No one dominated the World Cups like Mário Zagallo, who died this Friday at the age of 92: the legendary Brazilian star was the first to win football’s highest competition as a player and coach.

The architect of the dedication of St good gamethe global brand of spectacular Brazilian football between 1950 and 1970, few can boast of having such an impact on winning the precious golden trophy.

He Velho Lobo (Old Wolf) or Teacheras his team called him, he played a key role in four of the five world championships they won Choice.

Mario Zagallo, legend of the Brazilian national team as a player and coach, is the third idol immortalized in the Canarinho museum

In shorts, where he served as a left winger with self-sacrifice in defense, a modern demeanor for the time, he won two World Cups: Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962, both with Pelé.

Already retired, from the bench he led, according to many, the best team in history, the one that s about the kingJairzinho, Tostão and Rivelino gave Brazil their third star in Mexico 1970.

“A big part of what happened in my life and with the ‘Seleção’ is a debt I owe you,” Pelé, who died in December 2022 at the age of 82, told him in a FIFA documentary.

The legendary Mario Zagallo, world champion as a player and coach of Brazil, hospitalized due to a respiratory infection

In the fourth Brazilian title, in the USA in 1994, he was assistant to Carlos Alberto Parreira under the leadership of Romári and Bebet.

Obsession with the color yellow

Born on August 9, 1931 in a family of Lebanese and Italian descent in Maceió, the capital of the state of Alagoas (northeast), Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo began his football career in the humble Club América in Rio de Janeiro in 1948.

Like thousands of his compatriots, his eyes wept when Uruguay defeated Brazil (2-1) in the final of the World Cup in 1950, at the famous ‘Maracanazo’. At the time, he was a soldier in charge of security at the Maracana, from whose stands he witnessed that shot.

Mario Zagallo was world champion as a player in Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962; and as a coach in Mexico in 1970. Photo: AFP

He then moved to two big cities in Rio, Flamengo and Botafogo, where he retired and who honors him with a statue at one of the entrances to his stadium, the Olympic Nilton Santos.

He was invited for the first time Choice on the eve of the 1958 World Cup, and with his versatility he won a place in the team led by Vicente Feola.

“My passion for the national team started when I didn’t have a player or a coach. I couldn’t get yellow out of my head,” said Zagallo.

In the final in Sweden, he scored the fourth goal and assisted for ’10’ in the last goal of the 5-2 victory.

In Chile, four years later, with ‘O rei’ injured from the second game, he took center stage alongside Garrincha, Didi and Vava to win the league double.

Two years after hanging up his football boots, in 1966, he began his coaching career at Botafogo. Although he had a successful career in Brazilian clubs, it was at the head of Brazil that he became immortal.

He did the “impossible”

His first wrist was shown when he silenced the skeptics who believed that the ‘scratch’, on which he landed 75 days before the start of the World Cup, could not play with people of a similar profile.

He silenced them by setting up the ‘five 10’ (Pelé, Tostão, Rivelino, Gerson and Jairzinho), with a 4-3-3 for the ages.

“They said it would be impossible to fit everything in in such a short time, but we won the World Cup,” he said.

On June 21, 1970, Brazil defeated Italy 4-1 in the final, and Zagallo became the first player and coach to win the cup.

Only the German legend Franz Beckenbauer (1974, 1990) and the French Didier Deschamps (1998, 2018) managed to do that.

As coach, he also managed to get the United Arab Emirates to qualify for the 1990 World Cup for the first and only time, although he was sacked before the tournament after claiming unpaid bonuses.

He coached Brazil again for France in 1998, but they lost 3-0 to the hosts in the final.

“I had many important coaches, but, without a doubt, the greatest of all was Zagallo,” said Ronaldo Nazário, the great figure of Choice.

Very superstitious, the ‘Old Wolf’ believed that the number 13, on St. Anthony’s Day (June 13), brought him luck: he married his wife on June 13, and after winning the quadruple championship, he wrote 13-letter phrases on his blog.

He ended his sports career as the technical coordinator of Brazil in Germany in 2006, where, led by Parreira, they lost to France in the quarter-finals (1-0).

Since then, he has made sporadic public appearances. With the advice of his family, in recent years he recounted his everyday life and paid tribute on Instagram, where he presented himself as an eternal “lover” of canary. (D)