South American Player of the Year. At a glance – a bit unusual choice: no Maradona and no Zico. Eder (Atletico Mineiro and Brazil) was voted 3rd, Ubaldo Fillol (Argentinos Juniors and Argentina) – 2nd, and the big number one was Socrates (Corinthians and Brazil).
No surprise there – in general, South America had much more unquestionable individual stars than Europe and Socrates was one of the greatest among them. It was his time and since Maradona struggled in Europe with injuries and other problems and Zico was a bit down too, it was fair. Sorates was 29, he was world class and at top form. There were few other factors, tipping the scale in his favour – Corinthians was not at the top of South American, but had very strong period nevertheless. Brazil did not win the World Cup in 1982 and lost Copa America to Uruguay in 1983, but Socrates was not to blame (he played little at Copa America, appearing only in the second leg at the final). But the tall, thin as a rail, visibly lacking muscle bearded star was constantly talked about – and it was not just about his football. There was something romantic, something already gone, but something people missed badly – Socrates was so much loved because he was old-fashioned star, like he stepped out of the 1960s or earlier time. He was not a running and kicking robot, but elegant player with somewhat lazy moves and great reading of the game. He was able to produce magic with his passes, skills, goals. He was not arrogant egotist, like Maradona and provided different and more entertaining show – with Maradona it was largely hie individual brilliance; with Socrates it was the flow of the game, it was not sporadic moments of magic, but constantly entertaining game, for the bearded playmaker organized and involved the whole team . And Socrates was human, approachable, ordinary person, not a jaded star.
He did hide at all his human qualities or vices – here is, with his ever present cigarette in hand, talking with the Chilean great Carlos Caszeli. The glass with whiskey is missing, but it was always nearby. Just one of the neighbourhood boys, not a sparky clean professional… As for the talk, one can safely bet that it was about politics, not about new car, vacations, women. That was the other side of Socrates, also at its top at the moment – that was the time Socrates openly opposed the Brazilian military government.
He organized his teammates and persuaded Corinthians to play with ‘Democracia’ (Democracy) written on their shirts – it was open defiance of the military rule, a political slogan bravely displayed to all to see. It was clever and effective political tool. The combination of purely football form, political stance, putting his name in everybody’s mouth, and nostalgia worked perfectly this year and Socrates got the continental award. Was it really his best playing year is somewhat beyond the point – he was one of the best players in the world, but South American competition was stiff at the moment and there was huge risk of someone left out. And many, especially Brazilians of this time, were left out – Maradona and Zico were simply on different plane. Socrates was on their level, but the award was singular… It was more than fair he won it. Yet, it was also another triumph, going against the usual – it was victory of romantic old values, victory of the anti-football in a way, at least as a perception: a player not looking like professional player (stepping out of the pre-Second World War football of ‘unfit’ stars); bohemian, smoking and drinking, as opposite to the image of hard training current professional; intellectual, as if stepping out from already very distant pre-professional days of the game; politically involved, as if it was the early 1970s, not the 80s. Socrates appeared to be odd anomaly – but produced magic on the pitch, thus defying the current notions of the game. The combination worked best in 1982-83, even in that that the other big stars played in Europe, when Socrates was still at home and everybody could see him live.