For the second time within a week the world of football was placed into mourning one of its own as the Brazilian footballer Socrates passed on Sunday 4^th December aged 57.

Socrates was part of what is considered to be the greatest football team never win the World Cup. A team built on flair, commitment and legendary skill, they crashed out of both the ‘82 and ‘86 World Cup finals in Spain and Mexico but who left a lasting legacy and impression on football audiences worldwide.

The 1982 squad that included the genuine talent of Zico, Oscar, Eder, Falcao, Valdir Peres and the captain Socrates should have been a shoe in to lift football’s greatest prize but in a tournament that was dominated in the end by European sides, fans had to be content with losing a team that in any other era would have won the cup handsomely and with beauty. Memories of the 1970 World Cup would have been in everybody’s minds when Brazil faced Italy in a rather farcical 2^nd round process that saw England go out of the World Cup despite not losing a game during the tournament.

One of the most anticipated games of that World Cup saw the flair and imagination of Brazil take on Italy’s dodged and somewhat prickly defence. Both teams didn’t disappoint but ultimately the Italians won the game 3-2. Even a wonderful display by Socrates couldn’t stop the Italian side, led up front by the footballing talent of Paolo Rossi, from going on to the semi-finals and ultimately going on to win the World Cup.

Everyone has their favourite second team, a squad of players you feel as though deserve to be the best and win the major prize if your country fails to turn up at tournament or who goes out due to F.I.F.A.’s weird and baffling decision to enlarge the competition from 16 to 24 teams. For me personally it was Brazil, as with every other 11 year old possibly in the Midlands that year.

Born Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira in February 1954, he started his club career in 1974 at Botafago –SP making 57 appearances and scoring 24 goals, a phenomenal return for an attacking midfielder. From there he made the transition to hero status in Brazil by joining Corinthians. A move that endeared him not only to the public but due to the military government being in control in Brazil at the time, to his fellow professionals and staff at the club as he instigated the protests against the treatment of footballers in his home country. He also showed that democracy would not lie down and die as he showed support for the greater identity and democracy of Brazil by having every decision that Corinthians made was discussed and voted upon by everyone involved with the club.

Capped 60 times by Brazil, he played in both the ‘82 and ‘86 World Cups and is universally acknowledged as being good enough as a young man to have gained a lot more, however due to his diligence as a student of medicine, he would not pull on the famous colours of his nation till he had gained his medical degree.

Intellectual, deep thinker, heavy smoker and for one brief moment in time a member of English Non-League team Garforth Town, he thrilled a generation of school boys and their dads and the loss of that talent, especially before the circus that is the World Cup returns to land of beautiful football in 2014.

Socrates was admitted to intensive care on the 19^th August 2011 suffering gastrointestinal bleeding. He passed away on Sunday.

The world of football may have moved on, training better, diet more strict but it seems to have lost some of the beauty that captured the hearts of lovers of the game. By losing Socrates, it is just that little bit more bland and dull.

Ian D. Hall