The one person who defined being cool for a generation of football followers, Doctor Socrates was the captain of the one of the most highly rated and beloved teams ever to have taken the football pitch – the 1982 Brazil team. Socrates was known as the thinking man’s footballer, and was known best for stroking passes through to Zico and Falcao with the vision of an explorer.
The Doctor’s pseudonym has not been given to him for no reason. He insisted on graduating as a doctor of medicine before turning professional footballer at the ripe old age of 25. Football and medicine did not cross each other out in his life though, he continued practising the latter profession ever after retiring from football.
This tragically flawed character, who would later drink himself to death, was a doctor out of a genuine sense of responsibility towards humanity and not because of personal ambitions. His vocal protest against the military dictatorship in Brazil continued till his death, and he remains the only athlete in history to have organized a socialist cell in his team.
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