Vasco da Gama: all time best players
Newspaper O Globo conducted an online survey, by which supporters of Vasco da Gama could vote for the “best Vasco team of all times“; the most voted players were: first, Roberto Dinamite; second, Romário; third, Juninho Pernambucano.
The best Vasco da Gama team of all times was:
1) Barbosa, the goalkeeper. Played for Vasco 12 years, in the decades of 1940 and 1950. He was the goalkeeper of the Brazilian team which lost the final of the World Cup 1950 to Uruguay; for the rest of his life, he carried the estigma of being responsible for the defeat. He helped Vasco be State champion in 1945, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1958, besides being South American champion in 1948. He was the best goalkeeper of his era, and the best definition of escape goat in Brazil. The fans of Vasco make him justice now.
2) Mazinho; was champion in the 1994 World Cup. Played for Vasco from 1986 to 1991. He used to be a left-defense in Vasco, but because he got many votes, and because there was not a better option, he was appointed by O Globo as the best right-defense of all times.
3) Belini. Captain of the Brazilian team which won the 1958 World Cup. Played for Vasco from 1952 through 1961.
4) Mauro Galvão. He was the fourth most voted player. Mauro Galvão played the 1990 World Cup. He arrived in Vasco in 1997 and played until 2000, when he was nearly 40 year old.
5) Dunga. Current coach of the Brazilian team. Played in the World Cups of 1990, 1994 and 1998. During most of his long career in the Brazilian team, he was the captain. Natual from Rio Grande do Sul, where he played several years for Internacional, Dunga spent only a brief period in Vasco, in 1987, before going to play in Italy.
6) Felipe. He started the career as left-defense, but thanks to his high dribling skills he moved to the mid-field. Stayed in Vasco from 1998 to 200, before going to other teams in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
7) Juninho Pernambucano. Born in Pernambuco, where he played for Sport Recife, Juninho came to Vasco in 1995 and stayed until 2000; this year, he moved to France and started a brilliant career, playing in Lyon. Juninho said that he dreams of being President of Vasco da Gama someday.
8 - Geovani. He stayed in Vasco from 1982 to 1988; he went to Italy, where he stayed for two years; he returned to Vasco in 1991 and played until 1993.
9) Edmundo. A controversial player, one of the bad-boys of football in Rio (along with Romário and Djalminha). Edmundo and Vasco parted and returned four times. He played in several other Brazilian teams, and, in 1998, after being the main striker of Brazilian championship, he had a very short season in Italy (from where he returned because he missed samba too much). Edmundo played for Brazil in the World Cup of 1998.
10) Roberto Dinamite. The greatest idol of Vasco, and also greatest scorer (698 goals according to Globo and 708 according to his official site). For nearly 20 years, from 1971 to 1992, Roberto Dinamite played for Vasco; he only quit for a brief period in 1979 to play for Barcelona in Spain and for two years to play for smaller teams Portuguesa and Campo Grande. Thanks to his popularity among Vasco fans, Roberto 
was elected for councilman of the city of Rio and for State Deputy of Rio de Janeiro.
11) Romário. Romário started his career playing for Vasco in 1985; he has parted and returned to Vasco several times since then. Romário was (along with Bebeto) the main responsible for Brazil winning the 1994 World Cup; against his will, he was left out of the Cups of 1998 and 2002. Until this date (August 2007), Romário, at age 41, is playing for Vasco; recently, he scored the 1000th goal of his career. As a recognition, Vasco placed a Romário statue in the São Januário stadium.