Oreco

**Valdemar Rodrigues Martíns**, best known as **Oreco**, (born in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, June 13, 1932 – April 3, 1985 in Ituverava, São Paulo) was a footballer who played for Brazil at the 1958 FIFA World Cup. A versatile player, Oreco played as a left winger, left-back, right-back and fourth defender. He showed great ease in adapting to new positions. He even made a name for himself as an efficient left-back. Described as the greatest left back in the history of Gaucho football by Cid Pinheiro Cabral until 1956: "The class and ability of Oreco - the Nilton Santos gaucho - is undoubtedly the greatest hierarchical expression of the moment in Gaucho football, it obscures all who preceded him. For Dagomir Marquezi, he was "a quick defender with good jumping". Widely considered as one of the best left-backs of his generation.

## Club career
With his play for this team, he attracted the attention of representatives of the coaching staff of Internacional, which he joined in 1950. He played for the team from Porto Alegre for the next seven seasons of his playing career, winning 5 Rio Grande do Sul state championships.

In 1957, he signed a contract with Corinthians, where he spent the next nine years of his playing career. Most of the time spent with Corinthians was the main player in the team's defense, but that period was unsuccessful for the club and Areco did not win anything there.

Subsequently, from 1966 he played for Colombian Millionarios and Mexican Toluca. With each of these teams, he became the national champion of his country.

He finished his professional playing career in the American club Dallas Tornado, for which he played during 1969-1971. During this time, he added the title of the winner of the North American Football League to the list of his trophies.

## International career
On March 1, 1956, he made his debut in official matches as part of the national team of Brazil in a match against Chile during the Pan American Championship, which was eventually won by Brazil.

The following year, as part of the national team, Oreco was a participant in the 1957 South American Championship in Peru, where, together with the team, he won silver, and also won the Roca Cup with the team.

The pinnacle of Areko's career was the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, where Oreco won the world title, although he was Nilton Santos' understudy. After that, the defender won two more Oswaldo Cruz Cups with the national team in 1958 and 1961, but Oreco was no longer accepted for the 1962 World Cup.

The last time he played in the colors of the national team was on April 30, 1961 in a match against the national team of Paraguay. During his career in the national team, which lasted 6 years, he spent 10 matches in the uniform of the main team of the country.

## Death
He died on April 3, 1985 at the age of 53 in the city of Ituwerawa from acute myocardial infarction, playing in the veterans game with his friend Pedro Rocha

## Club career statistics
|-
|1970||rowspan="3"|Dallas Tornado||rowspan="3"|NASL||17||0
|-
|1971||16||0
|-
|1972||5||0
38||0
38||0
|}

## Honours
; Internacional
* Campeonato Gaúcho Champions: 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955

; Dallas Tornado
* NASL Championship: 1971.

; Brazil
* Panamerican Championship: 1956
* Copa América: 1957
* FIFA World Cup: 1958

## References