Tostão
Eduardo Gonçalves De Andrade grew up in football in the América Mineiro of Belo Horizonte and, at the age of 14, entered the Cruzeiro youth academy, where he earned the nickname of Tostão (Monetina) due to his small physique, which also became his nickname. After a further year of apprenticeship at América, he returned to Cruzeiro on a permanent basis and made his debut as a first-team center-forward at sixteen. With the Cruzeiro shirt he won five consecutive editions of the Campeonato Mineiro, from 1965 to 1969, resulting in the best scorer for four consecutive editions (from 1965 to 1968), and a Taca Brasil in 1966, in fact the Brazilian national championship of the time, beating Santos di Pelé in both home and away finals. Furthermore, with 249 official goals, Tostão is still the best scorer in Cruzeiro history. In addition, he is the holder of the record for goals (143) scored at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, having the best average of goals in the stadium per year: 17,875; followed by Atletico Mineiro center forward, Reinaldo, with 11,692 per year. His move to Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro, in 1972, was one of the most famous of the time and one of the most expensive in Brazilian football. However, Tostão did not have the opportunity to be very useful to his new team: already suffering from a detachment of the retina due to a ball in the face received in 1969 during a meeting with Corinthians, he spent a lot of time for medical consultations until, to safeguard his sight, he decided to retire in 1973 at the age of only 26, after five retinal surgeries.