Brazil are indelibly associated with entertaining attackers, carefree flair players who formed a glorious tradition in the No. 10 shirt.

A lineage can be traced back over six decades, via Pele, Roberto Rivelino and Zico, Rai, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho through to Kaka and now Neymar, but it is not the only beloved Brazilian tradition.

Perhaps it is not even the most distinctive. Because whereas right-backs have been essentially functional, largely unglamorous players for many another national team, Brazil have long lined up with buccaneering, attacking forces.

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It is no coincidence that arguably Brazil’s most famous goal in a World Cup – Carlos Alberto’s rasping drive in the 1970 final against Italy – came from a right-back. Alberto was the successor to Djalma Santos.

After him came Junior, Jorginho and then Cafu, the only player to appear in the final of three World Cups. More recently there was Maicon and Dani Alves.

All won at least 50 caps. Alves and Cafu reached a century. Yet there is an exception, one of Brazil’s most fondly remembered right-backs and a man who played just 16 times for his country, one who, had he sustained his excellence, may have stopped Cafu from playing some of the first of his record 142 internationals: Josimar.

There was one reason why he failed to sustain his sudden excellence: Josimar himself. While some footballers blame everyone else for their misfortunes, he was commendably candid, telling FourFourTwo in 2010: “I just lost it. I was poor one day but a celebrity the next and everyone knew me.

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“FIFA named me the best right-back in the world but distractions away from the game started to affect my stamina and my concentration. The blondes came and the training went. I was supposed to be at the peak of my career, but I wasted all the money, lost all credibility and worst of all, I lost contact with my kids.”

Perhaps it is unsurprising fame went to his head. The uncapped defender had not expected to be in Brazil’s 1986 World Cup squad, let alone the team. His place in the party came when Leandro withdrew in a gesture of solidarity with Renato Gaucho after both broke a curfew but only the winger was dropped by manager Tele Santana. Josimar came in as deputy for Edson, who played in the win against Spain and went off injured in the victory over Algeria; with no right-back on the bench, midfielder Falcao was brought on in a reshuffle.

Josimar said he had to persuade Santana not to pick another midfielder, Alemao, at right-back against Northern Ireland. That advice was heeded, in unforgettable fashion. After 41 minutes, Josimar picked up the ball 30 yards from goal and, with others expecting a cross, unleashed a shot struck with pace, bend and precision.

Northern Ireland had one of the game’s greatest ever goalkeepers. Pat Jennings was playing his 119th international, a British record, and was the World Cup’s oldest ever player. Josimar ensured his 41st birthday was memorable.

“If I had wings, I wouldn’t have got to that,” Jennings told the Daily Mail last year. “Years later, a young chap at a Q&A asked me how I felt when I was chipped by Josimar. I said: ‘Son, your idea of a chip and mine are very different!’”

Technically, perhaps, Josimar was a two-hit wonder. Because Brazil faced Poland in the last 16. Once again, they were 1-0 up when inspiration struck the rookie right-back. Using strength and skill, he powered past three defenders. Showing an eye for the audacious, he lashed in a shot from an improbable angle. Goalkeeper Jozef Mlynarczyk was left floundering. Like Diego Maradona, Josimar had scored two wonder goals in the same World Cup. Unlike him, there was no happy ending. Brazil exited on penalties to France in the quarter-finals.

Josimar was nonetheless named in the team of the tournament, despite missing the first two games. He became a one-man shorthand for the spectacular. A Norwegian football magazine was named after him.

He symbolised the beautiful game, even if his life was rather less beautiful. He came from Rio de Janeiro’s infamous shanty town Cidade de Deus, immortalised in the film City Of God. “Josimar buried his potential under a mountain of cocaine and chaos,” the Brazil football expert Tim Vickery wrote. “The roots of his rise and fall are to be found in his home neighbourhood.”

Josimar insisted that he did not use drugs, though there are reports he was arrested for cocaine possession, not to mention car theft and assaulting a prostitute. What can be said is that he only scored two goals for Brazil. They both came in a World Cup. And they were both brilliant.

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