He has been credited with helping end the prejudice against black goalkeepers in Brazilian club football due to his success in Europe, and upon joining Internacional in 2014, became the first Afro-Brazilian keeper to play for the club in 43 years. Nélson de Jesus Silva was born on 7 October 1973 in the city of Irará in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, and is one of ten children along with five sisters and four brothers. He was raised in Lagoa da Canoa in the smaller neighboring state of Alagoas, to where his family had moved when he was three months old. His first sport of choice was volleyball, which he played with his brothers, until he discovered football by way of futsal and pickup games. His preferred position was that of goalkeeper, despite its longtime unpopularity in Brazilian football and the country's history of discrimination against black players in the position. A supporter of Rio de Janeiro-based club Flamengo, Dida helped form an amateur squad called "Flamenguinho" ("little Flamengo") at age thirteen, which marked his first experience in organized team play. He took his future playing name from Flamengo striker Dida, while his footballing idols were goalkeepers Rinat Dasayev and future "Seleção" teammate Cláudio Taffarel, who had enjoyed successful runs in Italy and Turkey and whom Dida later considered a pioneer in the growing acceptance of Brazilian keepers into European clubs. In 1990, at age 17, Dida made his club football debut with now-defunct Alagoan team Cruzeiro de Arapiraca. Two years later, he joined the youth academy of hometown team and 1992 Campeonato Baiano winners Vitória. In 1993, after starting in Brazil's FIFA World Youth Championship victory, Dida made 24 starts in goal for Vitória's senior squad as they finished runner-up to Palmeiras in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, and he became the youngest recipient, at 20, of Brazilian football magazine "Placar's" annual "Bola de Prata" award as the Série A's best goalkeeper. Dida was then acquired by Minas Gerais-based club Cruzeiro in 1994, and in a span of five seasons, he won four state titles, the 1996 Copa do Brasil and the 1997 Copa Libertadores, and two more "Bola de Prata" goalkeeping awards.