Pele once said of Sócrates that he could: "Play backwards better than most can play forwards." While the man himself claimed: "I am not a footballer, I am a human being." He also took on the establishment, not just within his club, but in his own country too; so no wonder he is still seen by many as the ultimate footballing maverick.
You get the feeling that Sócrates, who was born Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira on February 19th 1954, would have been good at pretty much anything he turned his hand to, but thankfully it was football that he excelled at.
Often overshadowed by his better-known compatriots like Pele, Zico, Romario and Ronaldo, his ability sometimes went under the radar but anyone who saw him shine in the magnificently entertaining Brazil sides of the 1980s or for his club side Corinthians, will fondly recall the tall, slim bearded figure who would glide around the field as if it was his own backyard.
He began playing football professionally in 1974 for Botafogo in his native Ribeirão Preto, but spent much of his career with Corinthians before his surging runs and attacking prowess, as well as a desire for political change, saw him leave for Italy and sign for Fiorentina in 1984.
The experiment turned out to be short-lived, however, and Sócrates returned home to Brazil just a year later, "I was in Florence for a year with Fiorentina and sometimes I didn't want to train, but to hang out with friends, party or have a smoke,” he said of his time in Italy. “There's more to life than football."
He signed for Flamengo before seeing out the remainder of his career with Santos and Botafogo once more, eventually hanging up his boots in 1989 at the age of 30.
But it was for Brazil in that bright yellow kit and white socks rolled down that he will be most remembered outside of South America. Sócrates made 60 appearances for his country between May 1979 and June 1986, scoring 22 goals while skippering the national team at the 82 World Cup and also appearing in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
As with so many mavericks, his achievements on the field were almost academic as it was more his antics off the pitch and outspoken views that made him different from so many of his peers; though he was still a pretty useful player with an uncanny ability to back-heel the ball to great effect from just about anywhere on the field.
A two-footed player and a prolific goal scorer Sócrates was a playmaker blessed with incredible vision who was pivotal in Corinthians’ title wins of 1979, 1982 and again in 1983, a season which saw him named South American Footballer of the Year.
Whereas teammates like Zico and Careca may have been blessed with more flair and pace Sócrates was seen as the brains of the Brazil side in the ‘80s, able to turn defence into attack in the blink of an eye and renowned for his through-passes to those with a greater finishing ability than he.
Outside of football he certainly stood out from the crowd. As a youngster he had enjoyed success as a country musician, qualified as a doctor and held a passionate interest in politics that would eventually lead to him playing a key role in the restoration of democracy in Brazil.
Around the same time that he was preparing to lead his nation into battle at the 1982 World Cup, Sócrates was also at the forefront of a rather more poignant struggle back home with a regime which was so unpopular their slogan was: “Brazil – love it or leave it.”
Co-founding the Corinthians Democracy movement, in opposition to the then-ruling military government, he and his team mates regularly showed support for the wider democratic movement by having "Democracia" printed on their shirts during games while also ensuring that every player had a vote on how the club was run – including when they took toilet breaks on away trips.
On April 16th 1984 he spoke out in support of free elections in Brazil saying, in front of two million people at a political rally, that if direct presidential elections weren’t accepted by the ruling regime, he’d leave the country. His request fell on deaf ears and just a matter of weeks later he was heading to Italy to join Fiorentina.
By revealing that three of his childhood heroes were Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and John Lennon and hinging his transfer to Italy on political grounds, not to mention denouncing the military dictatorship and vowing to fight to bring democracy back to Brazil, Sócrates transcended football endearing himself to many in the process regardless of what team they supported.
If his legendary status was ever in doubt, coming out of retirement in 2004 at the age of 50 to play for non-league Garforth Town as a favour to friend and owner Simon Clifford elevated him to new levels among fans in the small Yorkshire town, especially when it was revealed that his pre-match routine consisted of two bottles of Budweiser and three cigarettes.
A heavy drinker and equally enthusiastic smoker who once admitted that he would not be able to tell you how many cigarettes he consumed each day, Sócrates’s health declined rapidly and in 2011 he found himself hospitalized on a number of occasions finally succumbing to septicaemia as a result of food poisoning on December 4th.
In the days following his death, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, paid tribute by saying: “Brazil had lost one of its most cherished sons," while a period of silence was held before both Corinthians’ and Fiorentina’s next home games.
Pelé named Sócrates in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players in March 2004 and World Soccer named him one of 100 best footballers in history, in October 2008 he was inducted into the Pacaembu Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame, while on the field he scored 172 goals in 297 games for Corinthians on the way to winning three Domestic titles.
But surely his greatest legacy will be the role he played in helping to restore democracy to his native Brazil through his powerful words and meaningful actions when, in 1989, the first elections for president by popular ballot were held under the country's new constitution since the military coup of 1964.
