LEAD: Former Brazilian international Socrates dies

Dec 4, 2011, 14:43 GMT

Sao Paulo - Former Brazilian captain Socrates died Sunday, the Sao Paulo hospital treating him confirmed.

The 57-year-old was admitted to hospital on Thursday with an intestinal infection, believed to have been caused by a stomach haemorrhage brought on by lengthy alcohol abuse.

He was first placed into intensive care in August after the haemorrhage and then again in September when he was in hospital for 17 days.

He took ill during a meal in a hotel in Sao Paulo on Thursday and was taken to hospital with suspected food poisoning, but doctors discovered that he had suffered a septic shock.

Socrates, who full name was Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, was a qualified doctor.

In 1984, he told a dpa journalist that he did not consider himself an athlete, but rather an artist.

Socrates played in the 1982 and 1986 World Cup finals and, according to the Brazilian football federation, played 63 international matches, scoring 25 goals.

He spent most of his playing career with Corinthians and had a short stint with Fiorentina.

During the Brazilian military dictatorship he campaigned for human rights and initiated a player democracy at Corinthians (Democracia Corinthiana), which allowed the players to virtually dictate what happened at the club.

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