Brazilian Football Legend Roberto Dinamite Dies Of Bowel Cancer At 68

Brazilian soccer legend and top scorer Roberto Dinamite was announced by his former club on Sunday to have died at the age of 68 due to intestinal cancer, as the soccer community mourns the death of another important figure in Brazilian sports.

Vasco da Gama, his former club, announced his death due to cancer, saying that “Carlos Roberto de Oliveira, alias Dinamite, [who] dedicated 29 of his 68 years to the club, as player and president,” had died recently, though other details about his death are scant, according to France 24.

He is the second Brazilian soccer player to die from cancer in the past few weeks, after international soccer legend Pelé died from cancer as well on Dec. 29.

Dinamite was born in the poor Rio de Janeiro suburb of Duque de Caxias, where he became popular by his association with Vasco de Gama’s youth squad, for which he played over 1,110 matches between the years of 1971 and 1979.

Known for his “ferocious shooting” and incredible role as a striker, Dinamite had earned his nickname after his first match with the senior team of Vasco de Gama at the Maracana stadium, where he was so good that newspaper Jornal dos Sports’ headline the next day was “the kid-dynamite exploded.”

He was able to play in the World Cup in 1978 and 1982, scoring 20 points in 38 games with the Brazilian team, and helping them snag a Bronze finish in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, FIFA reported.

The man was also a top scorer at the Campeonato Brasileiro, the Brazilian national football league, holding the record for most goals at 190 appearances, ahead of other contemporaries such as Fred, Romario, and Zico. After a few years in Barcelona, he ended up retiring and becoming President of his former club Vasco de Gama.