In black or yellow (like the Seleçao jersey): dozens of people gathered in front of the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), in Rio de Janeiro, to pay a last tribute to Mario Jorge Lobo Zagallo, the only four-time world football champion, during his funeral on January 7.
The death of the man nicknamed “the Old Wolf” on January 5, at the age of 92, in Rio de Janeiro, following a series of health problems, caused great excitement in the world of Brazilian football. It was ” an idol “, said in a statement Ednaldo Rodrigues, the president of the Confederation, who declared seven days of mourning and opened his doors to the public for Zagallo’s funeral. Brazilian President Lula also declared a “official three-day mourning”.
The Seleçao, the Brazilian national team, owes four of its five world titles to the “Old Wolf”. He first obtained two, in 1958 in Sweden and in 1962 in Chile, as a player, then a third as a coach, in 1970 in Mexico, and a last one, in 1994 in the United States, in as an assistant coach. Enough to justify the statue erected in honor of Zagallo in front of the Nilton Santos stadium, the home of the Botafogo club, in Rio de Janeiro.
Tactical accuracy
Only the German Franz Beckenbauer, who died two days after Zagallo, and the French Didier Deschamps have achieved the feat of winning a World Cup both as a player and as a coach. “Courageous, dedicated, passionate and superstitious, Zagallo was the example of a Brazilian who never gives up”declared President Lula in a message published on X upon the announcement of his death.
Born on August 9, 1931 in Maceio, in the northeast of Brazil, into a family of Italian and Lebanese origin, Zagallo began his career in 1948 at Club America, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he grows. But it was during his military service that his dream of offering a World Cup to his country was born. On July 16, 1950, while working as a security guard at the Maracana stadium in Rio, he attended the maracanaço : the Seleçao’s surprise 2-1 defeat against Uruguay in the World Cup final.
Zagallo will never digest this humiliation. “That day has never left my mind”he told the BBC in 2013. He then devoted himself fully to football to take his revenge: he signed his first contract with Flamengo in 1950, then joined the rival club Botafogo, for whom he played between 1958 and 1965.
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