RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Nilton Santos, twice a World Cup winner for Brazil and one of soccer’s great left backs, has died. He was 88.
The Brazilian soccer federation said he died Wednesday of a lung infection in a Rio de Janeiro hospital.
Santos played with Pele on the Brazilian teams that won the World Cup in 1958 and 1962.
He was a pioneer at his position, one of the first defenders to take part in the offensive flow of the game. At the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, he scored during a 3-0 victory over Austria.
Born in Rio in 1925, Santos spent his whole career with the Brazilian club Botafogo.
