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Waldyr Pereira, also known as Didi (Portuguese pronunciation: [dʒiˈdʒi]; 8 October 1928 – 12 May 2001), was a Brazilian footballer who played as a midfielder or as a forward. He played in three FIFA World Cups (1954, 1958, and 1962), winning the latter two.
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There is video footage of Didi, wearing the black and white stripes of Botafogo, practising free kicks with both feet. With his right foot he drives through the ball with his bootlaces, occasionally applying some extra bend by cutting across the shot so the final point of impact is with the outside of his boot. The late fade he was able to get on t...
“He invented a lot of important moves, like the dry leaf and the three-toe pass,” said Pelé, who went on to explain his team-mate’s influence during his first World Cup. “Didi was very important for me in 1958. I was only 17 and he was like an older brother. For him, playing football was as easy as peeling an orange.” In his book, Why Soccer Matter...
The then Botafogo man possessed a powerful shot in open play, as well as from free kicks, and this was demonstrated by his goal in the 1958 World Cup semi-final against France. But he was to be overshadowed again as the teenage Pelé bagged a hat-trick. “I was already in position out on the left wing, ready for kick-off, and I saw Didi walking slowl...
These performances alerted Real Madrid, who had been dominating the newly established European Cup, winning every final in the 1950s from its inception in 1955. They signed Didi in 1959, but his talent, and therefore his performance level, was stifled by the ego and authoritarian rule of Alfredo Di Stefano at the club, who accused the Brazilian of ...
The 1962 World Cup win in Chile is one of Brazil’s least celebrated, but it remains the last time a nation won back to back World Cups. An injury picked up by Pelé during a group stage game against Czechoslovakia ended his tournament and Garrincha went on to be its star, but Didi was again present in the side throughout. The group stage game agains...
- James Nalton
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- Pele. Aged just 17, Pele scored six times at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. He was the youngest player ever to score in a final, netting a brace to clinch victory for Brazil over the hosts, and went on to win international football’s biggest prize another two times, in 1962 and 1970 – something that hasn’t been achieved before or since.
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- Garrincha. Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano once claimed that "in the entire history of football no one made more people happy” than Garrincha. The Brazlian great was born with a crooked spine and uneven legs, giving him the nickname the ‘Bent-Legged Angel’, but it never showed on the football pitch as he made a fool of defenders for fun with his dazzling dribbling ability.
- Ronaldinho. The smiling magician was one of the most natural entertainers ever to play the game. Ronaldinho's quickness of thought and execution, not to mention the dazzling box of tricks he could use to find his way past opponents, made him a must-watch attraction in his own right.
Together with Pelé, Vavá, Garrincha and Mário Zagallo, he formed the attack quintet of the Brazilian team that became world champions in 1958 and 1962. Considered as one of the greatest midfielders of all time. Didi was a very gifted playmaker known for his long balls and free kicks.
Brazil went on to win a World Cup that will forever be synonymous with Garrincha and Pele, though neither, nor 13-goal Just Fontaine was voted the competition’s best player. That distinction went...
People also ask
Was Didi the best Brazilian footballer of all time?
Who was Brazil's best player in the World Cup?
Was Didi a better player than Pelé & Garrincha?
Why is Didi a good midfielder?
Rated as one of the game’s greatest midfield players, Brazilian Valdir Pereira, better known simply as Didi, came close to losing any chance of a football career at all when an infection almost led him to lose his right leg as a teenager.
