“It is with great pain that Vasco da Gama learned that the greatest of all had left us this Sunday. Carlos Roberto de Oliveira, alias Dinamite, has dedicated 29 of his 68 years to the club, as player and president. Rest in peace, ”tweeted the Rio de Janeiro club, for whom this formidable striker scored no less than 708 goals.
He still holds the record for goals scored in his national championship (190), far ahead of former Lyonnais Fred (158, notably with Fluminense).
Born in Duque de Caxias, a poor suburb of Rio, this insatiable striker was nicknamed Dinamite (dynamite) at the age of 17, after having shaken the nets for the first time in the Vasco first team, at the legendary Maracana stadium, against Internacional, November 25, 1971.
Terror of Brazilian defenses, he won the national title in 1974 and that of Rio five times (1977, 1982, 1987, 1988 and 1992). He was the great rival of Zico, star of Flamengo.
The supporters remember in particular the anthology goal he scored against Botafogo in 1976, with a cushioning of the chest in full surface followed by a blow from the sombrero and an overpowered recovery.
In the national team, he scored 20 goals in 38 matches, playing in the 1978 and 1982 World Cups. During the Argentinian World Cup, he distinguished himself against Poland with a double (3-1) and against Austria in scoring the game’s only goal.
Recruited by FC Barcelona in 1979, he failed to break into Europe and ended up returning to Brazil the following year.
After putting away the crampons, Roberto Dinamite made a career as a leader of Vasco, which he chaired on several occasions, but also in politics, with five mandates as a deputy for the state of Rio.
On December 29, he had published a tweet in tribute to Pelé, his “eternal idol”, who died that day, also from cancer.
