Pelé and Garrincha got the headlines. Didi made the machine run. The elegant midfielder was the brain of the Brazil side that won the World Cup in 1958 and again in 1962, and he set the tempo of those games like a conductor.
The dry leaf
His best-known invention was the folha seca, the dry leaf. It was a free kick that dipped suddenly, the way a dry leaf drops from a tree, and goalkeepers of his era had never seen anything like it. It changed how people thought a football could move.
Best player in Sweden
At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, the tournament where a 17-year-old Pelé burst onto the scene, Didi was named the best player. Brazil kept the trophy four years later, with Didi again the midfield general.
The rest of his career has some notable footnotes. He scored the first-ever goal at the Maracanã, in the stadium's opening match in 1950. In 1959 he moved to Real Madrid to play alongside Di Stéfano and Puskás, and later he returned home to star for Botafogo.
He showed that a midfielder can control a match without breaking into a sprint. Two World Cups, the best player award in 1958 and a free kick that changed the flight of the ball: that is the case for number 8, and it is a strong one.
Tomorrow: number 7.
