Waldir Pereira, better known as "Didi", who has died of pneumonia at the age of 72, was one of the finest and most influential Brazilian footballers. He represented his country in three World Cups, two of which they won, and survived the humiliation of a saison en enfer at Real Madrid immediately after he had played so large a part in Brazil's first ever victory, in the 1958 World Cup. Altogether, he played 72 times for Brazil, scoring 24 goals.
Didi was born into an impoverished family in the city of Campos. "As a kid," he once said, "I had to work as a peanut seller to help my parents." As with so many Brazilian football stars, the game was his way out, and he never concealed his determination to make as much money as possible. "A man can speak lightly of poverty only if he has never experienced its terrors," he said.
He began with the Fluminense club of Rio, who acquired him from Madureiro. It was there, as an accomplished inside-forward, that he perfected his remarkable dead-leaf free kicks, struck with the outside of the boot, which swerved and faded their way past an infinity of baffled goalkeepers.
The most famous of them beat the Peruvians to qualify Brazil for the World Cup finals of 1958, from which Didi was almost excluded. It would have been strange, he wryly reflected afterwards, if they had left out the man who had paid for their ticket.
"From that point," wrote Didi much later, "such kicks became a sort of trademark of mine, and everyone asked me, to the point of driving me to desperation, exactly how I did them."
By then, he was an experienced international, having played for Brazil in the ill-starred 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, when his country was knocked out by Hungary in the quarter-finals, in the notoriously violent Battle of Berne. Didi, however, was not one of those who lost his head.
How did he perfect those extraordinary free kicks? "Above all," he wrote, "a lot of practice, and constant practice. For instance, when I joined Botafogo [also of Rio] from Fluminense, in my first period with the club, the Botafogo coach did not care for my long practising with free kicks, and, for a time, the skill was lost to me. The press said, 'Such a pity, Didi has forgotten his famous kick.' All that happened was that I was not getting the constant practice, and this experience taught me how vital this practice was."
Technically adroit and a superb passer of the ball, Didi fitted admirably into the novel 4-2-4 system practised by Brazil during the 1958 World Cup, playing in Sweden alongside Dino, and then the more robustly-tackling Zito - though Didi himself was notable for intercepting balls in midfield.
He could also score goals from open play, as he had in the 1954 tournament, with goals against both Mexico and Yugoslavia in the first round. It was his astonishing, swerving shot from 30 yards out that gave Brazil the lead in the 1958 semi-final in Stockholm, and, though he did not score against Sweden in the final, he and Zito dominated the midfield. That other Brazilian legend, Pele, benefited greatly from Didi's service.
Alas, his 1959-60 interlude with Real Madrid was a disaster, caused because the team's Napoleon, Argentine Alfredo Di Stefano, could brook no competition, and froze Didi out of the team. Didi later called this "my so-called failure". Spanish football, with its physical emphasis, disgusted him. "Human intelligence and reasoning ability divides us from the animals, so what is a football player who depends solely on his physical strength".
Back with Botafogo in Rio, Didi played again for Brazil in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, slower but still influential, disappointed that Di Stefano did not turn out for Spain, when the teams met in Viña del Mar - for Didi "utterly desired to show them the kind of player I was."
In retirement, he went to Peru as manager of the Cristal club of Lima, then successfully took over the national team, qualifying them for the 1970 World Cup at the expense of the ruthless Argentines and, in Mexico, getting his team to the quarter-finals where they lost honourably to Brazil.
If Madrid "proved the greatest disillusionment in my life," there would be ample compensations. Between his two stints in Peru, Didi returned to Brazil to manage Botafogo, always loyal to the 4-2-4 formation that enabled Peru to beat Argentina away in a vital World Cup qualifier.
