Evaristo de Macedo

Raised in the north of Rio de Janeiro, like many children he played simply for fun on the streets, and watched Flamengo on weekends with his Uncle. In 1950 aged 17 he joined a friend who was attending a trial at Madureira and was asked to come back the following day. Signed as an amateur, he scored 18 goals in 35 games, including one against Fluminense at the Maracanã Stadium.[2]

Called up to the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, playing alongside Vava and Zozimo, on return home after being knocked out by an experienced West Germany side, all of the Brazil players received new club offers. Turning down offers from Vasco da Gama and Fluminense, he joined Flamengo and won three successive Rio State Championships. He scored 103 goals in 191 games for Flamengo, including four during a 12-2 win over Sao Cristovao, the biggest win in Maracana history.[2]

At the 1957 South American Championships, playing for Brazil alongside Garrincha and Nilton Santos, Evaristo scored five in the 9-0 defeat of Colombia.[2] This brought him to the attention of Josep Samitier, Barcelona's technical secretary, who had flown to South America in search of a striker. Samitier watched Evaristo playing for Brazil during qualification for the 1958 World Cup and, impressed, made Evaristo's father a proposal deemed "impossible to turn down", with a basic wage of 700,000 pesetas/£6,000 a year (about £140,000 in 2021).[2] The offer came additionally including a house, a Mercedes Benz, and a club liaison officer who assisted with Evaristo's marriage to his childhood sweetheart Norma three months later. Each player had an individual fan club arranged by the club, but the players outside of training and official activity were free to enjoy life and relax in the city.[2]

Playing in a Barcelona side managed by Helenio Herrera, alongside Laszlo Kubala and Luis Suárez, Evaristo played and scored in the first official match at the Nou Camp in September 1957, and became the first player to get a hat-trick there. In the following season he scored three against European champions Real Madrid en route to Barcelona's first La Liga title in six years.[2] On 23 November 1960, in the second leg of a European Cup tie against Real Madrid at the Nou Camp during which the English referee ruled out four goals for Real Madrid, Evaristo scored a diving header with eight minutes to go, which eliminated Barcelona's rivals from that competition for the first time and ended their hopes of a sixth successive title. Evaristo scored six times during Barcelona's run to their first European Cup final, which they lost 3-2 to Benfica at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern, now remembered as the "Square-Posts Final".[2]

During Evaristo's time with Barclona, the team won two league titles, a Copa del Rey, and the Fairs Cup twice. Barcelona's statistics department state that in official matches Evaristo scored 105 goals in 151 games, while the club's official site says in total he scored 181 in 237. Only Rivaldo, who scored 129 in 235 between 1997 and 2002, has more official goals for Barcelona than Evaristo, but Evaristo still retains the best goals-to-games ratio of any Brazilian to play more than 50 games for Barcelona.[2][3]

Unfortunately, Evaristo's relationship with Barcelona with regards international representation had been strained from the start. Having played every minute of the two-legged World Cup qualifier against Peru, and with eight goals in 14 games, when they signed him Barcelona verbally agreed to release him for the World Cup final in Sweden. However with Spain having failed to qualify, the Spanish Cup went ahead at the same time as the tournament in Sweden, and Barcelona reneged on their promise to release him. Brazil won their first World Cup, with 17-year-old Pele scoring a hat-trick in the semi-final and two more in the final. Evaristo never wore the famous Brazilian yellow shirt again.[2]

In 1962, wanting to sign another foreign player - yet with rules only allowing one per team under both Spanish and European rules - Barcelona asked Evaristo to naturalise as a Spanish citizen. After bitter wrangling, Evaristo agreed to quit Barcelona that summer.[2] Although he had offers from clubs in both France and Italy, with his family happy in Spain he agreed to join rivals Real Madrid. In contrast to the transfer of Luis Figo 38 years later, Barcelona's fans directed their anger not at the player but at the board.[2] Despite a serious knee injury limiting him to just 19 appearances and six goals for Real Madrid, he won two La Liga league titles in two seasons.[2]

Evaristo returned as he had planned to Flamengo in 1965, adding another league title before retiring a year later, aged 33.[2]