Démosthenes Magalhães

Who is Démosthenes Magalhães?

Démosthenes Magalhães, in Brazil better known as Démosthenes and in Italy as Demostene Bertini, was a Brazilian association football player.

In 1931 Démosthenes succeeded Fernando Giudicelli - who went on to play for FC Torino, being one of the first Brazilian footballers pursuing a career as professional in Europe - in the mid-field of Fluminense FC in Rio de Janeiro.

On a visit to Rio in 1932 Giudicelli convinced Démosthenes to join him on the way back to Italy to play professionally too. As those days only people with Italian background, so-called Oriundi, were permitted to do so he changed his name to the more Italian sounding Demostene Bertini.

Thus, in the season 1932/33 he played together with Giudicelli in Turin. The technically gifted player had an excellent start, but soon run into difficulties with regards to defending his claim to Italian origin, which caused him to be sidelined for some time. After this, he found it difficult to live up to his potential, and frequently was left out of the starting line-up. Until the end of the season 1933/34 he run up 30 matches for Torino which finished 7th and 12th in those years.