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WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FINALS : Spotlight : DUNGACIOUS, DUDE!

By HELENE ELLIOTT
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Some of the nicknames given Brazil’s players are understandable--Bebeto means Bobby--but some defy explanation.

Nobody knows what Dunga means, or what a Dunga is, other than a fine midfielder on the Brazilian team. But Francisco Marcos, the team’s liaison, thinks the name will become part of the Portuguese language.

“A Dungada will become a noun,” Marcos predicted. “Dungar will become a verb.”

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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