Soccer Personalities to Remember: Presenting the Great Hilderaldo Bellini
Soccer Personalities to Remember: Presenting the Great Hilderaldo Bellini.
Our soccer personality for today is Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini, a footballer of repute.
Find out more about him below.
Date of Birth and Birthplace
Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini was born on June 7, 1930, in the town of Itapira, which was around 180 km east of the Brazilian state capital of São Paulo, on the border with Minas Gerais. His parents were of Italian origin.
Club Career
He started his soccer career in 1947, with the newly founded Sociedade Esportiva, in his hometown of Itapira.
The club took part, that year, in the state’s interior championship, the Campeonato do Interior.
He left Sociedade Esportiva in 1949 to play for Esportiva, in nearby São João da Boa Vista, from where he left to join CR Vasco da Gama in 1952, and later for FC São Paulo (until 1968) and ended his active career in 1969 at Athletico Paranaense.
International Career in Soccer
Hilderaldo Bellini made his debut for the Brazilian national team on July 13, 1957, when Brazil played against Peru in Lima. The match ended with one goal apiece.
He participated in the 1957 Copa América draw in Peru, where together with the team he won “silver.”
The defender, nicknamed “Eisenfuss”, went ahead to captain Brazil at the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, when Brazil won the World Cup for the first time, with an exciting combination of football and a surprising 4-2-4 system for the Europeans.
Hilderaldo Bellini in a personal photograph with Rules Jimet Trophy in 1958
His team went through the preliminary round and the quarter-finals in Sweden without conceding a goal and only conceded their first two goals in the semi-final against France.
The defensive formation of the tournament in Sweden with goalkeeper Gylmar dos Santos Neves, the full-back pair Djalma Santos and Nilton Santos as well as in central defense with Bellini and Orlando Peçanha de Carvalho and the defensive boss in midfield, José Ely de Miranda, was among the best that world football has ever seen in previous world tournaments.
Brazil won that competition 5-2 against the host Sweden.
1958 Brazilian soccer winning team, showing captain Hilderaldo Bellini (standing, fourth, from left to right), 17-year-old Pele (squatting, third, from left to right), amongst other players
While celebrating that victory, Bellini lifted the World Cup trophy, then called the Jules Rimet Trophy, in the air.
He did that so that photographers could have a better view of the trophy and, as the photos were published around the world, most soccer captains began to do the same as a sign of victory.
Bellini is therefore credited with starting the tradition of lifting the trophy into the air in the game of soccer.
He participated in the Copa América in 1959, where Brazil finished as runners-up, and in the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile, which Brazil also won.
He played his third and last World Cup in 1966 in England, where played only in two group games.
After Brazil was eliminated in that competition, Bellini was no longer called up to play for Brazil.
Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini who was known in Brazil as one of the nation’s most solid central defenders ever played a total of 51 matches for Brazil in a period of nine years.
Bellini, along with Pele, whose real full name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Waldyr Pereira, also known as Didi, and Manuel Francisco dos Santos, simply known as Garrincha, led Brazil to FIFA World Cup victories in 1958 and 1962.
Recognition and Honour
In recognition of his immense contribution to the soccer fame of Brazil, he was honored with a statue at the entrance of the Maracana Stadium, which depicts him lifting the 1958 World Cup trophy.
Statue of Bellini at the entrance of the iconic Maracanã Stadium in Brazil
The End of Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini
Bellini, whose greatest strength wasn’t necessarily on the field, but also in his personality, died in São Paulo on 20 March 2014, at the age of 83, due to complications caused by Alzheimer’s disease, culminating with cardiac arrest.
He was so missed, even at that age, that Brazil’s president at the time, Dilma Rousseff, wrote on his Twitter handle: “Bellini forever won a place in the heart of every Brazilian by lifting the Cup with both hands.”
Apart from being a footballer, he was a businessman. He also trained as a lawyer, though he never practised his noble profession.
Soccer Personalities to Remember: Presenting the Great Hilderaldo Bellini. THE END.
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