Background
Dirceu was born at Curitiba, in southern Brazil.
Dirceu was born at Curitiba, in southern Brazil.
He played as an attacking midfielder with many teams, in particular Botafogo and the Brazilian national team, as well as numerous Italian teams in the 1980s-early 1990s. In his early career he played for Coritiba, Botagofo (1971–1975), Fluminense (1975–1977) and Vasco da Gama in his country, before spending one year in Mexico at América. In 1979 he signed for Atlético Madrid, where he remained until 1982, playing 84 games and scoring 18 goals.
In 1982, he signed for Italian team Hellas Verona, the first of five Italian Serie A teams which he changed yearly (the last being Avellino in 1986–1987), before returning to Vasco da Gama.
In 1988 Dirceu played in the United States of America for Fort Lauderdale Strikers, and in 1989–1991 he played again in southern Italy, this time for Ebolitana (1989–1992) and Benevento (1991–1992). His last teams was Atlético Yucatán in Mexico, where he ended his career in 1995.
He died at only 43 years old in a road accident. The Ebolitana entitled its arena at Eboli, the Stadio José Guimarães Dirceu, to him.
He played the Football World Cup 1974, Football World Cup 1978 and Football World Cup 1982.
He was due to go to the 1986 tournament, but was ruled out by injury. He played 11 games and scored three goals in his World Cup appearances. Club National Individual.