Ex-Brazil international Roberto Dynamite, the top scorer in the history of the Brazilian league, has died of intestinal cancer aged 68, his former club Vasco da Gama confirmed on Sunday.
“With the deepest regret Vasco da Gama learned that this Sunday one of the greatest left us. Carlos Roberto de Oliveira, aka Dynamite, spent 29 of his 68 years as player and president at the club. Dedicated to. Rest in peace.” tweeted the Rio de Janeiro club.
Born in Duque de Caxias, a poor suburb of Rio, the dynamite came through Vasco da Gama’s youth team, scoring 708 goals in 1,110 appearances for the club between 1971 and 1979.
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He still holds the record for goals scored in his national championship with 190, far ahead of former Fluminense player Fred’s 158.
An insatiable goalscorer, he earned his nickname at the age of 17, after first finding the net for Vasco’s senior team at the Maracana Stadium.
The daily journal Dos Sports headlined the next day: “Kid-dynamite explosion”.
A great rival of Flamengo star Zico, Dynamite won the national title in 1974 and won the Rio title five times between 1977 and 1992.
In the national team, he played in the 1978 and 1982 World Cups, scoring 20 goals in 38 matches.
Recruited by Barcelona in 1979, he failed to make the grade in Europe and returned to Vasco the following year.
After retiring, Dynamite pursued a career as president of Vasco, but also in politics, five times as deputy of the state of Rio.
On 29 December, he tweeted a tribute to the Brazilian great Pele, his “eternal idol”, who had died that day, also of cancer.
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification. Only the headline has been changed.
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