The Great Socrates and the unkillable Dublin Myth

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend", is a line from the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance.

In the 31 episodes of the Ademola Bookmen Podcast that we have recorded, my co- host Al has asked me of the protaganist of each book we have reviewed what I knew of them before reading the book. In our latest episode, a review Dr. Socrates – Footballer, Philosopher, Legend by Andrew Downie, I finally had a good answer to this question.

Growing up in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira (to give him his full name in all its glory), didn't mean much to me. But I did know that he played in Ireland. Or actually, I knew that he didn't.

The story goes that Socrates – who captained 1982 Brazil team, the greatest Seleção Canarinho team not to win a World Cup – had studied medicine in Ireland. Half of this is true. He studied medicine. But in his native Brazil.

But according to a match report on a Brazil game in the 1986 World Cup that appeared in The Irish Times by Peter Byrne, Socrates had played for the Shelbourne reserve team while a student at the College of Technology on Kevin Street.

It seems unclear where Byrne got this piece of information from but its here that the legend seems to have been born. It took an amusing turn 14 years later when a reader asked The Guardian whether there was truth in this rumour, one he'd had heard growing up in Ireland.

A question was fired off to FAI Headquarters in Merrion Square by The Guardian who received a reply to confirm that yes, Socrates had indeed played in Ireland, for University College Dublin.

Hmmm, that's interesting, a confirmation from the authority on Irish football but was it Shelbourne or UCD? Or was it both? Or is this the first ever recorded instance of a player transferring teams after his appearances?

Unfortunately not, Socrates never played in Dublin. Its seems that the FAI had been carried along with the enjoyable myth much the same as everyone else. What's perhaps most fun of all of this is that the myth managed to persist despite Socrates having apparently said more than once that he'd never even been to Ireland.

Socrates is remembered in Brazil as a notably beautiful footballer, an usually tall midfielder with a casual languid style. Even more than his achievements on the field, he is remembered for the player-power Corinthians Democracy movement which President Lula da Silva said inspired their Brazilians to overthrow the military dictatorship that ran the country for more than 20 years.

When he died in 2011, he really did die a legend. Sadly, our own part of the legend is not true, but people may well still choose to print it.

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