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 Dario in the 1975–76 season | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Dario Jose dos Santos | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1946-03-04)4 March 1946 (age 79) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Forward | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1967–1968 | Campo Grande-RJ | 28 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 1968–1972 | Atlético Mineiro | 182 | (123) | ||||||||||||||
| 1973–1974 | Flamengo | 45 | (22) | ||||||||||||||
| 1974 | Atlético Mineiro | 24 | (23) | ||||||||||||||
| 1974–1975 | Sport | 73 | (74) | ||||||||||||||
| 1976–1977 | Internacional | 30 | (27) | ||||||||||||||
| 1977–1978 | Ponte Preta | 38 | (22) | ||||||||||||||
| 1978 | Atlético Mineiro | 14 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 1979 | Paysandu | 16 | (17) | ||||||||||||||
| 1980 | Náutico | 33 | (22) | ||||||||||||||
| 1981 | Santa Cruz | 13 | (7) | ||||||||||||||
| 1981–1982 | Bahia | 68 | (35) | ||||||||||||||
| 1983 | Goiás | 24 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 1983–1984 | Coritiba | 19 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 1984 | Atlético Mineiro | 5 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 1985 | Nacional-AM | 28 | (19) | ||||||||||||||
| 1985 | XV de Piracicaba | 3 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 1986 | Comercial (Registro)[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | 657 | (429[3]) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1970–1973 | Brazil | 7 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Dario José dos Santos (born 4 March 1946), nicknamedDario orDadá Maravilha (Wonder Dadá), is a Brazilian former professionalfootballer who played as acentre-forward.
Born into poverty, Dadá began his career in 1965, playing in the youth squad ofCampo Grande, a small and modest club with no great history in Rio.[4] His style and talent caught the eye of a scout working forAtlético Mineiro, a large and very traditional club from the state ofMinas Gerais, who signed him in 1968. In 1969 his prestige was so great that then Brazilian PresidentEmílio Garrastazu Médici asked coachMário Zagallo to call Dadá to join thenational team going to the1970 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.[1]
In 1971, Dadá helped Atlético win its firstCampeonato Brasileiro title, scoring the only goal in the final match againstBotafogo.[5] He played for Atlético until 1973, when he transferred over toFlamengo. After another brief stint with Atlético, he played forSport Club do Recife in the 1974–75 season, where he helped the team win thePernambuco state championship. In April 1976 he scored 10 goals in a game againstSanto Amaro (14–0), a record for the Brazilian football in official matches (previous one held byPelé).[4]
In 1976, he was signed byInternacional 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 asFigueroa,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,[4] scoring 16 goals for Internacional, including the first goal in the final match against Corinthians, which Internacional won 2–0.
He signed withPonte Preta in 1977 but sat out for most of the year while recovering frompneumonia. 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 likeNáutico,Santa Cruz,Bahia andGoiás, finally ending his career atComercial Esporte Clube, a club fromRegistro, inSão Paulo state.[citation needed]
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".[4]
Atlético Mineiro
Flamengo
Sport
Internacional
Bahia
Goiás
Nacional-AM
Brazil
Ypiranga Clube
