Reginaldo Castro was as tall as a ten-year-old child. One meter and forty-seven centimeters. Fifty-one kilos. Size thirty-five shoes.
Opponents saw him arrive and thought he would be easy. That was the mistake.
Bimbinha used his body in a way no one had imagined. The ball always low, always glued to the ground, always in the only place where long legs could not reach. By the time the defender positioned himself to take it away, it was already too late. He had already gone past.
One day, against Corinthians, he did what no one had seen before. He passed the ball between defender Zé María’s legs. And then he went through too. The stadium did not know whether to laugh or applaud. It did both.
He was once asked how he scored while being the smallest. He answered without hesitation: “In football, size does not matter, but rather where you position yourself to score”.
In São Luís, Maranhão, the Sampaio Corrêa stands called him “Joy of the People”. Between 1977 and 1989, he gave them seven state titles and two hundred and fifty goals.
Then the club let him go. Without paying him what they owed him.
He had to report them. “They forgot that Bimbinha gave the tricolors many joys and deserved more respect.”
He died in 2020, at the age of 63.
Football owes him a debt. It gave him a standing ovation and did not pay him while seated.
Legends ⚽