, who was more like a despot. Everyone at Real Madrid, even Ferenc Puskas, had to subject Stefano´s rules. Di Stefano saw Didi as a rival and simply froze him out of the team, practically refusing to even pass the ball when he got the chance to. Didi was part of the 1960 European Cup winning squad, but moved back to Botafogo later that year.

Career - 1960 until retirement

Didi won back to back Campeonato Carioca´s in the lead-up to the 1962 World Cup with Botafogo. Surprise Surprise, but Brazil was one of the favourites to win the World Cup again. Didi was one of the senior members of the squad, but that didnt stop him from being one of the key players in the Brazilian lineup. He played, yet again, an amazing World Cup and Brazil defended their title. Didi´s only regret? That di Stefano was injured for the Brazil-Spain match. Didi wanted to show him the ´utterly desired to show him the kind of player I was.´ Didi played for Botafogo until 1962, he retired in 1966 at Sao Paulo.

Play Style

´What you must understand is that Didi is smarter than you and I. He saw things on the pitch no one else could see. He made passes that weren´t supposed to be open and he constantly intercepted passes because he knew where the ball was going, he was two steps ahead of anyone else.´

“He was too smart at times. It sometimes confused us instead of the opponents.” - Pelé

Didi invented the dry leaf free-kicks. Later used by the famous Juninho and Cristiano Ronaldo. Honestly, it is hard to describe Didi´s play style, I would highly recommend to watch some footage on Youtube, there are some amazing videos available!

One of my favourite players of all-time and the best midfielder of all time behind Maradona and Platini in my opinion.

*the end*