Botafogo 1957

Botafogo in 1957 was the Rio de Janeiro championship-winning team that brought together Garrincha, Didi and Nilton Santos, the foundation that would help Brazil win the 1958 World Cup. The campaign was marked by a 6-2 thrashing of Fluminense in the final.

History

Botafogo Football and Regatta Club, founded as a football club in 1904, lived through one of the most talented generations of Brazilian football in the mid-1950s. In 1957, the team won the Rio de Janeiro Championship (Campeonato Carioca), one of the country's main state titles at the time. The squad brought together Garrincha, a dribbling winger revealed at the club, Didi, a midfielder-playmaker known as Folha Seca, and Nilton Santos, a fullback nicknamed Encyclopedia of Football. The three would be central figures of the Brazilian national team that won the world championship in Sweden in 1958. The highlight of the campaign was the 6-2 victory over Fluminense in the decisive phase of the 1957 Rio de Janeiro Championship, a result that became one of the most memorable thrashings in Rio de Janeiro state championship finals. The team played its home matches at General Severiano Stadium, the club's historic home in Botafogo.