Careca

Careca was one of the greatest Brazilian strikers of the 1980s and 1990s. Born in Araraquara, he burst onto the scene as a teenager at Guarani, playing a key role in the club's historic conquest of the 1978 Brazilian Championship in Campinas. At São Paulo, he had a prolific scoring period and won the Brazilian Championship in 1986, the year he finished as the tournament's top scorer. His international fame came at Napoli, where he formed with Diego Maradona and Bruno Giordano an attack nicknamed Ma-Gi-Ca: he won the UEFA Cup in 1989 and the Italian title in 1989-90, becoming an idol of the Napoli fans. For the Brazilian National Team, he participated in the World Cups of 1986 and 1990. In Mexico, in 1986, he scored five goals and was one of the tournament's leading scorers in the campaign that ended in the quarterfinals against France. An injury just before the 1982 World Cup kept him out of that tournament, when he was already an expected presence in the attack. He ended his international career in Japan, at Kashiwa Reysol, helping to popularize Brazilian football in the J-League.