Edmundo: Brazil’s flamboyant superstar nicknamed The Animal who defied authority and loved to party
Edmundo won 39 caps for Brazil but is more famous for his string of controversial bust-ups off the pitch
Sponsored by
BORN Edmundo Alves de Souza Neto, the man they called ‘The Animal’ was once voted the most hated player in Brazil, such was his appetite for grabbing all the wrong headlines.
Yellow cards by the dozen, reds aplenty and an unpredictable temperament saw him leave many of his dozen clubs in acrimony.
But his reputation belied a truly devastating striker and his 10 goals in 39 caps for Brazil, despite a clutch of world-class strikers ahead of him, was scant reward for his talents…
Today, Edmundo is a pundit on Fox Sports where he’s significantly more restrained that he used to be…
He was a bit of an Animal
It was during a 1993 match between Palmeiras and Guarani that Edmundo first received his nickname ‘The Animal’ when the Brazilian commentator Osmar Santos gave it to him.
For his part Edmundo didn’t seem too bothered when the nickname stuck.
“Of course, it has positive and negative connotations,” he reflected.
“Compared to other nicknames like 'The Phenomenon' or 'The Emperor', it could be less dubious. But mine is unique.”
He liked to monkey around
The Animal, however, was the only animal that welfare groups didn’t want protected in 1999 when Edmundo hired an entire circus to come and entertain his son at his birthday party.
latest football features
The problem?
Edmundo was photographed apparently feeding beer and whiskey to a chimpanzee called Pedrinho.
But there was more serious trouble…
In 1995 Edmundo was prosecuted for drink driving having been at the wheel of a Jeep Cherokee that ploughed into a Fiat during the Rio Carnival, killing three people.
Initially, he was sentenced to four years in prison but after several legal appeals lasting years, all he received was a seven-day suspended sentence.
“It changed my life radically,” he said in 2011. “I became a better person, with different values.”
He fancied himself as a rapper
In 1995, he released a record with his Brazilian teammate Romario called Rap Dos Bad Boys, in which the duo called for “peace for the nation” and to “stop the violence and don’t cause trouble”.
Noble causes, certainly, but it was, and is, over 20 years later, unremittingly dreadful.
But it wasn’t always so matey with Romario…
When Edmundo got the nod over Romario for a place in Brazil’s 1998 World Cup squad, the latter responded by placing an unflattering caricature of Edmundo sat on a deflated ball on the door of the toilets in his football-themed bar on in Rio.
The Animal wasn’t amused.
“I called him to ask for an explanation,” he fumed. “He didn’t convince me. For this reason, I decided to finish my friendship with him.”
He loved his clubs like family
Edmundo had five different spells with Vasco da Game and a couple more with Palmeiras. They were two clubs that ruled his heart and his head.
But he had a good way of separating the two clubs.
"I love Vasco like a mother; I was born there,” he said “Palmeiras is like my wife. I can't say that I love my mum or my wife more."
There was no comment from his mum or his wife.
His first spell at Palmeiras didn’t go too well
In fact, it ended disastrously.
Having won the Brazilian title twice, scoring a goal every other game, Edmundo had a string of disputes with manager Wanderley Luxemburgo and also had a full-on fight with his teammate Antonio Carlos.
COSTA DEL SOLD Man City star Raheem Sterling to buy £5m super villa in Marbella
That was the last straw.
He was sacked soon after.
He had a heart of gold, sometimes
While at Vasco da Game in 1997 Edmundo intervened when the club president Eurico Miranda fell out with the free-kick specialist Juninho Pernambucano, leading to the club withholding the player’s wages.
Enter Edmundo.
“He [Miranda] paid everyone else but not him. He was p****d off. We had a tough game on the Sunday, so I took him aside on the Friday and gave him my cheque.”
As for his own finances, Edmundo’s maxim was typically honest. “I always say that I earn more than I need and less than I deserve,” he said.
He could be unplayable
Just ask Gary Neville.
The Manchester United full-back was given a torrid time by Edmundo (and Romario) at the World Club Championship at the Maracana Stadium in January 2000 when Vasco da Gama beat the European champions 3-1.
Most read in football
After two goals from Romario, it was Edmundo that sealed the victory as he took the ball on the edge of the box with his back to goal, flicked it over his head and then poked it past Mark Bosnich in one devastating movement.
It’s something else.