THE 21st CENTURY ONLINE AWARDS NOMINEES FOR BEST FOOTBALL [SOCCER PLAYER] OF THE DECADE [CENTURY].

Nelson De Jesus Silva Dida.

Date of birth - 7 October 1973 (age 47)

Place of birth - Irará, Bahia, Brazil

Height - 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)

Position(s) - Goalkeeper.

[goalkeeper] - Brazil.

Nélson de Jesus Silva[nb 1] (born 7 October 1973), better known simply as Dida

(Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈdʒidɐ]), is a Brazilian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. After starting his senior club career in Brazil in the early 1990s with Vitória, Dida became a penalty kick-saving specialist with Cruzeiro and Corinthians. He is perhaps best remembered for his successful and often tumultuous ten-year stint with 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, but became equally known for his propensity for errors as well as his excellent gameplay, while he gained media attention in 2005 for being hit by a lit flare during a match against crosstown rivals Internazionale.

Dida won one Serie A title (Scudetto) and twice the UEFA Champions League with Milan, with the first of those victories coming after he saved three penalties in the 2003 final against Serie A rivals Juventus. Dida is one of four Milan keepers with 300 career appearances, and has joined other former club players for off-pitch appearances and exhibition matches. After a two-year absence from playing, he returned to Brazil in 2012, suiting up for three teams—Portuguesa, Grêmio and Internacional—in as many seasons.

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. He notably broke a color barrier during the 1999 Copa América by being the Seleção's first Afro-Brazilian starting goalkeeper since Moacyr Barbosa half a century earlier, and, in 2006, became the first blackgoalkeeper to start for Brazil in a FIFA World Cup finals tournament since 1950. He retired from international play after Brazil were eliminated in the quarter-finals.

Considered one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, Dida was the inaugural FIFPro Goalkeeper of the Year, the first Brazilian keeper to be nominated for the FIFA Ballon d'Or, and is a seven-time nominee of the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award, in addition to being one of ten players to win both the Champions League and the Copa Libertadores. He was named the best Latin American keeper, and the sixth-best keeper overall, of the 21st century by IFFHS, and is rated among the all-time greats in the position for Brazil alongside Marcos, Rogério Ceni, Cláudio Taffarel and Gilmar.[nb 2] He 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.