Nélson de Jesus Silva (born 7 October 1973), better known simply as Dida (), is a Brazilian former football goalkeeper and goalkeeping coach. He started his senior club career in Brazil in the early 1990s with Vitória before moving to Cruzeiro and Corinthians. He is perhaps best remembered for his ten-year stint with AC Milan from 2000 to 2010, where he established himself as one of the world's best goalkeepers and won multiple trophies and individual awards with the club, including one Serie A title (Scudetto) and twice the UEFA Champions League, with the first of those victories coming after he saved three penalties in the 2003 final against Serie A rivals Juventus, and is one of four Milan keepers with 300 career appearances. After a two-year absence from playing, he returned to Brazil in 2012, appearing for three teams—Portuguesa, Grêmio and Internacional—in as many seasons. He returned to Milan to serve as their goalkeeping coach from 2020 to 2022.
At international level, Dida earned 91 caps in eleven years with the Brazil national team, winning the FIFA World Cup and an Olympic medal, while he is the most successful player in the history of the FIFA Confederations Cup.
Considered one of the best goalkeepers of all time, Dida was the inaugural FIFPro Goalkeeper of the Year. He is additionally rated among the all-time greats in the position for Brazil alongside Alisson Becker, Marcos, Júlio César, Rogério Ceni, Cláudio Taffarel and Gilmar. Dida has been credited with helping end the prejudice against black goalkeepers in Brazilian club football due to his success in Europe, and upon joining Internacional in 2014, became the first Afro-Brazilian keeper to play for the club in 43 years.
Early life Nélson de Jesus Silva was born on 7 October 1973 in the city of Irará in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, and was raised in Lagoa da Canoa in the smaller neighbouring state of Alagoas, to where his family had moved when he was three months old. His first sport of choice was volleyball, until he discovered football by way of futsal and pickup games. He was given the nickname "Dida" at a young age, which he would later adopt as his playing name, and his preferred position was that of goalkeeper,Rizek, Andre. "Ele nem pisca" ("He doesn't even blink"). Placar #1201 (October 10–22, 2001), p. 21. despite its long-time unpopularity in Brazilian football and the country's history of discrimination against black players in the position.
A supporter of Rio de Janeiro-based club Flamengo, Dida helped form an amateur squad called Flamenguinho ("little Flamengo") at age thirteen, which marked his first experience in organised team play. His footballing idols were goalkeepers Rinat Dasayev and future Seleção teammate Cláudio Taffarel, who had enjoyed successful runs in Italy and Turkey and whom Dida later considered a pioneer in the growing acceptance of Brazilian keepers into European clubs.
Club career Vitória, Cruzeiro, and Corinthians
In 1990, at age 17, Dida made his club football debut with Alagoan team Cruzeiro de Arapiraca. Two years later, he joined the youth academy of hometown team and 1992 Campeonato Baiano winners Vitória.Placar #1090 (January 1994), p. 5. In 1993, after starting in Brazil's FIFA World Youth Championship victory, Dida made 24 starts in goal for Vitória's senior squad as they finished runner-up to Palmeiras in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, and he became the youngest recipient, at 20, of Brazilian football magazine Placar's annual Bola de Prata award as the Série A's best goalkeeper.
Dida was then acquired by Cruzeiro in 1994, and in a span of five seasons, he won four Campeonato Mineiro titles, the 1996 Copa do Brasil, the 1997 Copa Libertadores, and two more Bola de Prata goalkeeping awards. However, in January 1999, he publicly stated his desire to test his skills in Europe and catch the attention of the Brazil national team coaching staff in the process, and took the club to court in attempt to cancel the remainder of his contract so he could sign with AC Milan, the only European team that had extended him an offer."Nação Defendida" ["Nation Defended"], Placar #1154 (August 1999), p. 50-52. The ensuing legal battle between the player and Cruzeiro lasted for five months, and a FIFA ruling allowed Dida to be loaned to Swiss club Lugano in the meantime so he could keep in shape, though he never played a game. His move to Milan was finalised in May 1999 following a transfer fee of 2.7 billion Italian lire (R$5.2 million) paid to Cruzeiro.
Dida was the third goalkeeper on Milan coach Alberto Zaccheroni's depth chart behind Christian Abbiati and aging veteran Sebastiano Rossi for the 1999–2000 Serie A season, and he returned to Brazil as he was loaned to Corinthians to receive regular playing time. His reputation as a penalty stopper came into national renown during the 1999 Campeonato Brasileiro after he saved two separate spot kicks — both taken by Raí — in Corinthians' 3–2 victory over intrastate rival São Paulo in the semi-final, which earned him a 10 rating from Placar. Dida received his first nomination for the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award that season, finishing eighth in the voting. He kept three clean sheets in four matches and conceded only two goals as Corinthians lifted the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup in 2000, and after the final against Vasco da Gama ended goalless after extra time, he blocked a Gilberto penalty in the ensuing shootout that Corinthians won 4–3 after Vasco striker Edmundo's shot went wide right. Corinthians midfielder Ricardinho revealed to the media afterward that the team was actively seeking to take the match to penalties during the extra period, knowing Dida would save "at least one in five"; indeed, BBC News castigated the "poor final" as both teams "never look[ing] like scoring in two hours of open play", while Dida himself criticised penalty shootouts in that they "cause[d] suffering to the players and the fans".
AC Milan 1999–2002: Beginnings with Milan and return to Corinthians Milan recalled Dida and named him their 2000–01 Champions League starter with first-choice Christian Abbiati on international duty with Italy at the 2000 Summer Olympics. His Rossoneri debut was a 4–1 group stage victory over Beşiktaş on 13 September 2000, but six days later, against Leeds United at a rain-soaked Elland Road, he accidentally dropped a late Lee Bowyer strike into his own goal, causing Milan to lose the match 1–0. His explanation was that he attempted to absorb the force of the shot and then catch hold of it, but the ball dropped into a puddle and bounced into the net. He started the remaining group stage games and kept his first clean sheet for Milan in a 2–0 win over Barcelona on 26 September, but was then replaced by Abbiati for the second group stage. Dida made his first Serie A start in a 2–0 November loss to Parma, his only league appearance of the year, and after Milan's 2–0 loss to Galatasaray—who featured his idol Taffarel in goal—on 7 March 2001, the Rossoneri were eliminated from the Champions League and Dida did not play again for the rest of the season.
Dida returned to Milan for the 2001–02 season, for which he was later suspended by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for his role in a false-passport scandal and therefore loaned back to Corinthians. He made only eight Série A appearances as the deputy to established first-choice Doni, but began a sustained high run of form in winning the Torneio Rio-São Paulo championship and 2002 Copa do Brasil with the Timão.
2003–2004: Champions League and Scudetto success
Dida was recalled once again by Milan for 2002–03 as a reserve, making his season debut on 14 August 2002 as an injury substitute for Christian Abbiati in the second half of Milan's Champions League third-round qualifier against Slovan Liberec, in which his performance in the 1–0 victory and subsequent matches resulted in second-year coach Carlo Ancelotti promoting him to first choice. He made a then-career high 30 starts as Milan finished third in Serie A and exhibited the league's second-best defence that conceded only 30 goals (one behind champion Juventus' 29), while he won his lone Coppa Italia with the Rossoneri.
He made fourteen Champions League appearances, missing only the second leg of Milan's semi-final elimination of crosstown rival Internazionale to injury, as Milan advanced to face Juventus in the only all-Italian final in the competition's history. He was untested during the goalless regulation and extra-time periods save for his stop of a late Alessandro Del Piero shot, but saved from David Trezeguet, Marcelo Zalayeta and Paolo Montero in the penalty shootout that saw five of the first seven shots collectively stopped by Dida and Juventus' star goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. After Milan's Andriy Shevchenko scored the winner, he celebrated by leaping into Dida's arms as they were mobbed by teammates. Juventus coach Marcelo Lippi said after the match that "four or five" of his players had refused to take part in the shootout, while Bianconeri defender Lilian Thuram, who was not a participant, admitted to being affected beforehand by Dida's reputation as a penalty stopper. Dida ended the year by becoming the first Brazilian goalkeeper nominated for the Ballon d'Or, finishing 13th in voting.
Dida became the first non-Italian goalkeeper to win the Scudetto when Milan won its seventeenth title in the 2003–04 season, and he was runner-up to Buffon for the 2004 Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year award after conceding only 20 goals in 32 league appearances. Though Milan's Champions League repeat bid was ended by Deportivo de La Coruña in the quarter-finals, a highlight of their campaign was during a previous group-stage match against Ajax on 16 September 2003, when Dida blocked a point blank-range shot from Rafael van der Vaart at the end of extra time to preserve Milan's 1–0 win.
2004–2005: Internazionale flare incident and Miracle of Istanbul Milan started 2004–05 by winning the Supercoppa Italiana, and the first half of the Serie A season saw Dida nearly insurmountable in net. After he was sent off in the Rossoneri's season opener against Livorno, he conceded only ten goals as Milan went unbeaten in 17 of their next 18 league matches, among them a 1–0 win over Chievo on 28 November 2004 in which he had performed an acrobatic save on a Roberto Baronio free kick, changing direction after the ball was deflected mid-flight. Ancelotti later described the save to reporters as "[worth] no less than a goal". Though Dida kept 16 total clean sheets and conceded 25 goals in 36 (out of 38) appearances, Milan faltered by going winless in five of their final eight matches and finished runner-up to Scudetto winners Juventus.