January 7 – A four-time world champion and the first person to win the World Cup as both a player and a coach, Mario Zagallo has died at the age of 92.
As a player, Zagallo won the World Cup in 1958 and 1962, as a coach in 1970 and as a technical director in 1994. His immense success was instrumental in shaping Brazil’s fortunes on the global stage. As a four-time World Cup winner, he played a part in nearly every important chapter of Brazilian football.
Born in Alagoas in 1931, Zagallo was a middle-class boy for whom choosing a football career was not straightforward. He was not the most gifted player either, but he soon moved from America to Rio giants Flamengo and his intelligence won him a place in the Brazilian national team.
He became the deep-lying winger, shuttling up and down to provide defensive cover, turning a 4-2-4 into a 4-3-3. Brazil had pioneered the back four, but playing a system with wingers left the midfield exposed. Zagallo’s ingenuity to drop back solved this problem.
In 1958 in Sweden, he won a maiden World Cup for Brazil alongside teenager Pelé and dribbling wizard Garrincha. Four years later, Brazil and Zagallo repeated the feat in Chile. Pelé was injured in the group stages, but Garrincha and Amarildo took over to lead Brazil to victory. It was a testimony to Brazil’s strength in depth and the golden generation of which Zagallo formed a part.
His name remained linked to the national team and the global finals. In 1970 in Mexico, he returned as a coach of the two-time world champions.
On the eve of the finals, he succeeded the tempestuous Joao Saldanha and tweaked the team, dropping Wilson Piazza to centre back to integrate Clodoaldo in midfield and playing Rivellino as a false left winter, the role Zagallo occupied as a player. It worked wonders and Brazil thrilled for three weeks in the Mexican heat to claim a third World Cup, the tournament culminating with Carlos Alberto Torres’s iconic strike in a 4-1 win…
Author : Paul Nicholson
Publish date : 2024-01-08 00:59:21
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Author : soccernews
Publish date : 2024-01-08 01:08:50
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.