December 6, 2011
www.thesundaily.my
Farewell Socrates: The Philosopher in Shorts
by Bob Holmes
He did not merely live up to his shining moniker, he finished you consider which if his very old Greek namesake had ever deigned to flog a ball, he would have finished so in a demeanour of a Brazilian midfielder spraying passes recognised upon Mount Olympus
WITH a name similar to his, he simply could not have been a journeyman defender. Up-ending opponents as well as hoofing it in to Row Z just would not have finished for Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira. A obtuse male competence have taken refuge in a single of his other titles though not a Brazilian. He knew he would write football philosophy.
The legend which left us upon Sunday did not merely live up to his shining moniker, he finished you consider which if his very old Greek namesake had ever deigned to flog a ball, he would have finished so in a demeanour of a Brazilian midfielder languid, elegant as well as spraying passes recognised upon Mount Olympus.
It was a easier football age which Socrates adorned. The dire diversion had not been invented as well as nor had Prozone stats. Players were not pilloried for failing to run a marathon before halftime or hauled off for losing possession; they had some-more time upon a ball, time to consider as well as no a single did some-more meditative than Socrates.
Blessed with dual feet which were in sync with his intellect, he was a soaring fulcrum of Brazil at dual World Cups dual which they didn't win.
The 1982 selected is generally acclaimed as a biggest team never to capture a ultimate prize nonetheless John Cru! yff & ; Co competence brawl that. In a 1986 side, Socrates missed a penalty in a shoot-out defeat to France a single of a biggest matches ever played.
In an age when you have been so penetrating to hit a living off their pedestals usually to go overboard with tributes to a dead, Socrates is already being deified. He was positively a genius, though a injured a single upon as well as off a field.
Loved some-more than Pele, who had fewer flaws though 3 World Cups, he was second usually to
Garrincha in a affections of a Brazilian public. Above all else, he was a male of his time.
Unlike Garrincha, he was innate upon a right side of a tracks. If not with a silver spoon, comfortably middle class. He was well-educated as well as competent as a alloy before getting critical about football. If Bjorn Borg invented cool, Socrates combined a dash of samba to it, grew a beard though kept a headband. And similar to Borg, he never brisk yet was always in command. He was additionally an enigma.
A practising GP, he smoked 60 a day as well as drank himself underneath a table. Although well-off, he was a committed communist, fixing a single of his sons Fidel after his favourite Castro. Other rebels he admired were Che Guevara as well as John Lennon. He even visited Gaddafi.
He infrequently chose a wrong choice upon a field, too, misplacing passes, blank penalties as well as accidentally giving away receive with a suicidal back-heel.
Such sins have been deemed Cardinal in today's Telestrator diversion as well as would have Roberto Mancini rearranging his coiffure. Sam Allardyce would never have picked him. Tony Pulis competence because of his 6 feet 3 inches though a perception which he competence not have relished a wet Wednesday night in Wigan would have counted against him. As would his p! hilosoph y.
"To win is not a many critical thing," he maintained. "Football is an art as well as should be showing creativity. If Vincent van Gogh as well as Edgar Degas had known when they were you do their work a level of recognition they were starting to have, they would not have finished them a same. You have to enjoy you do a art as well as not think, 'will I win?'".
Thanks to ambitious owners, highly-strung managers as well as rabid fans, it is a perspective which has left a proceed of a Olympic motto, "It's not a winning though a taking part".
And a dodo. But a single look at YouTube as well as you'll proceed to see a bulk of what we've lost. Socrates competence have had a lungs of Chernobyl though his legs could have graced a Bolshoi Ballet.
He competence have thought he was Van Gogh when he took which fateful penalty in Mexico. Not for him a candid side-foot to a stanchion or a blast in to a roof of a net. Even a little dishonesty was not enough. With 150 million Brazilians holding their breath, he opted for an proceed of no some-more than dual steps as well as a ethereal crack in to a tip corner. Art? You bet. Audacious? Arrogant? Sublime? It was all of those things as well as a execution was near-perfect. The usually problem was it didn't go in, a keeper somehow reaching it.
He could never have realised what a consequences would be. After dual successive failures with presumably unbeatable teams, Brazil again rejected a beautiful game. It was now 4 flops in all since a great 1970 side had triumphed as well as far as well prolonged for a republic which lives, eats as well as hyper-ventilates football. Art, sadly, was out as well as organization as well as discipline were in. The barbarians were no longer at a gates, they were picking a team.
It took them until 1994 to ! end thei r drought as well as they have of course won it again (2002) though have offering usually fleeting glimpses of a kind of football which Socrates played. The final book underneath Dunga was a many Allardycean of all though happily their disgraceful demise has additionally brought a reversal to a some-more inventive style. Ronaldinho a many Socratic of a current generation has been easy as well as it is to be hoped which they put upon a uncover estimable of their former great as hosts in 2014.
In a intense reverence to a star of a 1980s, Pele once said: "Socrates can play football backwards better than many can play facing forwards." Indeed. Never a single to worry with a simple side-foot when he could spin as well as back-heel by 3 pairs of legs, he upheld a round as if regulating Van Gogh's paintbrush. And finished even a smudges look good.
Although several millennia separated a Brazilian from a Greek, there were similarities between a dual Socrates. The philosopher never left any writings, flitting his wisdom down to pupils, quite Plato. The footballer, nonetheless eschewing management, espoused his views as a pundit. And tragically as it incited out, they can both be pronounced to have ended their lives by drinking poison. But a biggest likeness of all will surely be in which as prolonged as football is played, a Brazilian, similar to a Greek, will be remembered down a ages. For he was zero less than a philosopher in shorts.
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