Former soccer star Socrates, who played for Brazil in the 1982 and 1986 World Cup competitions, died Sunday in a hospital in Sao Paulo where he was being treated for problems stemming from alcoholism, doctors said. He was 57.
Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Sousa Vieira de Oliveira died at 4:30 a.m. from “septic shock,” for which doctors had begun treating him with powerful antibiotics last Thursday, when he entered Albert Einstein Hospital.
A physician by profession and nicknamed “Doctor” for that reason, Socrates - who was married and had six children - had been hospitalized two other times earlier this year for problems arising from his excessive use of alcohol, a lifestyle that had caused him to suffer from liver cirrhosis.
On Sept. 22, after his second hospital stay, he was released after spending nine days in an induced coma with assisted breathing due to the seriousness of his condition.
After leaving the hospital for the second time, he publicly admitted his abuse of alcohol and expressed his desire to end his dependency on it.
Socrates, known for the elegance of his game, played for Corinthians for almost his entire soccer career. The team could become the Brazilian champs for the fifth time on Sunday, the last day of the national competition.
He also played for Italy’s Fiorentina, and on Brazil’s Flamengo, Santos and Botafogo de Riberao Preto squads.
Socrates also mixed soccer with politics, was an active left-wing partisan during the 1970s and 1980s and participated in many protests against the dictatorship that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985.
