Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Delighted to (though I'm not Dec! :))... Apparently the Doc - Tony O'Neill - is one of those who says he did play for us. We obviously can't ask him any more, but we did ask someone who asked Socrates, who said it's nonsense - he's never been to Ireland.
The article Dodge refers to was in the UCD-Pat's match programme in May 03 and is as follows...
In 1982, and again in 1986, Brazil were, as ever, one of the favourites for the World Cup. In 1982, they scored 10 goals in their first phase group, which contained the USSR, Scotland and New Zealand, beat Argentina, including a young Diego Maradona (who was sent off that day), 3-1 in the second phase group before succumbing 3-2 to Italy in a memorable game where Paolo Rossi, not long back from a worldwide ban for bribery, scored a hat-trick for the eventual winners. In 1986, they again progressed through their group with ease, beating Spain, Algeria and Northern Ireland, overcoming Poland in the second round, all without conceding a goal, before losing out to France in another of the World Cup’s great games. Brazil had players of the calibre of Zico, Careca, Branco, Junior, Josimar and the legendary Socrates, not long from a spell in Ireland playing for UCD.
I’m sure there will be some of you who’ll have read that last bit again – surely not the Socrates Brasiliero Sampaio De Sousa Ferreira Oliveira? Yep, the same. Socrates, like many Brazilians, had a love for the beautiful game, but decided early on that it wouldn’t be a livelihood, and consequently decided to study medicine. The story goes that he came to UCD to study in 1976 and, while here, played for the first team, who were then a non-league side. From there, he went back to Brazil to play with Corinthians, where he won three Brazilian titles, spent a year with Fiorentina in Italy before returning home for two seasons with Flamengo and two with the famous Santos, whom he had supported as a boy.
In his international career, Socrates made his debut in 1979 and went on to be one of Brazil’s top 10 goalscorers of all time by his retirement from international football through injury in 1987 with 20 goals, including a goal in the aforementioned defeat to Italy, as well as a brace in the 4-0 win over Poland in 1986.
Alas, everything in the above story is true, except for one thing – Socrates’ much-lauded appearances for UCD never happened. He did arrive in Ireland to study in 1976, however, while with Botafogo – indeed, he spent two years in Ireland studying medicine, but he was a student in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in town, not in UCD. His love of soccer led him to attend the RCSI’s trials for their Collingwood Cup team. Alas, RCSI weren’t (and still aren’t!) known for their footballing abilities and, after seeing the quality of his potential team-mates, he quickly decided to concentrate on his medicine and gave up any aspirations of a football career in Ireland. Another urban myth which has done the rounds is that he played for Shelbourne – this is is similarly not true.
Socrates did make a comeback after his retirement, but quit football for good in 1990 at the age of 36 to make use of his qualifications and enter the medical practice and, 13 years on, he is by all accounts a very successful doctor in his home country.
