Antônio Lima dos Santos, known as Lima (born 18 January 1942) is a Brazilian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. Widely known for his versatility, he played mainly as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

, but also acted as a full-back at either sides and as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Born in

São Sebastião do Paraíso São Sebastião do Paraíso is a Brazilian municipality located in the southwest of the state of Minas Gerais. Its population as of 2020 was 71,445 people living in a total area of 822 km². The city belongs to the meso-region of Sul e Sudoes ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, Lima joined Juventus-SP's youth setup at early age and was promoted to the first team in 1959. In 1961, already a first-choice, he moved to Santos, becoming a starter at the

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

as the club's midfielder was captain Zito. Lima only moved to his original position in 1965, after the arrival of

Carlos Alberto Torres Carlos Alberto "Capita" Torres (17 July 1944 – 25 October 2016), also known as "O Capitão do Tri", was a Brazilian football player and manager who played as an attacking right-sided full-back or wing-back. A technically gifted defender w ...

. He left the club in 1971 after accepting an offer from Jalisco, ending his time at Santos by playing nearly 700 matches and winning every title that a Brazilian club team could win at that time, most notably the Intercontinental Cup of

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

and

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

; at the latter's final, he trademarked his versatility after playing as a striker. In 1974, Lima returned to Brazil and joined

Fluminense Fluminense Football Club (), known as Fluminense, is a Brazilian sports club best known for its professional football team that competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first tier of Brazilian football and the Campeonato Carioca, th ...

. In the following year, he represented

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

for the final two matches of the

1975 NASL Indoor tournament In early 1975, the North American Soccer League hosted its first league-wide indoor soccer tournament over the course of seven weeks. All but four NASL teams participated. Overview Though the Dallas Tornado had won the NASL's 1971 Hoc-Soc Tourna ...

, and ended his career with

Portuguesa Santista Portuguesa is a Portuguese, Catalan, and Spanish feminine adjective meaning "Portuguese". It may also refer to: Places *Portuguesa (state), one of the 23 states of Venezuela * Portuguesa (Rio de Janeiro), a neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ...

International career

Lima earned 14 caps for the Brazil national team, and was part of the team at the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

References

External links

NASL stats
1942 births Living people Brazilian footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Association football utility players 1966 FIFA World Cup players Clube Atlético Juventus players Santos FC players Fluminense FC players Associação Atlética Portuguesa (Santos) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993) players Brazil international footballers Brazilian expatriate footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate soccer players in the United States {{Brazil-footy-defender-1940s-stub