Retired Brazilian midfielder Dida, who Japan national team coach Zico considers his No. 1 idol in soccer, died of a liver ailment in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, a local radio station said.
Dida, 68, played most of his career in Flamengo, the Rio de Janeiro club in which Zico shot to international fame.
Zico said in his autobiography that, after his father and mother, the first word he ever pronounced as a child was Dida.
Dida was the substitute for soccer icon Pele at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden when Brazil won the first of its five World Cup titles.
Dida was the second best scorer in the history of Flamengo with 244 goals, after Zico who scored 508 goals in 731 matches he played in the club.