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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. The ensuing legal battle between the player and Cruzeiro lasted for five months,
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. 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". 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.