Edmundo (footballer)

Edmundo Alves de Souza Neto (born April 2, 1971 in Niterói), better known simply as Edmundo, a Brazilian football player currently playing for Vasco da Gama.

Edmundo played for Brazil at the 1998 World Cup and is known for his fiery temper and subsequent receiving of numerous red cards and earning the nickname The Animal.

He is one of the greatest football players revealed by Vasco da Gama in the last three decades. For Palmeiras, he won the Campeonato Brasileiro in the beginning of the Nineties. For Vasco da Gama he won the 1997's Campeonato Brasileiro, being the best player of the year, with 29 goals. In this same year, Vasco da Gama scored 69 goals. Edmundo also scored 6 goals in the same game in 1997, against a club from São Paulo, União São João.

Edmundo moved from club-to-club in Brazil and Italy and was embroiled in a number of controversies, including a car crash in which three people died (he was subsequently sentenced to imprisonment, although not serving any time).

On 30 October 1994, when his former club Palmeiras was playing against São Paulo, Edmundo tackled one of the opponents players with a sliding tackle and earned a booking. After that he ran towards São Paulo's bench and physically attacked 3 players. He slapped the first one, knocked out the second one and kicked the third one in his groin. Later he explained that he went crazy because the players were disprespecting and talking bad things about his mother.

In 1999 he faced prosecution by animal welfare groups after hiring an entire circus to perform in his back garden to celebrate his son's first birthday. At the party he was accused by some individuals of the press of having a chimpanzee called Pedrinho drunk on beer and whiskey. Subsequent images of this appeared in the media (including the February, 2004 issue of the UK version of FHM magazine) and have passed into football legend. [1]. Days later, Edmundo proved those accusations were false.

In 2005, his signing by Figueirense was seen as a gamble, since he was not said to be in good form and retirement seemed to be looming. However, he had a rather good season and helped the club avoid relegation. In a match against Palmeiras at Parque Antártica, he was applauded by the opposing crowd. He ended up signing again with Palmeiras in 2006, but in January, he signed with Vasco de Gama.

As of the final rounds of the first stage of the Campeonato Paulista of 2007 (Championship of the State of São Paulo), Edmundo is one of the top scores, leading Palmeiras to be a team with the second best attack in the state.

On March 29, 2007, Edmundo played his 200th match with Palmeiras against América-SP. On May 13, 2007, Edmundo scored 2 goals against Flamengo, when Palmeiras beat Flamengo, 4-2. Once more, Edmundo humiliated Flamengo, as he used to do when playing for Vasco da Gama.

On January 22, 2008, Edmundo returned to Vasco da Gama to end his career as quoted by himself. He is going to revive his partnership with ex-fellow striker Romário who is the coach of Vasco da Gama. They played together during 2000 in Vasco.

The history of Edmundo, as a soccer player, is strongly intertwined with Vasco da Gama. In that club he started his first steps in amateur divisions and as professional. His career is full of magia and problems with "the club of his heart".

Although all those indiscipline problems, he's always remember by Vasco crowd as a true fan of the club and a football legend, one of greatest players ever played for the team. He is as popular as legends like Roberto Dinamite, Ademir "Queixada" Menezes, Romário and Juninho Pernambucano.

The excellent form he showed in 1997 was fundamental for Vasco to win the Brazilian National Championship that season. That year he confirmed his status as an exceptional player.

Club

• Rio de Janeiro State Championship: 1992
• São Paulo State Championship: 1993, 1994
• Rio-São Paulo Tournament: 1993
• Brazilian Série A: 1993, 1994, 1997

International

• Copa América: 1997

Individual

• Bola de Prata: 1993, 1997
• Bola de Ouro: 1997
• Chuteira de Ouro: 1997
• Brazil Cup Top Scorer: 2008
• Brazilian Série A Top Scorer: 1997

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1991||rowspan="2"|Vasco da Gama||Série A||0||0|||||||| |- |1992||Série A||23||8|||||||| |- |1993||rowspan="2"|Palmeiras||Série A||19||11|||||||| |- |1994||Série A||21||9|||||||| |- |1995||Flamengo||Série A||14||2|||||||| |- |1996||Corinthians||Série A||0||0|||||||| |- |1996||rowspan="2"|Vasco da Gama||Série A||16||9|||||||| |- |1997||Série A||28||29|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997-98||rowspan="2"|Fiorentina||rowspan="2"|Serie A||9||4|||||||| |- |1998-99||28||8|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999||Vasco da Gama||Série A||16||13|||||||| |- |2000||Santos||Série A||20||13|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000-01||Napoli||Serie A||17||4|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001||Cruzeiro||Série A||12||3|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001||rowspan="2"|Tokyo Verdy||rowspan="2"|J. League||5||2|||||||| |- |2002||26||16|||||||| |- |2003||Urawa Red Diamonds||J. League||0||0|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2003||Vasco da Gama||Série A||20||7|||||||| |- |2004||Fluminense||Série A||19||7|||||||| |- |2005||Nova Iguaçu||||0||0|||||||| |- |2005||Figueirense||Série A||31||15|||||||| |- |2006||rowspan="2"|Palmeiras||rowspan="2"|Série A||29||10|||||||| |- |2007||20||4|||||||| |- |2008||Vasco da Gama||Série A||3||3|||7||6||10||9 Template:Football player statistics 3291||143|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 454||16|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 431||18|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5376||177|||||||| |}

• Template:En icon Edmundo's profile on Sambafoot
• Template:En icon Edmundo arrested for dangerous driving - People's Daily Online
• Template:De icon National Football Teams
• Template:Pt icon NetVasco