Dida

Nélson de Jesus Silva (born 7 October 1973), better known simply as Dida, is a Brazilian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

He is best known for his lengthy tenure at AC Milan, as well as successes with the Brazil national team.

Nélson de Jesus Silva was born on 7 October 1973 in the city of Irará in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, and was raised in Lagoa da Canoa in the smaller neighboring state of Alagoas, to where his family had moved when he was three months old.

His first sport of choice was volleyball, until he discovered football by way of futsal and pickup games.

His preferred position was that of goalkeeper, despite its longtime unpopularity in Brazilian football and the country's history of discrimination against black players in the position.

A supporter of Rio de Janeiro-based club Flamengo, Dida helped form an amateur squad called Flamenguinho ("little Flamengo") at age thirteen, which marked his first experience in organized team play.

He took his future playing name from Flamengo striker Dida, while his footballing idols were goalkeepers Rinat Dasayev and future Seleção teammate Cláudio Taffarel, who had enjoyed successful runs in Italy and Turkey and whom Dida later considered a pioneer in the growing acceptance of Brazilian keepers into European clubs.

He started his senior club career in Brazil in the early 1990s with Vitória before moving to Cruzeiro and Corinthians.

In 1990, at age 17, Dida made his club football debut with Alagoan team Cruzeiro de Arapiraca.

Two years later, he joined the youth academy of hometown team and 1992 Campeonato Baiano winners Vitória.

In 1993, after starting in Brazil's FIFA World Youth Championship victory, Dida made 24 starts in goal for Vitória's senior squad as they finished runner-up to Palmeiras in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, and he became the youngest recipient, at 20, of Brazilian football magazine Placar's annual Bola de Prata award as the Série A's best goalkeeper.

Dida was then acquired by Minas Gerais-based club Cruzeiro in 1994, and in a span of five seasons, he won four state titles, the 1996 Copa do Brasil and the 1997 Copa Libertadores, and two more Bola de Prata goalkeeping awards.

He notably broke a color barrier during the 1999 Copa América by being the Seleção's first Afro-Brazilian starting goalkeeper since Moacyr Barbosa half a century earlier, and, in 2006, became the first black goalkeeper to start for Brazil in a FIFA World Cup finals tournament since 1950.

Considered one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, Dida was the inaugural FIFPro Goalkeeper of the Year.

He is additionally rated among the all-time greats in the position for Brazil alongside Marcos, Rogério Ceni, Cláudio Taffarel and Gilmar.

However, in January 1999, he publicly stated his desire to test his skills in Europe and catch the attention of the Brazil national team coaching staff in the process, and therefore took the club to court in order to cancel the remainder of his contract so he could sign with AC Milan, the only European team that had extended him an offer.

The ensuing legal battle between the player and Cruzeiro lasted for five months, and a FIFA ruling allowed Dida to be loaned to Swiss club FC Lugano in the meantime so he could keep in shape, though he never played a game.

His move to Milan was finalized in May 1999 with a transfer fee of 2.7 billion Italian lire (R$5.2 million) paid to Cruzeiro, which brought the dispute to a close.

Dida was the third goalkeeper on Milan coach Alberto Zaccheroni's depth chart behind Christian Abbiati and aging veteran Sebastiano Rossi for the 1999–2000 Serie A season, and he returned to Brazil as he was loaned to São Paulo-based club Corinthians to receive regular playing time.

During this stint, his reputation as a penalty stopper came into national renown after he saved two separate spot kicks—both taken by Raí—in Corinthians' 3–2 victory over intrastate rival São Paulo FC in the 1999 Campeonato Brasileiro semi-final, which earned him a 10 rating from Placar.

Dida received his first nomination for the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award that season, finishing eighth in the voting.

He is perhaps best remembered for his ten-year stint with AC Milan from 2000 to 2010, where he established himself as one of the world's best goalkeepers and won multiple trophies and individual awards with the club, including one Serie A title (Scudetto) and twice the UEFA Champions League with Milan, with the first of those victories coming after he saved three penalties in the 2003 final against Serie A rivals Juventus, and is one of four Milan keepers with 300 career appearances.

In 2000, he kept three clean sheets in four matches while allowing only two goals as Corinthians lifted the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup.

After the 15 January final against Vasco da Gama ended goalless after extra time, he blocked a Gilberto penalty in the shootout that Corinthians won 4–3 after Vasco striker Edmundo's shot went wide right.

Corinthians midfielder Ricardinho revealed to the media afterward that the team was actively seeking to take the match to penalties during the extra period, knowing Dida would save "at least one in five"; indeed, BBC News castigated the "poor final" as both teams "never look[ing] like scoring in two hours of open play", while Dida himself criticized penalty shootouts in that they "cause[d] suffering to the players and the fans".

Milan recalled Dida and named him their 2000–01 Champions League starter with first-choice Christian Abbiati on international duty with Italy at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

His Rossoneri debut was a 4–1 group stage victory over Beşiktaş on 13 September 2000, but six days later, against Leeds United at a rain-soaked Elland Road, he accidentally dropped a Lee Bowyer strike into his own goal, causing Milan to lose the match 1–0.

His explanation was that he attempted to absorb the force of the shot and then catch hold of it, but the ball dropped into a puddle and bounced into the net.

He started the remaining group stage games and kept his first clean sheet for Milan in a 2–0 win over Barcelona on 26 September, but was then replaced by Abbiati for the second group stage.

Dida made his first Serie A start in a 2–0 November loss to Parma, and was unable to beat out Rossi for the starting position after Abbiati was injured.

He did not play again save for Milan's 2–0 loss to Galatasaray —who featured his idol Taffarel in goal —on 7 March 2001, as the Rossoneri were eliminated from the Champions League.

Dida returned to Milan for the 2001–02 season, for which he was later suspended by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for his role in a false-passport scandal and therefore loaned back to Corinthians.

He made only eight Série A appearances as the deputy to established first-choice Doni, but began a sustained high run of form in winning the Torneio Rio-São Paulo championship and 2002 Copa do Brasil with the Timão.

Dida was recalled once again by Milan for 2002–03 as a reserve, making his season debut on 14 August 2002 as an injury substitute for Christian Abbiati in the second half of Milan's Champions League third-round qualifier against Slovan Liberec, in which his performance in the 1–0 victory resulted in second-year coach Carlo Ancelotti promoting him to first choice.

He made a then-career best 30 starts as Milan finished third in Serie A and exhibited the league's second-best defence that conceded only 30 goals (one behind champion Juventus' 29), while he won his lone Coppa Italia with the Rossoneri in 2003.

Dida additionally made fourteen Champions League appearances, missing only the second leg of Milan's semi-final elimination of crosstown rival Internazionale to injury as Milan advanced to face Juventus in the only all-Italian final in competition history.

After a two-year absence from playing, he returned to Brazil in 2012, suiting up for three teams—Portuguesa, Grêmio and Internacional—in as many seasons.

Dida has been credited with helping end the prejudice against black goalkeepers in Brazilian club football due to his success in Europe, and upon joining Internacional in 2014, became the first Afro-Brazilian keeper to play for the club in 43 years.

He returned to Milan to serve as their goalkeeping coach from 2020 to 2022.

At international level, Dida earned 91 caps in eleven years with the Brazil national team, winning the FIFA World Cup and an Olympic medal, while he is the most successful player in the history of the FIFA Confederations Cup.