Opinião – O Mundo É a Bola: Mega-scorer, Roberto Dinamite was almost a Zico

This is a memory text. Memory that assures that Roberto Dinamite, who died at the age of 68 this Sunday (8) as a result of cancer, was almost a Zico. Cr ace.

In the early 1980s, when I started following football with great interest, it was difficult to get to see football matches.

Those from outside São Paulo (my hometown), then, did not exist on TV, which only offered open channels: Cultura, SBT, Globo, Record, Manchete, Gazeta and Bandeirantes, which was not even “the sports channel”.

You could watch one or two games a week, on Globo (with Luciano do Valle) or on Record (with Silvio Luiz). And what was on TV the most was the Campeonato Paulista, which at that time was as or more important than the Brazilian.

I emphasize that there was no internet, and we didn’t even imagine that we would have, about a decade and a half later, access to the world wide web, this marvel of technology.

So how could I find out about the careers of Zico and Roberto Dinamite, who played in Rio de Janeiro, respectively for Flamengo and Vasco da Gama?

In three ways. By the magazine Placar, which each week brought varied football reports and information about the main championships in the country (Carioca among them), by sports programs on the Jovem Pan radio (Jornal de Esportes, at lunchtime, and No Pique da Pan , at night) and for “Gols do Fantástico”, a segment that closed Globo’s Sunday night.

With the presentation of Leo Batista or Fernando Venci, the “Gols do Fantástico” brought the goals of the main games of the day, and Zico and Dinamite were invariably there, scoring one, two, three goals for the rubro-negro or for the cross-morning match. Mega Gunners.

I was interested not only in football in São Paulo, but also in other states, and Rio drew attention, in the early 1980s, for the potential rivalry between Flamengo and Vasco, for the duels between the stars Zico, a year older, and Roberto Dinamite.

The two, for me, became living legends, admired for their proficiency in the art of scoring goals and for their technical leadership.

Zico’s Flamengo, Quintino’s Galinho, was the boogeyman, the favorite, the team of the moment. So, in terms of sympathizing with the underdog, I found myself rooting for Vasco in the 1982 State of Rio de Janeiro decision.

And rooting for Dinamite, because what kid wouldn’t want a player with that impactful nickname, who exploded with intense joy at every goal?

I even had a Vasco shirt, I wore it a few times, even though I’m not a supporter of the Colina association.

In that 1982 Rio de Janeiro final, which was concomitant with a Corinthians x São Paulo, decision of the second round of Paulista in Morumbi, the TV showed the classic Majestoso and showed flashes of the duel in Maracanã, and in a bid Dinamite hit, from lack, the dash. Almost.

Vasco ended up winning by 1-0 and being champion, without the need for a goal by Roberto, who before and after scored dozens and dozens for the club he defended for 22 years.

At the end of 2020, Walmer Peres Santana, Vasco historian, sent me Dynamite numbers for the club.

There were, from 1971 to 1993, 1,016 official games as a professional (549 wins, 277 draws and 190 defeats) and 617 goals scored, the last of them on October 26, 1992, in the 1-0 victory over Goytacaz.

Flamengo fans will not like the comparison, they will say that Zico was much better than Dinamite.

In my conclusion, from what I could see and read about them, both were spectacular, with a slight advantage for the 10 rubro-negro, more skilled and faster.

In the affective memory of this blogger, however, Dinamite surpasses Zico, since he played for a few months in São Paulo football, in 1989, for Portuguesa deesportivas, always loved by the people of São Paulo.

For Lusa, the striker scored 9 of the 190 goals that make him the top scorer in the history of the Brazilian Championship, ahead of Fred (158), Romário (154), Edmundo (153) and Zico (135).