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Dadá Maravilha

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Brazilian footballer (born 1946)
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In this article, the surname is dos Santos, not Santos.
Dadá Maravilha
Dario in the 1975–1976 season
Personal information
Full name Dario Jose dos Santos
Date of birth (1946-03-04) 4 March 1946 (age 78)
Place of birth Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1967–1968 Campo Grande-RJ
1968–1972 Atlético Mineiro 55 (32)
1973–1974 Flamengo 31 (8)
1974 Atlético Mineiro
1974–1975 Sport 26 (12)
1976–1977 Internacional 21 (16)
1977–1978 Ponte Preta 32 (17)
1978 Atlético Mineiro
1979 Paysandu 4 (1)
1980 Náutico 3 (0)
1981 Santa Cruz 13 (7)
1981–1982 Bahia 14 (8)
1983 Goiás 20 (4)
1983–1984 Coritiba
1984 Rio Negro-AM
1985 Nacional-AM 21 (8)
1985 XV de Piracicaba
1986 Comercial (Registro)
Total 240 (113)
International career
1970–1973 Brazil 7 (0)
Medal record
Men's Football
Representing  Brazil
FIFA World Cup
Winner 1970 Mexico
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Dario José dos Santos (born 4 March 1946), nicknamed Dario or Dadá Maravilha (Wonder Dadá), is a Brazilian former footballer who played as a centre-forward.

Career

Born into poverty, Dadá began his career in 1965, playing in the youth squad of Campo Grande, a small and modest club with no great history in Rio. His style and talent caught the eye of a scout working for Atlético Mineiro, a large and very traditional club from the state of Minas Gerais, who signed him in 1968. In 1969 his prestige was so great that then Brazilian President Emílio Garrastazu Médici asked coach Mário Zagallo to call Dadá to join the national team going to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. He was benched for most of the tournament, however. In total he was capped 6 times for Brazil between 1970 and 1973.

In 1971, Dadá helped Atlético win its first Campeonato Brasileiro title, scoring the only goal in the final match against Botafogo. He played for Atlético until 1973, when he transferred over to Flamengo. After another brief stint with Atlético, he played for Sport Club do Recife in the 1974–75 season, where he helped the team win the Pernambuco state championship. In April 1976 he scored 10 goals in a game against Santo Amaro (14–0), a record for the Brazilian football in official matches (previous one held by Pelé).

In 1976, he was signed by Internacional de Porto Alegre for what was, at the time, one of the biggest transactions in Brazilian football. In contrast to great players in the Internacional roster at the time, such as Figueroa, Falcão, Pablo Cesar and Valdomiro, Dadá was perceived as clumsy and slow, but his great positioning and finishing made him one of the greatest strikers in the history of the club. He was the top scorer of the 1976 Brazilian Championship, scoring 16 goals for Internacional, including the first goal in the final match against Corinthians, which Internacional won 2–0.

He signed with Ponte Preta in 1977 but sat out for most of the year while recovering from pneumonia. He returned to Atlético Mineiro for the 1978–1979 season, but wasn't as successful. From 1979 to 1986, he played for several different teams of less prestige like Náutico, Santa Cruz, Bahia and Goiás, finally ending his career at Comercial Esporte Clube, a club from Registro, in São Paulo state.

Throughout his career, his talent for scoring goals and sympathy with the fans earned him many nicknames, including "Dario Peito-de-aço" (Iron Chest Dario), "Rei Dadá" (King Dadá) and "Dadá Beija-Flor" (Dadá the Hummingbird), the latter a reference to his great impulse, which made him seemingly stop in mid-air. Dada's pre-match declarations were much sought after by sport beat reporters as he had the flair of coining names to goals yet to be scored by himself on any given match. He is also notorious for having coined many catch phrases which are still remembered and used by many Brazilian fans, such as "There's no such thing as an ugly goal, what's ugly is not scoring".

Honours

As a Player

Club

Atlético Mineiro
Flamengo
Sport
Internacional
Bahia
Goiás
Nacional-AM

International

Brazil

As a Manager

Ypiranga Clube

References

  1. ^ Dadá Maravilha at National-Football-Teams.com
  2. ^ "Dadá Maravilha: codinome beija-flor".
  3. "Quem Somos | Comercial Esporte Clube - CEC". Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Ciganos do Futebol: Dadá Maravilha e Cláudio Adão" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  5. Lacerda, Bernardo (17 February 2011). "Ex-atacante Dario vira atração no treino do Atlético Mineiro desta quinta-feira" [Former striker Dario becomes the attraction in Atlético Mineiro's training session on Thursday] (in Portuguese). Esporte UOL.
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A top scorers
Campeonato Carioca top scorers
Campeonato Mineiro top scorers
Brazil squad – 1970 FIFA World Cup winners (3rd title)
Brazil

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