Brazil football legend Mario Zagallo dies at 92
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Mario Zagallo played on the team who won Brazil's first World Cup in 1958 and he kept his place in the side that retained the title four years later.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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RIO DE JANEIRO – Mario Zagallo, who won four World Cups for Brazil as either player or coach, has died at 92, according to a post on his official Instagram account on Jan 6.
A tough and talented left winger, he played on the team who won Brazil's first World Cup in 1958 and he kept his place in the side who retained the title four years later.
In 1970, he coached a Brazil squad that featured all-time greats like Pele, Jairzinho, Rivellino and Tostao – one that many consider to be the greatest national team ever to play the game. They won Brazil’s third World Cup in Mexico.
That made Zagallo the first person in football to win a World Cup as both a player and a manager.
Later, he was assistant coach to Carlos Alberto Parreira when Brazil won their fourth title in 1994 in the United States.
“The CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and Brazilian football mourn the death of one of its greatest legends, Mario Jorge Lobo Zagallo,” said the organisation’s president Ednaldo Rodrigues.
“The CBF offers solidarity to his family and fans in this moment of sadness at the departure of this idol of our football.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led the tributes, calling him “one of the greatest football players and coaches of all time”.
Zagallo’s Brazilian fans loved him for his idiosyncratic personality and unapologetic nationalism.
One of his most famous outbursts came after Brazil won the Copa America in 1997. His team were unfancied but, when the final whistle went in La Paz against hosts Bolivia, an emotional Zagallo screamed into the cameras: “You’re going to have to put up with me!”
The phrase is still frequently repeated by Brazilians in all walks of life celebrating vindication.
Zagallo’s family said his funeral will be held on Jan 7.
He was born on Aug 9, 1931 in Maceio, on Brazil’s impoverished north-eastern coast. His family moved to Rio de Janeiro before his first birthday and it was there he fell in love with football.
His first dream was to be an airline pilot but he was forced to abandon that due to poor eyesight. Instead, he studied accountancy and played football in his spare time with local side America, then one of the biggest clubs in the city.
“Back then, it (football) wasn’t a profession that was respected... That’s why I say football came into my life by accident,” he said in an interview published by the CBF.
Zagallo started off as a left midfielder, but later switched to left wing.
He also moved from America to Flamengo, where he won three Carioca state championship medals. The latter half of his career was spent at city rivals Botafogo, where he won two more state titles.
His first World Cup came in Sweden in 1958, where he played alongside Garrincha and Pele, who was then just 17.
Botafogo fans display a banner of former manager Mario Zagallo in the stands before a match in Rio de Janeiro, on Sept 11, 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
As coach, Zagallo led a string of Brazilian clubs, but he made his mark when he was drafted to replace Joao Saldanha as Brazil coach just months before the 1970 World Cup.
He stayed on until 1974, taking Brazil to fourth place in West Germany. He was also in charge in 1998 when Brazil lost 3-0 to hosts France in the final.
Zagallo retired from the game in 2006, when he was again Parreira’s assistant and they lost in the quarter-finals in Germany.
Separately, the CBF has announced that interim coach Fernando Diniz will no longer be in charge of Brazil.
Sao Paulo coach Dorival Junior is now reportedly being considered for the job after Carlo Ancelotti signed a contract extension with Real Madrid. REUTERS, AFP
