Roberto Dinamite

A Brazilian center forward, Roberto Dinamite was the top scorer in the Campeonato Brasileiro, Brazil’s top league, still holding the record of 190 goals in 328 games as of 2023, playing the last tournament in 1992 at 40-years-old. Unforgettable are his five goals with Vasco da Gama in the 5-2 victory against Corinthians in the Brasileiro championship – he had just returned to Vasco after playing for Barcelona for a year. In total Roberto Dinamite scored 708 goals for Vasco in 1,110 games, the top scorer in the club’s history. He won one national title and five Rio championships. He also wore the jerseys of Portuguesa and Campo Grande.

With the Brazil national team Roberto Dinamite scored 20 goals in 38 games. He took part in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, starting the tournament as a substitute, but he started from the third match against Austria, where he scored the decisive goal, and he scored twice against Poland.

The nickname Dinamite was added to the registry when he entered politics in the early 1990s. It was given to him in 1971 by the Jornal dos Sports when he scored, at age 17, against Internacional Porto Alegre – “Garoto-Dinamite explodiu”. Elected to the Municipality and then deputy, he was president of Vasco from 2008-14. Roberto Dinamite died at age 68 due to intestinal cancer. He has a street named after him near Sao Januàrio, the club’s stadium.