The greatest world champion of all time, revered and admired by a legion of fans, an idol of several generations, Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo died this Friday (5), aged 92. The announcement was made on the social networks of the former coach and former player of the Brazilian National Team.
Starting player in the 1958 and 1962 World Cups, coach of the 1970 team and coordinator of the national team at the 1994 World Cup, Zagallo lifted four World Cup trophies. He is unsurpassed in the competition’s almost 100-year history.
Friends, coaches, players and sports directors from all over the planet mourned the departure of the Velho Lobo (Old Wolf), as he used to be called.
In his 92 years, Zagallo has never hidden his passion for football. Even before starting his career at the America-RJ youth categories, he already indicated that he wanted to be a player. It was no wonder that his colleagues and neighbors invited him to play in the fields of Tijuca when, as a child, he lived in this neighborhood, in the north of Rio.
Zagallo was born in Atalaia, municipality of Alagoas, 48 kilometers from Maceió. But, with just eight months to live, he had already moved to Rio with his family. His father, Aroldo Cardoso, who played for CRB, in Alagoas, despite his youngest son’s ability with the ball, preferred to see him studying and was only convinced that Zagallo could continue playing football after the intervention of his firstborn, Fernando.
With the ball at his feet, frail, Zagallo hardly won any tackles. He made up for his lack of muscle mass with speed, game vision and intelligence, which unnerved the defenders. After his time at America, he made a name for himself at Flamengo, where he won the three Rio championships in 1953/54/55.
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With his performances at Rubro-Negro, he started to occupy a place in the Brazilian National Team and was part of the team that won the 1958 World Cup in Chile. In that competition, he scored one of the goals in Brazil’s 5-2 victory over Sweden in the title decision.
Already established, he would experience other moments of great intensity during his stay at Botafogo, from the second half of 1958 to 1965. It was during this period that he won his second world championship, alongside his club colleagues Didi, Nilton Santos, Amarildo and Garrincha, legends of the sport.
In 1970, he won his third World Cup title, as coach of the dream team that brought together Pelé, Clodoaldo, Tostão, Gerson, Jairzinho, Rivellino, Carlos Alberto Torres and other stars. He also embraced the new job with commitment and joy. With the support of his feat at the World Cup in Mexico, he remained in the team at the 1974 World Cup in Germany, won by the hosts in a historic decision with the Netherlands.
His career as a coach already qualified him as one of the best in the world. Little by little, he began to win all his disputes off the field, in clashes with other coaches, journalists and renowned players. He was again in charge of the Brazilian team at the 1998 World Cup and at the 2006 World Cup he worked as an assistant to Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Over the years, Zagallo gained admiration for catchphrases that sounded funny and created empathy with the public. The best known, “You’re going to have to swallow me”, marked an important part of his career. Mentioned for the first time in 1997, when Brazil, led by him, won the Copa América, winning the six games they played, it initially sounded like an outburst against journalists who were putting pressure on Vanderlei Luxemburgo to take over the position.
Zagallo decided not to continue professionally in football in 2011, at the age of 79. In 2012, the four-time champion suffered the biggest blow of his life – the death of his wife Alcina, to whom he had been married for 57 years. The two had five children. Superstitious, he said that Alcina was the ideal woman, as the sum of the letters in her name and his was equal to 13, a number he was grateful for as he considered it linked to luck, fortune and love.
Respect and affection for his longtime friends was another revealing aspect of Zagallo’s personality. In 2021, upon turning 90, he received a special message from Pelé. “We were once teammates. We were once opponents. I was once your player and you were my coach. But above all, we have always been great brothers. You are a leader, a mentor, an idol and a friend with a huge heart, who Brazilian football will never forget.”
