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Late Tackle

The good doctor

STEPHEN TUDOR pays a personal tribute to the football genius that was Socrates

After a long battle with illness, the great Socrates has passed away. In 1982 he made me stare saucer-eyed at the television set in pyjama-clad wonderment.
I was much too young to have my mind blown by Ziggy Stardust on Top of the Pops. My Ziggy was a Brazilian midfielder with a gait so languid it made even the fieriest of games a laid-back elegant affair.
At a World Cup that only seemed to deal in primary colours he stood out like a beacon, from his signature blind heel passes that bordered on the nonsensic...

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