PELE IS THE KING, I DON’T ATTEMPT, BUT GARRINCHA THEN IS A FOOTBALL JOKER WITH A NAKED KING!

Remembering the unconscious Masters of Football, maybe We can draw conscious conclusions for ourselves?!

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“Here rests in peace the one who was the joy of the people.”

There's a bird in the name.

It was hard to imagine that a boy born into a poor, large Brazilian family with a whole host of congenital diseases - strabismus, spinal deformity, displacement of the pelvic bones - would become a football legend. The hero's name was Manuel Francisco dos Santos. Garrincha is the nickname given to him Native sister for his love of catching the tiny rare birds of the same name that live close to home. Manet could perfectly imitate their joyful cooing. And the nickname stuck to him instead of his real name for the rest of his life.

However, in Brazil there are many young virtuosos, but you also need exceptional luck to get into a professional club. The fact is that in Brazil there were probably several tens of thousands of Manoels before the Santoses, including those at Garrincha’s factory. To distinguish himself, he came up with a second name for himself: the beautiful Italian Francisco. Soon he received an invitation to play on a team in a neighboring town, but did not agree. He thought that this would be an exchange of “sewl for soap” and stayed in Pau Grande. And he was right. Soon, Arati, a reserve player from the capital's Botafogo club, came to visit his friends in this town. He was invited to referee a Sunday match between two teams, in which Garrincha participated. The young forward’s performance impressed the experienced player so much that he immediately took Manoel to the capital. There Arati borrowed money from friends, bought Garrincha boots, a uniform and took him to training. https://youtu.be/_qzL0H0eBGk

It was conducted by the famous trainer Zhentil Cardozo. The training was already coming to an end when he remembered the guy. - Give it here! - he shouted to Arati. When Mane entered the field, the stands of fans (fans are always present at the training sessions of large clubs in Brazil) burst into homeric laughter. And the coach himself turned away, hiding his smile. This provincial bumpkin resembled anyone, but not a football player. One of his legs was 20 centimeters shorter than the other, and in order to stay on the move, he had to bend the longer leg forward. (Doctors warned the parents of the future star that Manoel would hardly be able to walk without the help of crutches, because even after a complex operation, his right leg remained six centimeters shorter than his left. But, fortunately, the doctors’ predictions were not confirmed. The desire to play football was stronger than the lameness.)

“You must be crazy, Arati! Who did you bring with you? “We have a professional club, not a shelter for the disabled,” the coach said harshly, but once again looking into the frightened eyes of the bowlegged boy standing at the edge of the field, he changed his anger to mercy: “Okay, to hell with him, let him show what he is capable of, just arrived,” frowning, he asked the guy: “Where are you used to playing?” - Anywhere, but not at the gate. But I love it on the right edge. The coach thought for a moment and said: Check him out, Nilton!

Zhentil's words meant a death sentence. The full-time left-back of the national team, the leader of Botafogo, Nilton Santos, had to “check” Garrincha. However, Mane was not particularly worried about this. He did not know this player by sight, because the national team, to tell the truth, did not visit Pau Grande. Having reached the right flank of the reserve team, Garrincha sighed and suddenly saw the ball flying towards him and a player running out.

Everyone who was at the stadium that day remembered what happened next for the rest of their lives. Garrincha received the ball, made a couple of deceptive movements and sent the ball between the legs of a taken aback Nilton. The famous defender tried to chase an opposing player, but lost his balance and fell. Everyone in the stadium burst into homeric laughter. But only Garrincha continued to do God knows what to the enemy defenders. Following this, the whole team began to play for the newcomer. And he continued to work miracles, dribbled around Santos several times, managed to trick defenders wholesale and retail, and then, after a cascade of feints, scored an irresistible goal.

After training, everyone in the locker room joked and laughed, remembering Nilton Santos with his wounded legs. And the masseur whispered to the embarrassed Manoel: Do you even know who you turned into a clown? It's Nilton! You understand, Neil-ton! Yes, if he is offended by you, you can calmly go home: without his consent, they won’t even hire a laundress to the club. Not to mention the player. Manoel shrugged: Did I know? There, in Pau Grande, I always shake one Joan, and he never gets offended.

But Nilton Santos was not offended. After the match, a discouraged Nilton Santos said: “If this guy ends up in another club, I won’t be able to sleep peacefully. If he gains a foothold with us, then the defenders of other clubs will not sleep.” To which the coach, no less shocked by what he saw, wittily remarked: “It seems, Nilton, that you have begun to understand football.” Then they listened to his word and Garrincha was taken to the team. To this day, Nilton is proud to have been Garrincha's first protégé.

Thus began the football career of the “Joy of the People”, a player who sent the world’s leading stadiums into a frenzy and for 15 years became the grief of those who happened to play on the left side of the defense against Garrincha. In the meantime, he doesn’t drink alcohol, training takes up everything free time.

Yes, his rise was not as rapid as Pele's. He became the world champion at the age of 17, and Garrincha only joined her bench at the age of 24. Mane sat on the bench for the first two matches of the World Cup in Sweden. And only in the third match against the USSR team, under pressure from the team leaders, the national team coach Vicente Fiola gave in: two blacks, two of the most talented Brazilian players in the history of Garrincha and Pele, entered the field. The Brazilians were afraid of the enemy. They knew that Gavriil Dmitrievich Kachalin instilled in our team of those times a strict, academic style of play. Our team had brilliant performers: Netto, Yashin, Ivanov, Voinov and others. In 2 years this team will become the first European champion.

But then, in 1958, Garrincha tore apart the enemy defense in the first three minutes of the match. At the 15th second, Didi sends the ball to Garrincha, who on the right flank of the attack beats the unfortunate left-back Kuznetsov twice in a row, then two more: Voinov and Krizhevsky, who rushed to the rescue, and hit the post like a cannonball. Just a few seconds later, Garrincha passes along the edge a second time, crosses into the penalty area and Pele hits the post! But the right edge of the Brazilian attack did not despair, on the contrary: in the 3rd minute of the match, a ball flew into Yashin’s goal, which was scored from Garrincha’s new serve. This World Cup ended on a positive note for the Brazilians. They won the World Cup, and young Garrincha and Pele became one of the best in the champions.

He got married for the first time at the age of 19. Nair worked with him at the factory in the same workshop. The bride was barely sixteen. The newlyweds, who were already expecting their first child, did not have a lavish wedding, but only got married in a local church. In his marriage to Nair, the football player had eight daughters! They divorced in the 1960s, and in March 1973 Nair died, after which Garrincha took his five youngest daughters into his new family. The footballer's second and last wife was the then famous singer Elsa Suarez, who bore him three daughters. They lived together for 15 years. In addition to his 11 children (all daughters!), Garrincha had at least three more illegitimate children, recognized by the football player himself.

According to one legend, before the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, the leadership of the Brazilian national team decided to improve the mood of its players in a very original way and invited a whole squad of prostitutes to the base. Young Pele refused the services of the priestesses of love, citing the fact that a girl was waiting for him in Brazil. Then Garrincha, without any hesitation, approached the coach and asked: “Mister, did Pele refuse the prostitute? Can I use two at once?”

The four years from the 1958 World Cup to the 1962 championship went well for Garrincha, both from the football side of life and in his personal life. It was during this period that he met his second wife: Elsa Suarez. In the sixties, when Garrincha was already a very popular football player, the fame of the young singer, mulatto, Brazilian samba performer Elsa Suarez blossomed on the stage of the Brazilian stage. At carnivals, the famous Mangueira samba school, led by Elsa, won many prizes. Her songs “Carioca Beauty”, “Independent Youth” and others were loved by everyone. They sounded from records, they were performed on the radio. They were sung on the streets, on beaches, in restaurants and cafes.

In one of the games of the Brazilian championship, Garrincha for the first time showed what is now called fair play The opposing team's defender slipped and fell and twisted his leg. Garrincha, going one on one with the goalkeeper, saw the fall and kicked the ball into touch. In 1962, the meniscus was injured during a game. From this moment on, Mane enters the field only after a double dose of painkillers.

At the 1962 World Cup, 28-year-old Garrincha arrived as a player who was considered the second leader of the team after Pele. But it so happened that Pele essentially did not play at the championship: At the very beginning of the championship, Pele was injured. Experts immediately decided that it was all over for the Brazilians. But that was not the case. Garrincha and Amarildo led the team. The first one passed, and the second one scored. This team showed fantastic football and in the final they left no stone unturned against the strong Czechoslovakian national team. The score 4:1 in the final with this team proved that the Brazilians, even without Pele, are the strongest team in the world and won the golden goddess Nike for the second time. There were celebrations on this occasion for many days in Brazil.

But not everything was so rosy for Garrincha. It is worth saying that the club management paid him only one-fifth of the price of this football player. The managers simply came to the football player’s shack, gave his family gifts and signed a new contract. Garrincha never demanded more than what was stated in the document. The first time Garrincha changed this order was in 1963. Here's what the Brazilian magazine Plakar says about it. “1963. Already, being a twice world champion, Garrincha, following the advice of Elsa Suarez, for the first time, when renewing his contract with Botafogo, asked for a higher salary. Previously, he always signed a blank contract form, then receiving only half the average earnings of the football players of the “rest of the sheep” , as Garrincha said" "Botafogo". The club's patrons met with irritation the popular football player's fair demand to appreciate his skill. A new contract, signed 4 months later, was drawn up with the direct intervention of banker Jose Magalhaes Lins, who appreciated Garrincha’s talent and occasionally patronized him.

He could only make money by playing football, so he was often left penniless - he gave away or simply gave thousands and thousands of cruzeiros to his many friends, or even just casual acquaintances. Without looking, he laid out wads of money as thick as a finger on the table to pay for another noisy revelry in the restaurant. His soul was as wide as a football field. And many people took advantage of it.

Garrincha always remained a boy at heart. And sometimes he repeated on the field what he did in the vacant lots in Pau Grande. You can recall an incident that occurred during a friendly match with the Costa Rica national team. The match was ending, but the score was still 1:1. And then Garrincha picks up the ball in his own half of the field and begins a solo pass. On the way to the goal, he beat all the enemy players, went one on one with the goalkeeper: and froze with the ball. After that, he beat the defenders again and again missed the shot. Another series of feints, the national team coach is raging near the edge of the field, and Garrincha once again beats everyone and again does not hit. And only on the fourth try he sends the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs. After the game, when asked why he didn’t shoot right away, he answered: “It’s just that the goalkeeper didn’t want to spread his legs even a little bit.”

But after the World Championship the first problems began. Mane was supposed to go on his club's tour of Europe, but doctors categorically forbade him to do this. “You have a bad knee, if you play, you will ruin your health and career,” they said. But the great player did not listen. In many ways, this turning point in his career, which changed from major to minor, is the fault of the club’s management. It gave the management: either you go on tour or leave the club. Garrincha could not part with the club, which arranged so many mean things for him in the difficult fate of this player.

Leaving Botafogo. End.

After this tour, Garrincha’s knee began to hurt seriously. During the trip he played on only painkillers, but after that even they didn’t help. He did not play football for half a year, but only received treatment. Garrincha's relationship with the club's management deteriorated sharply and he soon moved to another club. The team's management hoped that the arrival of the B-Campeon would help the team win the championship of their state, but these hopes did not materialize. Garrincha was never able to play in this team and was sold.

Mane wandered around the football periphery of Brazil for a long time. He even played in the 3rd division. I went to Colombia, but didn’t stay anywhere. He believed that he would soon return to the Maracanã. And it finally happened. Garrincha was accepted into the Flamengo team! 100 thousand fans greeted him at his first game with his new team. But again he was unable to show a decent performance. He was replaced in the first half, and he never appeared on the field again for the club. He became the coach of one of the teams, but did not stay here either. More than one Brazilian boy could not repeat his cunning feints, but teach team game he couldn't. Again he left and again began to look for a place to work. Unfortunately he couldn't do anything except play football. The family was supported by his wife Elsa Suarez, who at that time became a very famous samba performer. Garrincha started drinking.

The next few years passed in an unsuccessful search for some kind of tolerable football haven. And in December 1973, at the main stadium of Brazil, the Maracanã, in the presence of 131 thousand spectators, Garrincha’s farewell match took place, in which, by the way, former Dynamo Kiev player Vladimir Onishchenko also played. After the whistle sounded, which announced that Garrincha was leaving the field, he began to cry and went into the tribune room. The funds collected for the game allowed Mane to pay off part of his debts and fulfill his marital duty to his wives, paying for his children’s education, rent for a house to live in, and paying off expenses for a small business that allows ex-spouses to make ends meet. The money Manet himself had left from the distribution of elephants quickly ran out. And after another heart attack, he was admitted to the hospital, where he met his new wife, who bore him a daughter, who became Garrincha’s fourteenth child from different women. At the same time, attacks of illness in the new marriage only became more frequent.

This is where football ended for the great player. Soon Brazil forgot about Garrincha, a football player who was included in the top ten best field players of the 20th century according to FIFA! And I remembered when it was already too late. He celebrated his 40th birthday at home in unusual solitude. Only he and Elsa were sitting at the table. The friends he was expecting did not come or even call. They also forgot about him. Garrincha sought salvation in alcohol. In the end, driven to despair, Elsa posed the question bluntly: either the family or the bottle. “I don’t have the strength to stop drinking,” Manet whispered doomedly in response. A few days later, Elsa filed for divorce.

Lonely and forgotten by everyone, Garrincha was never able to overcome his addiction to alcohol. In the last two years of his life, he was admitted to the clinic six times with a diagnosis of acute alcoholism... The great football player died in 1983 in poverty from liver problems associated with alcoholism. About 300 thousand people came to the funeral of the football idol...

but there was just NONE of his partners in the “golden” Brazilian team.

Later, Pele made excuses that he was afraid of the dead and tried not to participate in such sad ceremonies. The King of Football also said, that Garrincha, they say, was never, in fact, his friend. And this is the same Pele who was the first to give to Garrincha to hold the Golden Goddess Nike after the Brazilian victory at the 1958 World Cup.

In October 1995, a 536-page book by writer and publicist Rui Castro, “Lone Star: The Brazilian Called Garrincha,” went on sale. True, at first it didn’t stay on store shelves for long, because the football player’s daughters filed a lawsuit against the author. The player’s relatives and friends were not so much shocked by the peculiar interpretation of Garrincha’s ups and downs as by the description of some intimate details ( manhood 25 cm) and possibilities (ten times per night). The footballer's family considered the demonstration of such awareness inappropriate.

However, the responsible persons in the Rio de Janeiro court read with interest the biography of Garrincha and chose to reject the claim, stating that the information published in the book does not insult the football player, but, on the contrary, pays him a compliment. In an interview with the Globo newspaper, Judge Joao Vebi Dib stated literally the following: “This cannot be offensive - such data is the pride of any Brazilian.”

PLAYED LIKE A GOD AND DIED LIKE A VAG...

Greatest Footballers: Garrincha

The King and the Sparrow. Pele and Garrincha are football heroes.

But here are four fragments of a young football player, in whom I also invested something...

https://youtu.be/vLXV1A5V1xs?list=PLdCE71wFENeh_3_lJG5LKEkspGz7FzV_o

...For football-mad Brazilians, the player's farewell turned into a nationwide mourning event. Over three hundred thousand people marched behind the coffin, wrapped in the flags of the country and the Botofago club, which accompanied the procession to the cemetery in the native village of Pau Grande. The inscription is carved on the gravestone:

"Here lies the one who was a joy to the people - Mane Garrincha"

and always fresh flowers.

WITH LOVE, DIMEDROL!

Updated 08 Apr 2019. Created June 20, 2013

There was a time when newspapers around the world printed his portraits on the front pages. There was a time when a movie called “The Joy of the People” was dedicated to this guy. There was a time when his name was pronounced with reverent respect and reverent admiration by millions of fans in Rome and Moscow, Mexico City and Dakar, Istanbul and Buenos Aires. Not to mention Rio de Janeiro.

Today, perhaps, only one thing remains of his former glory: a memorial bronze plaque in the lobby of the Maracanã stadium, on which his name is listed among the names of the famous heroes of the World Cup in Sweden: “Manoel Francisco dos Santos.” And in parentheses: “Garrincha.” When he was sent off in one of the Chilean World Cup matches, the Prime Minister of Brazil sent a telegram to Sant'Iago containing a diplomatically veiled request not to disqualify Garrincha for the next match. When Brazil won the Jules Rimet Cup for the second time, in a roar of carnival of delight that shook the country he was promised golden mountains and rivers full of wine: cars and estates, land and bank accounts with fantastic amounts...

And a few years later he was not even sent an invitation to the gala banquet on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the victory in Sweden. They forgot to invite him to the match between the Brazilian and FIFA national teams, organized in connection with this anniversary.

Everyone was invited - retired generals and pop singers, famous jockeys and fashionable tailors, thin-legged models and loud coupletists. And Manoel Francisco dos Santos stood in line for a ticket along with tens of thousands of his humble compatriots.

So, have you forgotten about Garrincha? “The Joy of the People”, the idol of Brazil was left out of football, without friends, without fame. Hysterical girls no longer shout his name in unison from the stands of stadiums, schoolchildren no longer wear a T-shirt with his portrait on the chest. Why? To answer this question, if it can be answered at all, let’s go back a decade and a half.

...July 9, 1953. On this day, at the Botafogo stadium in Rio de Janeiro, nervously, shifting from foot to foot, 20-year-old Manoel, or Mane, as his friends called him in Pau Grande, a tiny town lost somewhere in the mountains, surrounding Rio de Janeiro, held on to the net that enclosed the football field, and with bated breath watched the training of the outstanding “cobras” (as the Torcedores call their “idols”), many of whom repeatedly wore the yellow T-shirts of the national team. The guy was brought here by a certain Arati, a former Botafogo football player, who once happened to attend a match in Pau Grande and, seeing Manet’s dazzling cascades of feints there, decided to show him at his club.

The training was coming to an end when coach Gentil Cardozo remembered a guy brought from somewhere in the province.

- Give it here! – he shouted to Arati.

And Manet timidly entered the field...

Laughter was heard in the stands, Zhentil himself turned away, hiding a smile: this hulk resembled anyone but a football player. He waddled: one leg was eight centimeters shorter than the other. And therefore, in order to stay on his feet, to walk and run, Manet had to arch his longer leg. To put an end to this carnival once and for all, Zhentil, frowning, asked the guy:

– Where are you used to playing?

- Anywhere, but not at the gate. But actually I like it on the right edge...

The coach narrowed his eyes, thought for a moment and then said:

- Well, go there, to the right edge, to the reserve team. Let's see what you can do.

And as Manet hobbled to his seat, Zhentil shouted to Nilton Santos:

- Check him out, Nilton!

Zhentil's words meant a death sentence. Mane had to “check” the famous left-back of the national team, who was better than anyone in Brazil in those years in this position.

However, Manet did not care: he did not know Nilton Santos by sight, because the national team in Pau Grande, to tell the truth, did not look. Having hobbled to the right flank of the attack, Manoel sighed, looked back and immediately saw that the ball was flying towards him, and the one whom the coach called Nilton was running out slowly towards him... Nilton Santos remembered what happened next forever. Firstly, because this happened to him for the first time in his life. Secondly, because subsequently he had to spend his entire life talking about this episode to hundreds of reporters from different countries peace. This is how Nilton Santos remembered him:

“In those days, I was just getting ready to get married, and on the eve of that training, my friends and I spent almost the entire night saying goodbye to single life... I drank a little too much, although I hated alcoholic beverages, but I didn’t want to upset my friends. In the morning, when I came to training, I felt unwell, I was angry, and I felt some kind of weakness in my body. The coach was testing some newcomers and nodded for me to check some guy who appeared on the right edge. Everyone quietly chuckled at the bow-legged subject. Me too... Then I saw that he had been given a pass, and calmly went to take the ball from him. As I approached him, he suddenly quickly pushed the ball between my legs and disappeared. I tried to rush after him, but lost my balance and collapsed, lifting my legs up. Everyone in the stadium burst into laughter.

Everyone, with the exception of this guy, who calmly continued to do God knows what with the rest of the defenders...

Following this, the whole team began to play for the newcomer. And he, not paying attention to the laughter and roar of the stands (fans are always present at the training sessions of large clubs in Brazil), to the amazement of the coaches, to the confusion of the defenders, continued to work miracles. He beat Nilton Santos several times in a row, managed to beat defenders wholesale and retail, and then, after a cascade of feints, scored an irresistible goal...

After practice, everyone in the locker room was joking and laughing, remembering Nilton Santos with his legs up. And the masseur whispered reproachfully to Manoel:

- Do you even know who you turned into a clown? It's Nilton! You understand: Neil-ton! Yes, if he is offended by you, you can calmly go home: without his consent, they won’t even hire a laundress to the club. Not to mention the player...

Manoel shrugged.

- Did I know? There, in Pau Grande, I always shake one Joan, and he never gets offended...

But Nilton Santos was not offended. On the contrary, he demanded that the club president immediately take Manet. And today Nilton is proud of it. that he became the first official “Joan” Garrincha, as the people nicknamed the endless galaxy of unfortunate left-backs of all teams, countries, skin colors and colors of T-shirts who met Manoel’s path.

Thus began the sports biography of this guy - a semi-literate apprentice at a weaving factory, who became the “joy of the people,” a true hero of Brazil.

His path, however, was not as swift and triumphant as Pele’s rise. Let us remember that Pele became the world champion at the age of 17, and Garrincha joined the national team as a reserve in 1957, when he was 24 years old. “Titular” on the right side was at that time the famous Joel from Flamengo. Nevertheless, Garrincha participated in several games of the 1957 South American Championship and in qualifying matches for a trip to Sweden, where he again went as a substitute under Joel.

The first two matches - against Austria (3:0) and England (0:0) Manoel sat on the bench. On the eve of the game against the USSR national team, a group of journalists and players (Belini - team captain, Didi and Nilton Santos), alarmed by the difficult draw with the British, demanded that coach Feola include Garrincha in the main squad. Feola was stubborn for a long time. He could not forgive Manoela for the “irresponsibility” he showed in a friendly match against Fiorentina, which the Brazilian team played on the eve of their arrival in Sweden. The Brazilians won 4-0 that day and Mane was amazing. At one point in the game, he personally circled the entire defense, then the goalkeeper and... froze with the ball on the goal line, without finishing it into the net. The entire stadium jumped to its feet, perplexed! It turned out that Garrincha was waiting for the defender, who was rushing to help the goalkeeper. He waited for him, then beat him with an unexpected feint and calmly entered the goal net with the ball. And the unlucky Italian, falling for Manet's feint, lost his bearings and hit his head on the goal post. So much so that the stands and even the Fiorentina players themselves burst into homeric laughter.

Yes, Feola did not like Garrincha, as did the psychologist Senor Carvalhaes and the team “supervisor” (administrator) Carlos Nascimento. However, under pressure from the “unanimous demand of the public,” they had to give in. Garrincha entered the match against the USSR national team. And this day - June 15, 1958 - became the day of his brilliant premiere in world football.

The first three minutes of this match, Gabriel Hanot, the most famous French football specialist, later called “the three most fantastic minutes in the history of world football.” And Gavriil Dmitrievich Kachalin, the coach of our team, still recalls the beginning of this match with admiring surprise. At the 15th second, Didi sends the ball to the right flank of Garrinche, who beats our left defender Kuznetsov twice in a row, then two more - Voinov and Krizhevsky, who rushed to help, and hits the post like a cannonball. The stadium erupted in a storm of applause. A few seconds later, Garrincha again passes along the edge, delivers the ball into the penalty area, and Pele hits... the post for the second time... And in the 3rd minute of this unstoppable assault, a goal flies into Yashin’s goal, scored by Vava from Garrincha’s new serve...

Thus began the triumphant journey of Manet, nicknamed by someone “the Charlie Chaplin of football,” through the largest stadiums in the world.

At the next World Cup - in 1962 in Chile - Garrincha was unanimously recognized as the main hero of the victory, since Pele received a serious injury in the first minutes of the second match of the championship and was out of action. On the eve of the match with the English, Joan Saldanha (he was then a correspondent for the newspaper Ultimaora and radio Nacional) said to the English coach Winterbottom:

- Mr. Winterbottom! Do you see this bow-legged guy there, warming up? Garrincha? I am ready to make a bet with you on any terms that five minutes after the start of the match you will assign two or three more players to him in addition to the left back. And if you don’t put it there, they will go and keep it themselves...

The bet was made. For a bottle of champagne. It is said that on the eve of this game one of the Brazilian journalists told Manoel:

- Listen! There, those “gringos”, have a defender on the team, Flowers, who said that he plays better than you. And that you won’t pass it...

Manet was simple-minded and passionate. He did not notice the catch and asked:

- How does he know me? After all, we didn’t play with them!

- Yes, he saw you from the stands. And he said that you can’t play against him.

Manet thought for a moment, shook his head, and then suddenly asked:

-What is he like?

- So tall. Blond...

- Yes, they are all tall and blond!

A little later, Manoel approached Nilton Santos: “You know, I’ve never been angry with anyone, but I can’t get this Flowers out of my head.” I don’t like him, this “gringo”!

- And you deal with him, Mane. Garrincha shook his head:

- Yes, I can. But, damn him, I don’t know who he is. I only know that he is English.

- And you cut them all up. One of them will probably be Flowers...

This is exactly what Garrincha did. He dealt with all the Englishmen together and with each one individually. He enthusiastically “destroyed” these “gringos”, because one of them was Flowers.

Mysterious Flowers, an impudent stranger who allowed himself too much...

After passing for one goal, Manoel scored two more. He scored one of them with his head, jumping over the lanky British backs. They say it was the best match ever sports biography Garrinchi. And after the final whistle, that ended the participation. England team in the World Cup, Winterbottom wiped the sweat from his brow, ordered a box of champagne to be brought for Saldanha and, sighing, told the journalists who were buzzing like a beehive:

– For four years I prepared my guys to win over football teams. Alas, I did not imagine that we would have to deal with Garrincha...

The laconic Frank McGee, a correspondent for the Daily Mirror, tapped Winterbottom on the shoulder and said:

– Garrincha is the first player in the world. I just sent this telegram to the eight million readers of my newspaper: “The best player in the world is no longer Pele, but Garrincha.”

– I leave with my head raised. We lost to Garrincha. Anyone would have lost to him in our place...

Who is he, after all, this Garrincha? What is the secret of his sensational success? Is it possible to compare him with Pele, as reporters often like to do?... And if we compare, is it possible to answer the eternal question: “Who is better?”

Let's start with Pele.

Pele combines all the best that a football player needs; he seems to have absorbed and absorbed the entire heritage of his great football ancestors. Pele can do everything: he has a high jump and a swift dash (despite the apparent bulk of his figure), he hits equally well with both feet, he is fluent in the technique of feints and dribbles, he sees and even feels the field amazingly, navigating the most confusing game situations with lightning speed ( doctors even try to explain this ability of the “king” by the special structure of his eyes). He also possesses a keen footballing intellect, baffling opponents with his unexpected tactical and technical insights. He overtakes the fastest defenders, jumps over the tallest enemy players, fights with his body against the most athletic giants... In other words, Pele is the standard, the ideal of the modern football player. An ideal that everyone strives for, but which only one has achieved: Edson Arantes do Nascimento - Pele.

Garrincha is the complete opposite of Pele. Not only is he not a standard, but he is the negation of a standard. Not only is he not an ideal, but, at least at first glance, he is the opposite of an ideal. If you don't know who this person is, then when you look at him when he enters the field, you feel bewildered. Confusion at best. And it’s not just his clubfoot, his “bow-leggedness,” his clumsiness... Without the ball, Garrincha looks like an alien body on the football field. He might even irritate some refined football esthete!

After these words, the reader is probably waiting for a continuation in this spirit: “But, having received the ball, Garrincha is transformed!” No, paradoxically, having received the ball, he continues to cause bewilderment. Because not only his figure, but also his manner of play, his behavior on the field are in blatant contradiction with all the immutable and holy canons of modern football. With all the requirements and rules that are learned by players from Australia to Ireland, from Japan to Paraguay. These canons require something like the following: “The attack should develop as quickly as possible. Having received the ball, the attacker must either pass to an opening partner, or advance with the ball on his own, trying to aggravate the game situation in favor of his team...”

You won’t expect anything like this from Garrincha! When he receives the ball, he does exactly what he shouldn't do: he stops and waits for his opponent. Maybe he could get away from it by making a dash! Maybe he could pass the ball with one touch! No, nine times out of ten Garrincha does not do this. He, I repeat, stops with the ball, waits for his guard (and at this time the enemy manages to organize a real “Maginot Line” on the approaches to his penalty area!) and, seeing that the unfortunate victim is preparing for battle, he puts his feint into action...

By the way, about the trick. In general, Garrincha has only one. Garrincha freezes with the ball under his feet, then moves his body, simulating a jerk almost always to the left, but in fact remains in place. Then suddenly - after all! - takes off and rushes past (almost always to the right) a late (definitely late! Everyone in these cases is late to react to his jerk!) opponent... He varies this feint, usually passing to the right, but sometimes to the left of the defender.

And he loves to send the ball between his guardian’s legs...

Having passed his opponent, Garrincha often, as if having come to his senses, stops, waits until he catches up with him... And then everything repeats all over again. All the left-backs in the world, all the central defenders and left midfielders who protected them against Garrincha, who played against Botafogo or the Brazilian national team, knew this trick. They didn’t just know it, they confirmed it by heart. They studied it from filmograms and video recordings, compiled kinematic tables, breaking down this trick into its component elements, invented thousands of “antidotes”, but... they continued to “buy in”!

The tragedy of Garrincha's opponents lay not only in his ability to beat any defender - and if necessary, even two or three - but also in his amazingly accurate handling of the ball: Garrincha performed passes and shots on goal flawlessly. He could hit any corner of the goal on demand. He issued a pass in full accordance with the individual requests of this or that central striker, in exact accordance with his height (if the ball was crossed) or running speed (if the pass was for an exit, for a breakthrough). Once I happened to see during training how, from the line of the penalty area, Manoel indicated to the goalkeeper the point of the goal where the ball would be sent, and then drove it there with a slashing blow. Like hammering a nail...

Yes, Garrincha was a subverter of traditions and rules. Any other striker, if he tried to play like Manet, would be branded by the press, anathematized and expelled from the team. Not only that, but Garrincha’s style of play played by another player would have come into sharp conflict, collided with the team’s tactics, and would have disrupted the pattern of its game. And Manoela’s “wrong” football, on the contrary, enriched Botafogo and the national team. Complemented and enlivened the tactical and strategic concepts of coaches. Those coaches who managed to realize that Garrincha is a genius. That he is one of a kind, a unique phenomenon that does not fit into the Procrustean bed of anyone’s ideas and ideas. And that he should be allowed to play the way he wants. Without imposing anything on him. I don't teach him anything. That his inspiration will show him the way to the enemy's gate. And the path to victory.

This is how it has always been. Garrincha played with inspiration, excitement and fun. He created, he created. For him, football was a joy, not a job, a means of self-expression and self-affirmation. And in the manner of his play, in his handling of the ball, in his behavior on the field, in the most unexpected antics and incredible eccentricities, the eccentric soul of this big child poured out.

...As it happened, for example, once in Costa Rica: the score is 1:1, the game is nearing the end. There are only a few seconds left, and Mane performs his unique carnival, bypassing everyone who gets in his way, from the central striker to the left back. The stadium jumped to its feet: Garrincha was one on one with the goalkeeper. He swings... and doesn't hit! He swings again and... starts a new round dance, beating another defender who has arrived in time, again finds himself face to face with the goalkeeper, swings and... doesn’t hit again! And the judge is already looking at the stopwatch. And coach Paulo Amaral is in hysterics outside the field... And again Manet sets out on a journey around the goalkeeper area, beating almost the entire completely enraged team, finds himself in front of the goalkeeper for the third time and - finally! – scores a goal, sending the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs... A moment later, the match ends, and the enraged Paulo Amaral flies towards Manet in the center of the field, dropping the most expressive epithets as he goes, drawn from dark basements Portuguese language:

- Why didn’t you hit me right away?

- A? What? – Manoel turns around absentmindedly. - Yes, the goalkeeper did not want to spread his legs even a little!..

Mischief! - you say. Irresponsibility! Perhaps... This is probably why Senor Carvalhaes carefully marked “unsatisfactory” in the “psychological preparation” column against the name of Manoela, who, however, did not pay any attention to this. He could indulge himself in friendly matches. To please the torsida, and to relieve himself... But he never allowed himself anything like that in any important game.

Only Garrincha could be the inventor of the purest, most honest, truly chivalrous technique that is now in the arsenal of Brazilian football. It happened on March 27, 1960 at the Maracana in the match between Fluminense and Botafogo. The Flu defender, while hitting the ball, slipped and fell, twisting his ankle. The ball bounced to Manoel, and he burst into the penalty area one on one with the goalkeeper. Swinging to send the ball into the net, he suddenly saw that the defender was lying on the ground, writhing in pain. And then Garrincha turned and calmly, as if he was doing the most natural, self-evident thing, sent the ball over the side line...

“Flu” defender Altair, preparing to throw the ball in, hesitated for a second. It was a happy second: he realized that he was obliged to respond properly to this act of Garrincha. With the same naturalness and calmness, the Fluminense team returned the ball over the sideline after a throw-in... Since then, this has become a tradition in Brazilian football: when a player is injured, the opponent, if he has the ball, knocks him out of the field, giving him the opportunity to provide assistance. And after this, the victim’s comrades, throwing the ball, send it immediately over the side line, restoring justice...

This episode reflected Garrincha's kindness and honesty. The amazing breadth of his nature, which, however, manifests itself not only inside the green rectangle of the football field.

Joan Saldanha recalls how one day, during one of the countless travels of Botafogo, who was waiting for the next match somewhere in a small provincial town in Brazil, he and Garrincha stood at the hotel window. On the other side of the dusty street there were two “botequins” - that’s what small bars are called in Brazil. One was filled with people from morning to evening, the other was empty. The sad bartender was grinding glasses for the thousandth time, brushing dust off the tables, but for some reason people didn’t come to him, and that’s all! People preferred to jostle in their neighbor's crowded boat. It's hard to explain why. Some kind of tradition or whim, who knows... Manoel, lost in thought, looked for a long time at the lonely owner of the bar and then suddenly turned to Saldanha and said:

– Seu Joan, I’ll go downstairs for a minute, okay?

He went down the creaky steps of the stairs, left the entrance and waddled to the other side of the street. The one where the bars were. In the crowded bar, everyone froze with their mouths open and looked at Garrincha, at the legendary “B-Campeon”, who arrived with Botafogo in this town for one game that was supposed to take place tomorrow afternoon. Of course, the whole city lived for the match, and this whole cheerful company was just talking about the game. And someone probably complained that the football players were kept in the hotel, no one was allowed in there, and there was no way to see the great Didi or Garrincha. And at this very moment... Here he is, like in a fairy tale: Garrincha! Walking slowly... Garrincha, the greatest football player in the world!

And Manoel walked up to the crowded bar, stopped, glanced leisurely at the visitors, stunned by surprise, and... did not enter. He made a feint: he walked two more steps and entered the boat, where the lonely sad owner was sitting. He jumped up, became speechless with surprise and dropped the towel. Garrincha asked for a cafezinho, drank, paid, patted the owner on the shoulder and left without saying a word.

“Five minutes later,” recalls Joan Saldanha, “this bar was packed with people running from different directions, and the owner, with the help of volunteers, with trembling hands, was attaching to the wall above the counter the chair on which Garrincha had just sat, and the cup from which he was drinking coffee... The old man was now destined for a comfortable old age. And Garrincha, again going to the window and looking at this scene, said:

“It will be fairer that way, won’t it, seu Joan?”

Jacinto de Tormes tells a different story. Returning from the 1958 World Championships, Garrincha appeared in his town of Pau Grande as a national hero. A day off was declared, the prefecture closed, the weaving factory stopped, and the carnival began spontaneously. Rockets, confetti, streamers, orchestras... A day of madness, when the town seemed to be turned on its head. The next morning, Garrincha appeared in a boot in front of his house. Where he and all the guys from the nearby alleys drank beer on credit for years. And they didn’t always have time to pay. Joaquin, the owner, opens his arms, but Garrincha takes him by the elbow and leads him into a corner:

- Seu Joaquin, please give me a list of all your debtors!

The owner of Botekin does not understand anything. But Manet insists. He pulls out a wad of dollars from his pocket and pays for everyone...

In those days, Garrincha made good money, although he did not know what to do with the money. He scattered them left and right. And no one knows how many destinies were arranged, how many barracks in Pau Grande were rebuilt with the money of this shirtless guy. Oh, it was a crazy time! Banquets and celebrations almost every day. Important seniors in jackets showed up at Garrincha’s tiny hut (they never got around to buying a better house and didn’t have enough time!). They hugged the “bi-campeon”, shook his hands, looking coldly at the lenses of cameras and movie cameras: almost all candidates for deputies, prefects and senators made a pilgrimage to Manoel, accompanied by photographers. A portrait hugging the “Joy of the People” on the front page of the newspaper gave such a lot of votes that could not have been “organized” by any speeches, no promises of milk rivers and jelly banks...

From time to time, cartols - officials from Botafogo - appeared in Pau Grande. They always arrived the day before the contract was due to be renewed. They noisily hugged Manoel, respectfully kissed the hand of Nair, his mulatto wife, and gave his daughters candy. Seniors from high society sat down at the table and drank "cafezinho", prepared by Nair, who was embarrassed at the sight of the illustrious gentlemen, drank cachaça, made toasts, shouted about the great future of the most brilliant player in Brazil, clapped Manet on the shoulder, and all this ended with him signing what was handed to him. And he earned less than many who played ten times worse than him, but were at least a little more cunning...

The first disappointment came with the death of my father. Manet invited everyone from Botafogo. Directorate, honorary presidents, board members. The coffin - simple, roughly put together, with protruding nail heads - stood on the veranda all day. The whole of Pau Grande was crowding around. But no one from the directorate was there: the next signing of the contract was still a long way off...

Only his faithful friend Nilton Santos arrived and two of the team were with him. It was already evening when the boy came running and said that the cemetery caretaker asked him to hurry up: it would soon get dark and the cemetery would be closed. “Yes, it looks like they won’t come,” Garrincha said in bewilderment, looking at the crowd standing silently around the house all day. “Well, so what?... Let’s go!” And the old man went to his last way, swaying above the heads of mulattoes and Creoles, chewing “chiclet” - gum smelling of strawberries or lemon.

After the 1962 World Cup, Garrincha continued to shine at Botafogo. The final match of the Rio de Janeiro championship against Flamengo turned into a sensational “show” for Garrincha, who scored three goals. The next day, one of the newspapers published a friendly cartoon: eleven Botafogo players, and they all have the same face. Garrincha's face.

However, during the examination after the match, the team doctor discovered some problems in Manoel’s right knee.

These were probably echoes of an old injury received in Bayeux, in one of the friendly matches, when the world champions were taken around the country, earning money from them. We convened a consultation. The learned men examined the leg and shook their heads, pursing their lips in concern, and said in a whisper unknown word"arthrosis". The sentence was short and harsh: three months of complete rest and procedures. Otherwise, it will be the end of football. And maybe the end of the leg... But at this time the Botafogo club was preparing for a big tour of Europe...

A very tempting tour was planned: six games in France and Italy. 15 thousand dollars each. Yes, yes, 15 thousand each if Garrincha participates in the match. And if he doesn’t go on the field, then it’s half as much: seven and a half thousand dollars. Like this! And you say: “leg! procedures! three months!” What three months can there be here!... And when Manoel appeared in the office of Botafogo President Senor Sergio Darcy with a request not to take him to Europe, Senor Sergio just laughed. And then he dryly said that this was out of the question, otherwise he would terminate the contract, entrusting the culprit - Manoel Francisco dos Santos - with covering the losses. Then Manoel was persuaded for a long time, patted on the shoulder: “Come on! Just think, your leg! Which of the cool masters doesn’t have leg pain! Everyone does. If you come, we’ll put you in a clinic. We’ll call the best specialists...”

And he went.

Before the matches, the doctor gave him painkilling injections. So that Manet would forget that he has a bad leg. And Manet forgot and played. He played to his heart's content. I earned seven and a half thousand dollars. Manet is an honest guy. He knew that since the impresario pays this money to the club, it means they need to earn it back. And then, after two hours, the effect of the anesthesia wore off, and the knee began to be torn apart by wild pain. It happened that he was carried in their arms from the bus to the bed in the hotel. Or to a seat on an airplane. Some compassionate soul picked him up a stick to lean on. He was looking forward to the match with increasing impatience, because on the eve of the game the doctor injected him with a syringe with life-saving serum. And the pain disappeared, and he, straightening up, again ran out to meet the familiar and familiar wave of delight: “Garrincha! Ga-rrin-cha! Ga-rrin-cha!”

Upon his return from the tour, the club granted him a leave of absence. Threw a bone. But it was already too late. My leg really hurt. Procedures and treatment began. It suddenly became clear that main problem It was not arthrosis, but a meniscus tear. A friend of mine, Mario Tourinho, performed the operation. Another friend, the banker Magalhas, paid for it...

Botafogo began to feel that Garrincha was no longer the same; it was becoming more and more difficult to make money from him. Moreover, he was over thirty. A football “idol,” like a cabaret “star,” is good while he’s young... And you need to be able to get rid of him in time. But how to do that? After all, Manet was still the “idol” of torsida!

And the Kartols slowly began to prepare the ground. For an inexpensive fee, several articles were organized in newspapers, the authors of which, while paying tribute, of course, to the creative heritage of the great master, nevertheless noted that he, unfortunately, was getting old and no longer meets the increased demands of modern football. “You can’t go far in the carriage of the past, Manet!” – the reporters shook their heads sadly. Mane trained, but they stopped putting him in matches. Occasionally they let us out five minutes before the end. And then they said with concern: “You, guy, are out of shape...”

He got angry and stopped going to training. He gained weight... In a word, he was no longer the same Garrincha. And on the eve of the 1966 carnival, he was sold to Corinthians in Sao Paulo for 200 million cruzeiros. At that time this was a huge amount. In any case, according to Brazilian standards: something like 100 thousand dollars.

They sold a guy who had been a laborer at the club for thirteen years. They sold the guy who brought the businessmen millions over these thirteen years. And not just millions. They sold Mane, who increased Botafogo's torsida in Brazil tenfold and glorified this team abroad to such an extent that its name is now pronounced with the same respect and admiration as the name of the legendary Santos.

However, why talk about it now? "Botafogo" became a passed stage in Manet's life. After all, is there any major football professional in Brazil, other than Pele, who was not sold at least a couple of times in his life?... In short, Manet came to Corinthians. To another club, another city, another state of Brazil, where no one cared about his leg, up to seven kilograms of excess weight, about all sorts of family problems and troubles... Corinthians knew one thing: he bought a “bi-campeon”, and Corinthians demanded the goods in person for their money.

The stands began to whistle at Manoel. At first timidly, then stronger and stronger. And the strict cardols (oh, these people are the same in every club!) grumbled displeasedly. “Somehow, Mane, you weren’t on your best today!” Manet did his best, and after the game he saw the concerned face of the “supervisor”, who patted him on the shoulder: “Boy, a lot of money was paid for you. And you haven’t paid it off yet. Do you hear?”

Everything has an end. And one fine (that is, to be honest, not very beautiful) day, Manoel’s patience came to an end. He slammed the door and left. That is, he left for Rio... He was tired of listening to reproaches, and he said that he would no longer set foot in Corinthians.

What a frivolous person, huh?

The club's management didn't even get angry. They realized a long time ago that they didn’t buy what they needed. This happens in commerce. There is always some percentage of risk: you buy a TV, it worked well in the store, but in your house all the faces on the screen are elongated. You buy washing machine, and she tears the sheets You buy a great goalkeeper, and he suddenly starts “catching chickens,” as they say in Brazil.

In truth, Corinthians would be happy to somehow get rid of Garrincha. But not in the same damn way! Of course, Garrincha is a great football player, a “bi-camp” and all that jazz, but there are sacred principles that no one is allowed to violate! And in the name of legally protected norms, according to which a footballer remains the property of the club until the end of the contract, Corinthians turned to an institution that inspires awe with its very name: the “Sports Justice Tribunal”. And this tribunal made, of course, the very decision that was expected of him: two years of disqualification with a ban on participating in any official matches until the expiration of the contract.

Thus the punishing sword of retribution fell on the head of Manoel Francisco dos Santos, once considered a national hero of Brazil. Thus began a new life for Garrincha.

He suddenly saw that he found himself without friends, without help, without money. Some inspectors appeared demanding some taxes. Garrincha did not even know about the existence of these taxes. And now they demanded them from him! In addition, he left his family and became friends with singer Elsa Soares. It would be better if he robbed a bank or shot half a dozen people! In Catholic Brazil, where divorce does not exist, there is no sin more serious than family troubles. Manoel was anathematized, and an avalanche of contempt and hatred fell on his head.

Oh, what he suffered in those days!

The newspapers remembered him again. Shouting headlines appeared: “Farewell, Garrincha!”, “The drama of a hero!”, “Garrincha – the sadness of the people,” “Bitter end!” A reporter from Realidade magazine showed up one day at his house to finish a report that had largely been written in the editorial office. There was even a headline prepared, monstrous in its cruelty: “Garrincha has died...” The reporter spent the whole day with Manoel, then returned to the editorial office and insisted on a replacement. Thus a new headline and a new report were born: “Thank you, Garrincha...” Another essay appeared - of an old friend Jacinto de Tormes from Ultima Ora. It was the warmest and was called: “Sorry, Mane!”

And then they stopped writing about him altogether. They forgot, and that’s it. But it was necessary to live. It’s not very pleasant for a healthy man to feed near a woman! Even if she loves and is ready to do anything for him. I had to pay child support for my daughters. Manoel is in debt. And Nair's lawyer obtained a warrant for his arrest. Garrincha was almost sent to prison as an insolvent debtor. Some banker, a fan of his talent, helped him out. I deposited money. But how could this continue indefinitely?! No, I had to come up with something... And Garrincha tried to make money by playing football. After all, he was forbidden to participate in official matches... But in friendly matches it seemed possible...

And he began a pilgrimage to provincial clubs, signing up for one or two games. And they took him. How they take a bearded woman or a sword swallower to a provincial circus. After all, the name on the poster still earned money! "B-campeon Garrincha!" Sounds right, doesn't it? Manoel played. Today in some Cuiaba, tomorrow somewhere in Aracaju. He stayed away from major centers, appearing in places where people were not particularly spoiled by football “stars”: after all, he was twelve kilograms of excess weight. The speed disappeared, the precision of movements disappeared. But even in the provinces, where they rarely saw good football, he often heard whistles and offensive shouts from the stands.

Then the wandering football trader Garrincha tried to hire himself abroad. To neighboring countries of Latin America. Not to Uruguay, not to Argentina, where they know good football, but somewhere in the provincial cities of Colombia. Everything seemed to be going well there: he was promised $600 for each game, but he only managed to play once. For Club Deportivo Junior from Barranquilla. It turned out, to put it mildly, not entirely successfully: his leg hurt after a recent bruise received during a charity game in one of the prisons in Rio. Garrincha made three passes, none of which were used by his teammates. I tried to repeat my famous feint and made a mistake. I tried again, and again the ball was taken away. They started whistling in the stands...

Manet was an athlete. Not only on the field. He was not embarrassed when, after the match, a local reporter sarcastically asked him how the booed “B-Campeon” felt. Manoel paused and said: “We professionals are basically clowns. We go out and work for the amusement of the public, who pay money to laugh at our victories or defeats. And when the clown works well, he is applauded, and if he works poorly, he is insulted... Such is life! "

Those days I met him for the first time. At Elsa Soares’s house, I waited a long time for him to return from training: he was trying to stay in shape and begged his friend from the “golden team” Zagalo, who coached Botafogo, to allow him to sometimes play with the ball. In general, nothing came of this: he got tired after twenty minutes next to the young, fast guys, who at that time were two-time champions of Rio de Janeiro.

We talked with Elsa, and she talked about Manet. She didn’t complain, but in every phrase she could hear her hidden resentment for this guy. Then she began to talk about herself, about how she was born and grew up in a poor favela, how she carried linen and water for her washerwoman mother... How she didn’t know toys and never had enough to eat. How I gave birth to my first child at thirteen. And by the age of twenty she already had six... How, crying at night from hunger on the dirty mats in the barracks, she swore to herself to “become one of the people” and have a house as luxurious and large as the houses of those strict and capricious gentlemen to whom she carried the clothes washed by her mother underwear... How she sang songs and accidentally got a job singing in a night pub in Copacabana...

One day some impresario heard her and took her at his own risk to Argentina, where she created a sensation, loving schoolchildren filled the hotel with flowers, and gray-haired millionaires bombarded Elsa with dazzling matrimonial proposals. She returned to Brazil in a halo of glory...

But all this has only an indirect relation to Garrincha, who interrupted Elsa’s story at the most interesting place. He returned tired and softened, plopped down on the sofa with a sigh of relief and asked for water. Then we drank coffee, and he talked about everything that was written in this essay. About Pau Grande and his arrival at Botafogo, about the game against the USSR national team in 1958 and about the match at Luzhniki in 1965.

“I was greeted so well then,” he smiled, “although I left about fifteen minutes before the end and didn’t have time to show anything...

And he spoke calmly about this story with Corinthians, without indignation. As if it was not about him, but about some other, alien person.

– I’m training now. My name is France. They offer contracts in Italy and Austria...

Having said this, he glanced sideways at me: do I believe it or not? And I realized that he really continued to hope for a miracle, this guy, naive and kind, this simple-minded beggar, on whom the businessmen made millions, and then threw him out onto the street.

And then I asked him to tell me about his most memorable game and his favorite, most expensive goal. Manoel lit up and began to speak excitedly and hastily. And such passion flashed in his eyes that I, too, succumbed to this hypnosis, I believed that nothing was over for Manet. That one day the day will come and he will be called. And he will run out onto the field, raising his hands in greeting to the faithful torsida. And firecrackers will crash, rockets will explode, the joyful roar of the stands will suffocate, and the serpentine road will begin to rain down with snow. And the opposing goalkeeper will tremble when he sees the ball at the feet of the great Garrincha...

* * *

Several weeks have passed. The 1968 season was drawing to a close. A hot period of buying and selling football “stars” began. Corinthians also announced that those interested can buy the famous football player Garrincha. On the cheap. Almost for nothing. As a matter of fact, the club was desperate to make money on it and wanted only one thing: to at least compensate for the losses a little. Alas, there were no buyers. By this time, the country was excited about the upcoming “match of the century”: to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the World Cup victory in Sweden, Brazil and FIFA were to meet at the Maracanã. “Team of the world,” as the newspapers solemnly called it.

Someone had the idea to dedicate this game to Garrincha. And when they found out about this abroad, offers poured in from Eusebio, Albert, Yashin, the Charlton brothers and other best football players in the world who agreed to play for free. Then this idea died. We decided that a more modest match with Garrincha would be enough. Let's say, the Brazilian national team against the German national team - why is it bad? Or, say, Brazil and Uruguay? It’s even cheaper: after all, Uruguay is closer to Brazil than Germany! Then the idea shrunk to a hypothesis about a match between the national teams of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, then they talked about a match between Rio veterans and Sao Paulo veterans. After that they didn’t say anything anymore. The idea is dead. And she died so firmly that they completely forgot to invite Garrincha to the match between the Brazilian and FIFA national teams! They forgot to invite Garrincha to the match in honor of the victory in which he put so much effort!

As time went. One day I learned from friends that the period of disqualification had expired, and Garrincha began to train seriously. They said that these were the kind of trainings that in Brazil, where football players don’t really like to get tired, seemed to have never been seen at all. That he is quickly losing weight and getting in shape. That he had a doctor who established a special regime... And I decided to go and see if it was true or not.

And I did well to go! Because if I had not watched this training with my own eyes, I would never have believed what I am about to tell you.

Manoel trained with some kind of ferocity, with tenacity, with delight, with anger. He ran, worked with the ball, did gymnastics, ran again. Then I swam in the pool... And all this in forty degrees of heat in the shade. This went on for more than three months. For more than three months, without missing a single day, Garrincha trained twice at the stadium and once at home, where he lifted one hundred kilograms with his legs two hundred times on a specially adapted machine! He worked under the guidance of a Flamengo doctor, who took up this business out of “sporting interest”, out of passion. This man, Dr. Francalace, was just curious about what would happen. And this is what happened: in three months Garrincha lost 12 - I repeat in words: twelve– kilograms and regained my ideal weight. He regained his speed of reaction, speed, if not the same, then at least very respectful... He began to play again.

Shocked by such perseverance and perseverance, delighted with the miraculous restoration of Manoel's former form, the Flamengo coach decided to take a risk and invited Garrincha to play a trial match in the first team of his team against Vasco da Gama. This news struck the country as the most unexpected sports sensation. On the day of the match between Flamengo and Vasco da Gama, Rio de Janeiro was suddenly seized by a fever. The unexpected happened. The whole city moved to the stadium. The whole city went to see Garrincha, who had not appeared at the Maracanã for three years.

Within a radius of several kilometers from the Maracana, monstrous traffic jams formed, which the history of Rio de Janeiro did not remember, there were not enough commuter trains, since the railway management did not imagine that tens of thousands of passengers would rush from the suburbs to the city on this hot Saturday...

The Maracana administration, assuming that there would be something like one and a half ten thousand fans at the match, which generally did not affect the position of the teams in the standings, printed thirty thousand tickets and opened only a few ticket offices. A huge sea of ​​people formed around the stadium. When the tickets ran out and the ticket offices closed, tens of thousands of people began to break down the gates and storm the fences of the Maracana, the pitiful police cordons were swept away by a powerful wave of fans shouting something like “Give it to Garrincha!”

The director of the stadium, confused and puzzled, made the only correct decision under the current conditions: he opened the gates, all the gates of the stadium for everyone, for everyone who did not get tickets... A sea of ​​people poured into the stands of the stadium...

Old-timers of the Maracana claim that this largest stadium in the world has never seen such madness as that evening - November 30, 1968 - in all eighteen years of its history.

When the announcer announced the lineups of the teams and said in a solemn baritone: “Number seven – Garrincha!”, the stands erupted something that could hardly be called a cry of joy. And when Manoel emerged from the tunnel in a red and black Flamengo shirt, the eruption of delight seemed to reach its climax. Rockets took off, firecrackers crashed, filling the night stands with smoke. And the hot summer (spring ends in November in Brazil!) wind swayed the huge banner: “Garrincha is the joy of the people! Brazil welcomes you!” But that was not all...

The match has begun. And soon the great moment came, which Torsida had been waiting for for many years. The ball was sent to the right flank. Garrinche! When he processed it and froze in his usual position, slightly bent over, face to face with Vasco left back Eberwal, the stands suddenly froze in silence, seized with anxious, languid anticipation. And a second later, when Garrincha quickly beat Eberwal with his elegant, familiar and still unexpected feint, something happened that I do not undertake to describe. I still don’t understand why the stadium didn’t collapse from this volcanic, thermonuclear roar, sank into the ground, or crumble into pieces.

The match continued to this accompaniment, which can probably only be heard at the Maracanã! No one was interested in the final result of the meeting, no one wanted to see the other twenty-one players. Torsida, with some kind of fierce persistence, frantically chanted the same name: “Ga-rrin-cha! Ga-rrin-cha!”

And the Vasco team, unbalanced by the mere presence of Manoel, did not want to give up! They started beating Garrincha! Central defender Fontana, backing up the unfortunate Eberwal, demolished Garrincha. Eberval then punched Mane in the face! The stands responded with indignantly shrill whistles, curses and threats.

This continued until the break, when the Flamengo coach, seeing that Garrincha was limping, decided to change him. Having learned about this, the entire press rushed down under the podium. There, above, the joyful roar and shouts continued:

“Ga-rin-cha!”, but here, in the hot Flamengo dressing room, it was relatively quiet. Manoel stood there, taking off his T-shirt and crying. He cried like a child. Tears of happiness rolled down his dirty face. They hugged him, shook his hands, patted him on the shoulder.

Looking at Manet, he blew his nose suspiciously noisily, hiding his face in a handkerchief, a veteran of Brazilian journalism who had seen a lot in his lifetime. No, it was impossible to remain calm at that moment, listening to the hoarse, stuttering voice of Garrincha, sobbing, blinking his eyelashes:

– I’m happier now than I was ten years ago in Sweden. And more than in Chile, where we became “B-Campeons”. I've never experienced anything like this. I'm not happy because I played. But because I proved to them that I can still play, that my football is not dead yet...

It became clear to everyone who Manoel was talking about. And he continued:

“I’m glad that the torsida has not forgotten me, because our torsida is the greatest torsida in the world.” And for the sake of her respect, for the sake of her recognition, each of us will make any sacrifice... And I also want to say “thank you,” a very big “thank you” to Flamengo. This is a great club that has been the club of my heart all my life, although I played for Botafogo. Thank you to Flamengo for believing in me, for giving me this opportunity... And I hope that I can once again show my football and give Flamengo and the entire torsida my great debt...

He fell silent, and dozens of hands reached out to him, the “blitz” clicked again, questions rained down, and movie cameras began to chatter. And, when I woke up, I remembered that I was also a reporter, and I thrust the microphone of my “National” under his nose.

- Manoel, what would you like to say now to Soviet radio listeners and the Soviet torsida, who remembers and loves you?..

– I send my greetings to all the fans in Russia and hope that someday I will be able to visit your country again with Flamengo and play better and more than I played at your stadium in 1965... And I also want to tell all of you that I love Flamengo very much and thank them from the bottom of my heart...

Then the second half began, but no one was interested in the game anymore; thousands of people crowded near the central hall of the Maracana, waiting for Garrincha to appear. “Batteries” appeared - folk orchestras of percussion instruments performing samba. They came down from the favelas located on the mountains around the Maracana. Thousands of throats, accompanied by the roar of tambourines, atabaques and surdos, chanted: “Ole! Ole! Mane Garrincha is even better than Pele!...”

And when Manoel, weak from the match, from worries, from happiness and tears, appeared, they picked him up. And to the joyful, jubilant roar of tens of thousands of mulattoes, Creoles, people for whom football is the only joy in this life, full of hardships and hardships, they rushed around the stadium. Cars saluted the hero with sirens. Flags fluttered. The fierce policemen ran after him like boys, trying, if not to touch him, then at least to see Garrincha out of the corner of his eye. And at that moment, perhaps, it was easiest to understand why people gave this guy such a bright nickname: “The Joy of the People!”

The next day Santos were playing at the Maracanã and I took this opportunity to track down Pele and ask him what he thought about Garrincha's return. "King" said:

– Perhaps this is the most important event in Brazilian football since then. last years. And I'm very happy for Manet. I’m glad that he was able to prove that he was right to everyone who shouted that his football was dead... As for Garrincha’s prospects, future, and further opportunities, it’s difficult to talk about it yet. In any case, he did the most important thing. He has proven that he has iron willpower. That he can achieve what at first glance seems impossible... And if he can play the way he played yesterday, if he can even show at least 50-60% of what he had before, it will be difficult to find such a person among our current right wingers who can argue with him...

* * *

Several days passed. A wave of excitement and delight subsided. The time for sober analysis and reflection has begun.

Flamengo President Veiga Brito rubbed his hands contentedly: Garrincha's premiere brought 100 thousand cruzeiros to the club's cash desk. Completely unexpected. This money was not provided financial plans. They just fell from the sky... It was possible to pay off some debts. And reward Garrincha. He was given 2 thousand cruzeiros. Then they signed a contract with him. For half a year. The conditions were very good, worthy of a “B-Campeon” - 4 thousand cruzeiros (1 thousand dollars) per month salary and an additional 3 thousand cruzeiros for each game. The season ended, the teams were disbanded for mandatory holidays, and Manet continued to train. He even refused to take part in Flamengo's traditional Christmas dinner.

- You know, I’m afraid of these geese: you eat, eat, and you keep wanting more... And then you look: your stomach is swollen with fat, and you have to start everything again...

Has begun new season. Garrincha played once, twice, and then sat firmly on the bench: at the request of the new coach Tim, the new president of Flamengo Richer bought the fast-moving young Doval from the Argentine club San Lorenzo. Far right. In place of Garrincha. And Doval played really well. He became the idol of Torsida, a regular on newspaper pages, and a favorite of reporters.

And they forgot about Garrincha again... Manoel did his job, Manoel can leave. Now he continues to be listed on Flamengo's payroll. But he is not even included among the five substitutes who undress before the match and sit on the bench in the hope of entering the field, at least for a few minutes... But the contract is already ending!

What is this, the end?... Is it possible to die twice?..

“What’s wrong with that? No football player lasts forever! Garrincha is already thirty-five. It’s time to give way to young people...”

Yes, it’s time... As did Manoel’s comrades, who mined “gold” with him in Sweden: Nilton Santos and Zagalo, Jalma Santos and Zito, Didi and just now Gilmar... It’s time to leave. But you can leave in different ways. Torsida gave Manoel the greatest honors that could befall a football player. But Torsida cannot give him a pension. Can't provide him with work...

Right. You should have thought about this! It was necessary to save money, putting it aside so that later he could own a pharmacy, like Nilton, or a shoemaker's shop, like Jalma Santos, or just a solid bank account, like Vava... But if Manoel had thought about it, he probably wouldn't have been if only Garrinchas! It is not his fault, but his misfortune, that he did not know the value of money, that he gave a generous hand to everyone who came to him. Who asked for a loan: “Until next year, word of honor, Manet!” Where are they now, former friends? Where are the debtors? Mane doesn’t even remember them... And even if he did remember, he wouldn’t have gone to ask for the money back. How he has never gone and will never go to borrow money.

Can’t a reputable organization that proudly calls itself the “Confederation of Brazilian Sports” find some modest but decent job for its former employee (and not one of the worst!), Manoel Francisco dos Santos? So that the worm of doubt stops gnawing at him once and for all, so that anxiety and uncertainty about the future disappear! Does the thought of a modest pension seem so blasphemous?

However, what can we say about this? The Moor has done his job, the Moor can retire. He was needed as long as he scored goals, brought victories and, most importantly, made money. A lot of money in different currencies... And now there are no more buyers for it. It fell out of commercial circulation. And it can be written off as an expense...

* * *

The history of the “golden team” is the history of all Brazilian football. Like Gil Mar and Garrincha, Pele and Didi, Vava or Orlando, thousands of Brazilian football players wander around their country and around the world in search of lucrative contracts and money that can ensure a more or less peaceful old age. Someone dreams of having their own workshop, pharmacy, shop or other “business”. And someone is begging, having lost hope, forgotten by torsida and trainers.

Only a few make their way to Olympus, where there is no place even for some “bi-campaigns.” And thousands are anxiously awaiting tomorrow, when new idols will replace them. Fame and money are capricious things! Not everyone is destined to become Pele: there is never room for two kings on the throne!

When we talk about Brazilian football, one name comes to mind first - Pele. And although no one questions the skill and significance of the “king of football,” outstanding players remained in his shadow, unfairly forgotten by their country and fans. The brightest among them is Garrincha, whom journalists and fans called “the joy of the people,” “the Charlie Chaplin of football” and “the great lame.”

It was to him, a man whom doctors predicted from birth that he would live in a wheelchair, that the stands first shouted “Ole!”, and this cry was picked up by the entire continent. This material contains the story of a real hero, a football legend, a drunkard, a ladies' man, a naive good-natured man and a deeply unhappy man who was adored by all of Latin America - but not for long.

Childhood

Manoel (Mane) Francisco dos Santos was born in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, in the small village of Pau Grande on October 18, 1933. The baby had congenital diseases: he suffered from strabismus, spinal deformity and displacement of the pelvic bones, so his left leg was six centimeters shorter than his right. The operations did not help: the doctors believed that the child would be happy to simply learn to walk. Back then, no one could have imagined that the lame child would grow up and run faster than the best football players in the world.

Manoel's family was poor. His younger brother and sister died of disease and hunger. From early childhood he helped his parents: he collected fruits in the forest and sold them at the market. Due to the need to work at school, he studied for only four years, rarely attending classes, so he had difficulty counting and writing. Manet inherited a weakness for alcohol from his father, having first tried alcohol at the age of four. At the age of ten, he was already drinking cachaça (local strong moonshine made from sugar cane), beer and cachimba (a drink made from cachaça, honey and lemon) and began smoking. Manet's sister Teresa gave him the nickname Garrincha, which the whole world later began to call him. Little Manoel loved to catch the rare small garrincha birds that lived in the forests of his hometown, and was very good at imitating their chirps.

At the age of 14, he got a job at a local textile factory as an assistant spinner. After work, Garrincha played in the children's squad of the amateur factory team "Pau Grande". Even then, Manet played so well that when he was fired from the factory due to laziness, the head of the factory team asked the boss to reinstate him.

First season

When Manet turned 16, he began playing for the adult team. He was short, hunched over, and both of his widely spaced legs were tilted to the left. Partly because of his appearance, his football career began with failures and rejections. “Flamenco” and “Flumenense” did not take him because of his poverty and lameness, “Vasco da Gama” refused to give him a tryout due to the fact that the player showed up without boots, and the club “San Cristovan” asked him to wait until evening until they made a decision, but Garrincha had nowhere to spend the night, and he went home on the last train.

After many unsuccessful attempts, fate finally smiled on him: a football player from the Botafogo club who happened to come to Pau Grande saw his game and was so impressed that he asked his coach to give Garrincha a tryout. The coach was not in the mood to waste time on the candidate, so in a trial game he pitted him against the defender of the Brazilian national team - that is, one of the best football players in the country. Perhaps Garrincha would have been upset if he had known Nilton Santos by sight, but celebrities did not come to Pau Grande.

In the match with River Plate, Garrincha impressed the audience so much that every successful action the stands were accompanied by shouts of “Ole!” Over time, this exclamation became traditional among fans in many countries.

While the Botafogo players were laughing at the strange bow-legged guy, from whom nothing but failure could be expected in such a situation, Garrincha deftly bypassed the best left-back in Brazil, pushing the ball between his legs, so much so that he lost his balance from surprise and fell. Under the surprised gaze of the team, Manet performed the same trick twice more.

Nilton was so impressed by the performance of the “lamefoot” that he told his coach: “If this guy ends up in another club, I won’t be able to sleep well. If he gains a foothold with us, then the defenders of other clubs will not sleep.” Botafogo paid Pau Grande 500 Cruzeiro for the player's transfer, and a few weeks later Mane left the factory and devoted his life to football.

In his first season, Garrincha played 26 matches and scored 20 goals, and a few seasons later his team won the Rio Cup for the first time in nine years. In the match with River Plate, Garrincha impressed the audience so much that each of his successful actions was accompanied by a cry of “Ole!” from the stands. Over time, this exclamation became traditional among fans in many countries.

World Championship - 1958

Before the World Cup, the Brazilian national team players underwent a psychological test, which was supposed to determine their ability to control themselves and cope with stressful situations. Garrincha took the test with humor: when he was asked to draw a man, he depicted him with a very large head, comparing him to a smug doctor. For this, he received a score below the acceptable threshold - 38 out of 123 (by the way, Pele received the same score), and his behavior was called infantile. According to the psychologist, Garrincha was not ready to participate in the World Cup. However, after successful performances as a double, Garrincha still played in the main lineup in the Brazil - USSR match.

In the final, the Brazilians beat the hosts of the championship - the Swedish national team - with a score of 5:2, with two goals scored after Garrincha's passes from the right edge. They say that the football player did not immediately understand the significance of this victory, because he was never interested in the details of the competition. While everyone was celebrating the victory, Mane was sure that they would have to play with all the teams again.

When he returned to his hometown, he was greeted as a national hero. A day off was declared in Pau Grande and a spontaneous carnival began. After walking for a day, Garrincha went to a bar opposite his house, where he and his comrades had been drinking for years on credit, which they had never paid for. The national hero pulled out an impressive wad of money from his pocket and paid off the debts of all the bar's visitors.

When Garrincha stopped the car, witnesses discovered that he was dead drunk, had absolutely no perception of reality and did not realize what he had done.

The next year became difficult for Garrincha. On the wave of success and suddenly appeared money, which he did not know how to manage, the football player began to drink a lot and gained excess weight. Because of this, Garrincha was suspended from participating in a friendly match against England. Returning home to Pau Grande, in front of an enthusiastic crowd that greeted his fellow countryman, Manet hit his father with a car and drove on without even slowing down. The joy of those greeting him gave way to horror and anger, and the angry crowd ran after him all the way to his home. When Garrincha stopped the car, witnesses discovered that he was dead drunk, had absolutely no perception of reality and did not realize what he had done. Amaro died a few months later from liver cancer caused by alcoholism.

In 1960, Garrincha took part in one of the first episodes of fair play in Brazil: in a match with Fluminense, opposing defender Pinheiro fell on the field as a result of a muscle strain. Garrincha had the ball at that moment and could have taken advantage of the opportunity, but noticing that the opponent was wounded, he kicked the ball out of bounds. The defender of “Flu” Altair realized that he was obliged to respond properly to this act of Garrincha. After a throw-out, Fluminense returned the ball to the sideline.

“Joan Saldanha recalls how once, during one of Botafogo’s countless travels, waiting for the next match somewhere in a small provincial town in Brazil, he and Garrincha stood at the hotel window. On the other side of the dusty street there were two botequins - that's what small bars are called in Brazil. One was filled with people from morning to evening, the other was empty. The sad bartender was grinding glasses for the thousandth time, brushing dust off the tables, but for some reason people didn’t come to him, and that’s all! People preferred to jostle in their neighbor's crowded boat. It's hard to explain why. Some kind of tradition or whim, who knows... Manoel, lost in thought, looked for a long time at the lonely owner of the bar and then suddenly turned to Saldanha and said:

Seu Joan, can I go downstairs for a minute?

He went down the creaky steps of the stairs, left the entrance and waddled to the other side of the street. The one where the bars were. In the crowded bar, everyone froze with their mouths open and looked at Garrincha, at the legendary B-campo, who arrived with Botafogo in this town for one game that was supposed to take place tomorrow afternoon. Of course, the whole city lived for the match, and all this funny company I was just talking about the game. And someone probably complained that the football players were kept in the hotel, no one was allowed in there, and there was no way to see the great Didi or Garrincha. And at this very moment... Here he is, like in a fairy tale: Garrincha! Walking slowly... Garrincha, the greatest football player in the world!

And Manoel walked up to the crowded bar, stopped, glanced leisurely at the visitors, stunned by surprise, and... did not enter. He made a feint: he walked two more steps and entered the boat, where the lonely sad owner was sitting. He jumped up, became speechless with surprise and dropped the towel. Garrincha asked for a cafezinho, drank, paid, patted the owner on the shoulder and left without saying a word.

“Five minutes later,” recalls Joan Saldanha, “this bar was packed with people running from different directions, and the owner, with the help of volunteers, with trembling hands, attached to the wall above the counter the chair on which Garrincha had just sat, and the cup from which he was drinking coffee... The old man was now destined for a comfortable old age. And Garrincha, again going to the window and looking at this scene, said:

That way it will be fairer, won’t it, seu Joan?”

IGOR FESUNENKO “PELE, GARRINCHA, FOOTBALL...”

On the eve of the 1961 Rio Championship final, Garrincha bet his Pau Grande friends two cases of beer that his team would win 3-0. The footballer won both the argument and the game, scoring two out of three goals. Garrincha deliberately circled his opponent along the flank several times so that he lost his balance and fell. The referee said that if Garrincha continues to mock him, he will be sent off the field. In response, Mane asked for a replacement and went to the locker room. While the Brazilian was leaving the field, the ball suddenly bounced towards him. Unable to miss this opportunity, Garrincha again dribbled around his opponent, hit the goal, and, as if nothing had happened, continued on his way to the locker room. The next day, one of the Brazilian newspapers published a cartoon: 11 Botafogo players, and all of them had Garrincha’s faces.

World Championship 1962

If for most of his career Garrincha was in the shadow of Pele, then the 1962 championship was his chance to take his place in the sun. Already in the second match, Pele received an injury, due to which he could not play for the rest of the season, so the main role in the decisive games of the championship went to Garrincha.

During the game against England, a stray dog ​​ran into the stadium. The players tried to catch her, but only the English player Jimmy Greaves succeeded. To do this, the football player had to get down on all fours; the dog, as if taking advantage of the moment, relieved himself directly on Greaves’ T-shirt. Garrincha was so amused by this incident that he took the dog home.

“On the eve of the match with the English, Joan Saldanha (he was then a correspondent for the newspaper Ultimaora and radio Nacional) said to the English coach Winterbottom:

Mister Winterbottom! Do you see this bow-legged guy there, warming up? Garrincha? I am ready to make a bet with you on any terms that five minutes after the start of the match you will assign two or three more players to him in addition to the left back. And if you don’t put it there, they will go and keep it themselves...

The bet was made. For a bottle of champagne. It is said that on the eve of this game one of the Brazilian journalists told Manoel:

Listen! There, those “gringos”, have a defender on the team, Flowers, who said that he plays better than you. And that you won’t pass it...

Manet was simple-minded and passionate. He did not notice the catch and asked:

How does he know me? After all, we didn’t play with them!

Yes, he saw you from the stands. And he said that you can’t play against him.

Manet thought for a moment, shook his head, and then suddenly asked:

What kind of person is he?

So tall. Blond...

Yes, they are all tall and blond!

A little later, Manoel approached Nilton Santos:

You know, I've never been angry with anyone, but I can't get this Flowers out of my head. I don’t like him, this “...”!

And you deal with him, Mane.

Garrincha shook his head:

Yes, I can. But, damn him, I don’t know who he is. I only know that he is English.

And you cut them all apart. One of them will probably be Flowers...

This is exactly what Garrincha did. He dealt with all the Englishmen together and with each one individually. He enthusiastically “destroyed” these “gringos”, because one of them was Flowers. Mysterious Flowers, an impudent stranger who allowed himself too much...

After passing for one goal, Manoel scored two more. He scored one of them with his head, jumping over the lanky British backs. They say that this was the best match in Garrincha’s sports biography. And after the final whistle, which ended England's participation in the World Cup, Winterbottom wiped the sweat from his brow, ordered a box of champagne to be brought for Saldanha and, sighing, told the journalists who were buzzing like a beehive:

– For four years I prepared my guys to win over football teams. Alas, I did not imagine that we would have to deal with Garrincha..."

Igor Fesunenko, “Pele, Garrincha, football...”

In the semi-final match, the Brazilians faced the hosts, the Chilean national team. Garrincha scored twice, with his left foot and his head, and provided an assist. The Brazilians won with a score of 4:2. During the game, the Chilean Rojas violated the rules against Garrincha more than once, and in the end the latter could not stand it and, more as a joke than seriously, hit him back. Rojas and Garrincha shook hands, the Chileans laughed at the episode, and the referee unexpectedly sent Mane off the field.

After the match, the Prime Minister of Brazil sent a telegram to Chile asking that Garrincha be allowed to compete in the next match. As a result, the judge’s decision was reviewed by a disciplinary commission, and for the first time in the history of the World Championships, the disqualification was lifted. In the final match, Garrincha played despite the high temperature, and his team defeated the Czechoslovak team with a score of 3:1.

During the championship, Garrincha began an affair with the popular singer Elsa Suarez. Three years after meeting the singer, he officially divorced his wife Nair. After the divorce, he did a poor job of paying alimony and was even sentenced to 90 days for it, but a banker, an admirer of his talent, contributed the required amount for him.

Despite the fact that Garrincha brought a lot of money to his team, he himself earned relatively little. Since Manet had difficulty reading and counting and was very trusting by nature, he always signed a blank contract form. The club's management took advantage of this, and Garrincha received half as much as other players on the team. Only in 1963, after his stellar matches, on the advice of Elsa, he demanded that the club improve the terms of the contract.

Failures

That same year, Garrincha began a new streak of failure. Osteoarthritis of the right knee joint worsened, and doctors advised Manet to refrain from performing for three months, but the president of Botafogo strongly opposed it. It turned out that the team was going on a European tour, for which the club would have been paid 15 thousand dollars. Without Garrincha, the payment would have been only 7.5 thousand. Manet could not resist persuasion and went on tour.

Before each game, he was injected with painkillers and he gave his best, but after the anesthesia wore off, Garrincha experienced unbearable pain. It got to the point that after the game they carried him in their arms to the bus, and when he walked on his own, he leaned on a stick. Still, he looked forward to the next game because it meant he would get another dose of anesthesia. During the tour, doctors several times advised Manet to temporarily give up football, but the club management forbade him to interrupt his performances.

For the next few years, Garrincha played in friendly matches for small Latin American teams to earn a living.

The management of Botafogo was so unhappy with Garrincha’s injuries and the fact that he demanded a decent salary that they decided to “get rid” of the footballer. It was simply impossible to fire a national football star, so the club paid for a series of discrediting articles that said that Mane had aged a lot and no longer corresponded to the level of the club. The coaching staff stopped putting Garrincha in the main team, citing the forward's poor form.

In January 1966 he was sold to Corinthians for 220 million cruzeiros. The club's fans were delighted with the forward's transfer, met him at the station and escorted him to the hotel in San Joan. Unfortunately, his teammates were less enthusiastic about the star player's arrival. They were unhappy that Manet received more than other players, so on the field they pretended not to notice him and did not pass the ball to him. The club's management was serious about getting their money back, so they forced Garrincha to play despite his injuries. A year later, the footballer left for Rio de Janeiro, having played only 13 games and breaking his contract with the club. The Sports Justice Tribunal decided to disqualify Mane from all official matches in the country for two years.

For the next few years, Garrincha played in friendly matches for small Latin American teams to earn a living. Spectators who came to watch the football legend cheaply were often left disappointed: the legendary Garrincha continued to gain weight, his passes and shots were no longer as accurate as before. It got to the point that the double world champion was booed by the stands in provincial stadiums.

Return

Returning to Rio de Janeiro, Garrincha accepted the offer of the Flamengo club, made on the condition that Garrincha lose excess weight. For three months, the footballer trained daily under the guidance of the club doctor and lost 12 kilograms. A contract was signed with Garrincha for six months, but despite the fact that the football player was so eager to restore his sports career, this period can hardly be called happy. He was rarely allowed to play in official games, entrusting them to a younger striker. Garrincha played mainly in friendly matches, attracting the attention of the public. Mane refused to play for the club two months before the end of his contract.

The next day, Garrincha was in a car accident: he was driving drunk, crashed into a truck, and the car overturned three times. His mother-in-law, Rosalia Gomez, flew through the windshield and died. Elsa did not demand criminal prosecution, so Garrincha was given a suspended sentence of two years in prison. After this incident, the football player became depressed and tried to commit suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide. His wife felt that the best way to heal her husband would be a change of environment.

At the end of the year they went to Italy, then to Mallorca, and then lived again in Italy and France. In Europe, Manet played for amateur teams of universities, trade unions and factories. They returned to Brazil in 1971, where the legendary football player began playing for small, semi-professional clubs. After matches and training, Garrincha often drank with his teammates. A year later, the couple filed for divorce after Garrincha beat his wife after getting drunk. In 1976, Elsa gave birth to a son and named him after her father. Manuel Junior died in a car accident when he was only ten years old.

Parting

On December 18, 1973, Garrincha’s farewell match took place at the Maracana, in which the Brazilian national team played against the FIFA team. The match attracted 131,555 spectators. Before the game, on the edge of the field, the words were composed of flowers: “Mane is the joy of the people.” After the whistle announced that Garrincha was leaving the field, he began to cry. All proceeds from this game were donated to Garrincha. This money allowed him to repay his debts, pay for his children’s education, buy himself a house and a car, apartments for his daughters and half the cost of the restaurant where his wife Elsa sang.

These funds were quickly spent, and within a few years Garrincha was living in a rented house in Rio de Janeiro. Due to his lifestyle, Garrincha was hospitalized in 1978 and diagnosed with heart failure. There he met 20-year-old Vanderleia Vieira, with whom he immediately fell in love. The couple got married, and three years later the young wife gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Livia. Biographers get confused when trying to count Garrincha’s children: at least 14 are known, but given the passionate nature of the football player, his love for women and frequent travel, it is quite possible to assume that somewhere there are descendants of the forward unknown to us.

300 thousand people followed the coffin, but among them there was not one of those with whom Garrincha won two world championships.

Jealous ex-wife Elsa said in an interview that Vanderleija and her brothers drugged and soldered Mane, hoping that he would die faster. In 1980, after he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, the same disease from which his father died, Garrincha tried to give up alcohol, but was unsuccessful. At Christmas 1982, Garrincha became ill again and was taken to hospital. When he was discharged, he did not return home, but went straight to the bar. He showed up at home two days later, barely able to stand. His wife called ambulance, which brought Manet in a coma to the hospital. On January 20 at six o'clock in the morning he was found dead in his room.

Farewell to Garrincha took place at the Maracana, at that time the largest stadium in the world. Mane's coffin was wrapped in the flags of Botafogo and Brazil. 300 thousand people followed the coffin, but among them there was not one of those with whom Garrincha won two world championships. At his funeral, Nilton Santos said: "He was a big kid all his life and knew how to play one and only game - football." The epitaph on Garrincha’s grave reads: “Here lies the one who was a joy for the people - Mane Garrincha.” The funeral procession completed the footballer's final journey in his hometown of Pau Grande, at the small cemetery of Raiz da Serra.

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics recognized the goalkeeper, who played all matches at the victorious World Cups 58 and 62 without substitution, as the best Brazilian goalkeeper of the 20th century. Gilmar was also a participant in the disastrous 66 World Cup for the Brazilians, in which they did not qualify from the group. The last time he played for the national team was on June 12, 1969 in a friendly match with (2:1).

Before entering goal, Gilmar played as a left winger. When he was invited to the national team in 1953, he was a reserve goalkeeper in. Gilmar played for this club until 1961, and then moved to the legendary one, in the company of Pele.

Before the quarter-final match at the 58 World Cup with Gilmar, entering the field, he said: “If necessary, we will give blood and die for Brazil.” The defender standing nearby chimed in: “If we have to die, we will die together.” In Brazil they write that both died on the same day, although, strictly speaking, Gilmar’s heart stopped on August 25, 2013, one day later than his 1958 teammate. Three days before his death, the former goalkeeper turned 83 years old. De Sordi was 82.

The right-back, like Gilmar, won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups, and also participated in the 66 World Cup, which, to the surprise of many, he went to at the age of 37. In addition, he played at the 54 World Cup in Switzerland, where Brazil lost in the quarter finals with a score of 2:4. Jalma Santos also died in the summer of 2013, a month before the famous goalkeeper. He lived to be 84 years old.

If in 1954 Jalma Santos took part in all the matches of the Brazilians, then in 1958 he entered the field only in the final, replacing the injured De Sordi.

Jalma Santos was the only Brazilian to play for the world team at Wembley in 1963 against England in a match to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the English Football Association. Having played for clubs from Sao Paulo for a long time, he ended his football career in 1972 at the age of 42, after which he switched to coaching. In particular, he worked in Vitoria from Salvador.

The left-back and two-time world champion played his entire career for. He accumulated more than seven hundred matches as part of this team. Participated in the 54 World Cup. Moreover, he was sent off for fighting in the quarter-finals lost to Hungary by the Brazilians.

After finishing his playing career, Nilton founded a foundation to support professional football players, but it lasted only a couple of years, bought a pharmacy in Rio de Janeiro, which quickly went bankrupt, and owned a sporting goods store.

At the same time, he held various administrative positions in the state of Rio de Janeiro, devoting himself to the creation of football schools for children from low-income families. In 1997, he headed one of these schools, named after him. At the same time, he was engaged in coaching activities in a number of clubs. He was the director of his native Botafogo. At the same time, in 1972 he noted that he twice hit in the face what he considered to be a dishonest referee.

In 2009, a statue of Nilton Santos was erected near the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, funded by Botafogo fans. And in February of this year, the arena, which bore the name of Joao Havelange, was officially renamed by the decision of the city administration, on the initiative of the club renting it. Now she goes by the name Nilton Santos.

The football veteran, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, spent the last years of his life in a nursing home. He also died in 2013 - November 27. He was 88 years old.

The central defender was the captain of the team that won Sweden '58. He became the world champion four years later in Chile, but never played in that tournament. Then he participated in the English World Cup 66, during which he again wore the captain’s armband (in 1962 he took to the field with it). A statue of Bellini with a trophy for winning the world championship stands at the entrance to the Maracanã stadium.

It is believed that it was he who unwittingly started the tradition of victoriously raising the cup over his head, doing this after the final of the Swedish championship at the request of photographers.

Bellini, whose career included “Atlético Paranaense,” played until he was almost 40 years old. Died in March 2014. Like most of his teammates on the 1958 national team, he lived a long life - 83 years, but suffered from Alzheimer's disease for more than ten years and was speechless in his last three years.

This central defender became the world champion only in 1958, when he played all the matches of the Brazilians. Before the Chilean tournament, Orlando left Brazil for Argentina, moving from Vasco da Gama to the club, where he became captain. In 1965, he returned to his homeland, played for Santos and went to the 66 World Cup. He took part in the group tournament match with (1:3), which turned out to be the last for Brazil in that tournament, and for Orlando - the last for the national team.

I tried to promote my coaching career. Headed "SSA Maceio"(1977) and "Vitoria"(1980). In the end, he changed his activity profile, becoming president of the Brazilian Association of Football Coaches. He died in 2010 at the age of 74.

The midfielder, nicknamed the Boss, world champion in 1958 and 1962, spent almost his entire career at Santos, was the team captain, and subsequently worked in administrative positions at the club. In the period from 1978 to 1982, he, in particular, served as vice-president of the club. Then he was the director and responsible for training young people. He noticed this and brought the 11-year-old to the club. When Zito passed away in 2005 at the age of 82, the striker tweeted: "There are no words to write about this man. I just thank him for everything he did for me."

The midfielder, a two-time world champion, went down in history as the inventor of the clean sheet kick and the scorer of the first goal at the Maracanã - he scored it on June 15, 1950 in a match between the national teams of Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

During his career he played for the Brazilian and, after which he went abroad: in (1959-1960), Peruvian (1962-1963) and Mexican "Veracruz"(1965-1966). In the last two clubs - and he left for Peru at the age of 34 - he was a player-coach. He also played this role in Botafogo (1964) and Sao Paulo (1966).

Subsequently, Didi refused to work part-time and devoted himself entirely to coaching. In 1969-70, he headed, took it to the 70 World Cup, during which it reached the quarter finals and lost to Brazil (2:4). Subsequently he worked in the Brazilian clubs Fluminense, Botafogo, Sao Paulo, "Bangoo". He spent a long time in Saudi Arabia, coaching from 1977 to 1981 (Jeddah), and visited Kuwait. He ended his coaching career in 1990 due to pain in the spine.

He died in May 2001 from cancer at the age of 72. Real Madrid honored his memory with a minute of silence before the Spanish championship match.

Meanwhile, Didi didn’t really play at the Madrid club. He was invited there at the request of President Santiago Bernabeu. Moreover, the Royal Club paid as much as 80 thousand dollars for the Brazilian!

At first Didi liked it in Madrid. He even invited his friend Pele there. But the relationship with and, who tried not to notice Didi on the field, did not work out. Di Stefano reproached him, in particular, for his reluctance to do the dirty work, although the team needed primarily a destroyer, not a creator, and his inability to play a fast game (Didi was not really known for his speed). The Brazilian ended up spending only one season at Real Madrid.

The right winger also won two World Cups, and then played in the unsuccessful 66 World Cup. The 32-year-old forward was taken to this tournament at the request of Joao Havelange, then head of the Brazilian Football Confederation, in recognition of the footballer’s services, and Garrincha scored his last goal for the national team in the opening match (2:0).

Almost the striker's entire club career was spent at Botafogo. In 1966, he ended up at Corinthians, but did not take root. Subsequently, Garrincha already finished the game, including in Bolivia and Colombia, where in the first and last matches the fans "Atlético Junior", dissatisfied with the veteran’s performance, threw tomatoes and eggs at him. In 1969, the two-time world champion went to Europe, where he earned his living by performing for amateur teams of students and workers, and also worked in the showroom of the Brazilian Institute of Foreign Trade. His wife Elsa believed that leaving would help Garrincha get out of the depression that overtook him after the fatal accident for her mother (some sources believe that the tragedy occurred due to the fact that the football player was driving drunk).

Returning to his homeland in 1971, Garrincha played for semi-professional clubs and was fond of drinking, although he still got a job for a short time in a professional "Olaria".

On December 18, 1973, Garrincha's farewell match took place at the Maracana. In the presence of 131 thousand spectators, the Brazilian national team defeated the world team (2:1), for which Soviet football players played, and. The proceeds from the game went personally to Garrincha, who paid off his debts, paid for his children’s education, and bought a house, car and apartments for his daughters.

But even until December 1982, that is, almost until the end of his days, the star, who found himself in poverty, played in exhibition matches of modest clubs. And this despite the fact that in 1978 Garrincha was hospitalized with a diagnosis of heart failure and was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, due to which he died on January 20, 1983 at the age of 49. Many thousands of people took part in the funeral. The epitaph on the footballer's tombstone reads: "Here lies the one who was the joy of the people - Mane Garrincha."

This striker scored goals in two final matches of the world championships, which was also achieved by Pele (1958, 1970), and. At the 58 World Cup, Vava scored 5 goals, but the Frenchman with his 13 goals was, of course, not enough. But four years later, the Brazilian, although he scored “only” 4 times, shared the laurels of the tournament’s top scorer with five players, including Garrincha and.

In 1958, Vava went to Spain, where he played for. In 1961 he moved to. And then he went abroad again: he played in Mexico for and in the USA for "San Diego Toros". As a coach, he again headed for Spain, where he headed and, and in the mid-80s he worked in Qatar.

He died in 2002 at the age of 67.

A two-time world champion as a player, Mario Zagallo won the world championship twice and as a coach. A Brazilian of Lebanese and Italian origin (in the original his last name is Zakour), he led the national team after failure at the 66 World Cup and four years later became the first to achieve a kind of “double” - a football player-coach. This achievement will later be repeated. In addition, Zagallo was an assistant Carlos Alberto Parreira at the victorious World Cup 94.

Playing on the left side of the attack, Zagallo scored Brazil's fourth goal in the 58 World Cup final against and his team's first in the 62 World Cup against . After these triumphs, he played three more seasons for Botafogo, which he moved to in 1958 after eight seasons, harmoniously moved to coaching at a club from Rio de Janeiro, and a year later he took the helm of the national team. In 1968, Zagallo resigned, but a few months before the start of the world championship he returned, replacing João Saldanho.

After winning the 70 World Cup, Zagallo began simultaneously coaching Fluminense, then Flamengo. He left the national team after the 1974 World Cup, where Brazil took 4th place.

Later, his biography included Brazilian clubs and the national teams of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Before the 94 World Cup, he returned to the Brazilian national team, but as an assistant to Carlos Alberto Parreira, and after her golden success in the USA, Zagallo received the position of head coach and prepared the team for the 98 World Cup, where it reached the final.

In 2003, the Brazilian Confederation invited Zagallo to serve as the team's technical coordinator, but at the 2006 World Cup the team dropped out of the fight in the quarter finals, giving way to France, and Mario Zagallo finally retired. On August 9 he will turn 86 years old.

Sports fans know Edson Arantes do Nascimento even from difficult full name. We will not describe all the exploits of the man nicknamed the King of Football - otherwise the story will be too long. Let us only recall that he is the only football player in the world to win the world championship title three times. In 1958, he was only 17, so even 12 years later, during the 70 World Cup, Pele was full of strength.

By the way, his debut at the world championships took place in a match with - Pele missed the first two matches at the 58 World Cup due to injury. At that tournament, he scored six goals, losing only to Fontaine in the scoring dispute.

Pele scored his 1,000th anniversary goal on November 19, 1969 from the penalty spot in the Santos match against Vasco da Gama. The Brazilian Ministry of Communications issued a postage stamp dedicated to this event. Santos celebrates November 19 every year as "Pelé Day".

In Brazil, Pele played only for Santos. His second club in his biography was the American one, where the three-time world champion went in the summer of 1975. As it turned out, for two years. On October 1, 1977, Pele's farewell match took place in New Jersey, in which the two teams of his life met. The 37-year-old himself played for both sides.

Pelé subsequently served as Brazil's Minister of Sports (1995-1998). He constantly participates in campaigns aimed at popularizing and developing football. He is 76 years old.

On Tuesday, the greatest footballer, whom experts put above the King of Football himself, Pele, could celebrate his eightieth birthday. We are talking about the Brazilian magician Garrincha. This name alone once made Brazilian fans stand in awe. He could have had a distinguished career, but he died in poverty. RBC-Sport recalls how Garrincha’s ascent to the football Olympus began.

Stanislav Kuptsov

On Tuesday, the greatest footballer, whom experts put above the King of Football himself, Pele, could celebrate his eightieth birthday.

We are talking about the Brazilian magician with Indian roots, Garrincha. This name alone once made fans stand in awe. He could have had a distinguished career, but he died in poverty.

If someone had seen Garrincha in the last years of his life, they would never have believed that this man, who could barely stand on his feet, spent almost all his free time in bars and saw not the beauties of life, but the cloudy bottom of another glass of whiskey, suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and nervous diseases, drove thousands of stadiums crazy for many years, with the help of one trick he could turn the strongest football defenders into circus clowns, knew how to score goals, after which even the goalkeepers gave the Brazilian the thumbs up, realizing that no one in their place could reflect this cannon shot.

Behind the coffin, in which Garrincha finally found his rest, there was a procession of three hundred thousand people. Many could not hold back their tears. Brazil said goodbye to perhaps the best football player in history, whom it could not save, could not pull out of the abyss, did not provide help to an unfortunate man in need of financial support, and did not find him qualified doctors.

He alone made millions happy, but millions could not make him alone happy. This is how it usually happens in life. Now you are at the peak of fame, and then everyone needs you. And once the glory leaves, it turns out that the person is no longer needed.

Pele, who was directly told that you are worse than Garrincha, did not come to the funeral. “I’m afraid of the dead, I’m afraid of funerals,” he made excuses, but the excuses looked untenable.

The epitaph on the grave of Garrincha, who died at the age of 49, reads: “Here lies the one who was a joy for the people - Mane Garrincha.”

Everything is known about Garrincha, his life is like an open book with many pages, and not one of them can leave you indifferent. But I would like to separately remember how the rise of Brazilian talent began. For the first time, Garrincha wore the Brazil national team jersey in the final stages of the World Cup at the 1958 World Cup, playing against the USSR national team.

Garrincha will now beat the USSR national team player. Photo thefcf.co.uk

But Garrincha might not have gone to Sweden. His relationship with football officials, coaches, massage therapists - with everyone involved in the national team - was too difficult.

Thus, the coach of the Brazilian national team, Vicente Feola, became crimson with rage when Garrincha... scored a goal against Fiorentina in a test match. He wanted to throw Garrincha out of the national team for this one offense. It was like this - Garrincha dribbled around three defenders in a row and the goalkeeper, and when the goal was empty, he did not shoot, waiting for the Fiorentina player Robotti to jump out at him, and after waiting, he dribbled around him with a deft feint and only then scored. Robotti could barely stay on his feet - Garrincha's feints turned his head.

Garrincha could have paid dearly for this goal, but it turned out well.

And yet he was forced to take an exam before the championship - to pass psychological tests. Garrincha reacted to the tasks of the “shrinksmen” with humor. He pretended that he could not distinguish a vertical line from a horizontal one, drew a man with a huge head, and as a result he was accused of immaturity and called for removal from the national team. The same thing happened with Pele.

Of course, both were called up to the national team. What kind of Brazilian team is this if Pele and Garrincha don’t play for it...

The players of the Soviet team, naturally, had already heard about Garrincha, and knew who needed to be looked after first. Although a quick glance at the Brazilian left them with conflicting feelings. One could only wonder how, given his physical attributes, Garrincha often became the best on the field. He was of small stature, constantly stooped, spread his legs wide apart, and one of his legs was shorter than the other.

In addition, the USSR national team players were more confident in their abilities than ever. Two years ago, the Soviet team performed triumphantly at the Olympics in Melbourne, winning gold medals - in the final, in front of 100,000 spectators, they beat a very strong Yugoslavia.

The authors of that victory came out to play against Brazil without shaking in their knees, but it happened by itself in the first minute! The field seemed to have been pierced by lightning, Boris Kuznetsov, the Dynamo defender, simply could not believe his eyes when Garrincha rushed past him, dancing the samba with the ball, and then, beating Voinov and Krizhevsky, struck the goal frame with such force that the ball returned to the center of the field.

“As soon as our match began, I quickly figured out who was who,” recalls Lev Yashin. “It immediately became clear to us that the highest praise for their skill did not contain the slightest bit of exaggeration. Already in the first minute, the seemingly awkward Garrincha was somehow unimaginable he put Kuznetsov on the grass with a feint, rushed along the edge with the ball and shot so that the ball, hitting the goal post, flew into the center circle.”

In the second minute, Pele, with a sharp pass from Garrincha, once again tested the strength of the frame of the Soviet goal, and in the third minute, Vava, receiving the ball from Garrincha, opened the scoring. The fans saw as much in just three minutes as they sometimes wouldn’t see in a whole match!

The same combination, Vava - Garrincha, worked in the second half, and the Brazilian team won with a score of 2:0. Why, the USSR national team, all the participants in the Swedish World Cup got it from the Brazilians, from the awkward Garrincha, in whom, when he picked up speed and dribbled, it was as if the devil had possessed him.

Sweden, under the furious blows of Garrincha and the rest of the Brazilians, simply collapsed in the final match like a rotten tree - 5:2.

This is how the whole world learned about Garrincha. He will remain on stage for a long time and will be the best artist of that time.

Garrincha at the 1958 World Cup. Photo thefcf.co.uk

Do you want to see one man beat eight opponents and put the ball in the goal with a backheel kick? Go to the match with Garrincha. Do you want to look at the most striking football technique that makes the best defenders on the planet complain of dizziness? Go to the match with Garrincha. Do you want to see the best football player in the world play? Go to the match with Garrincha.

What a pity that Garrincha never said his last football word - alcohol and smoking, an addiction to an easy, pompous life, a passion for love affairs and gambling got in the way. If Garrincha lived only by football, who knows, perhaps now no one would argue about who is the best of the best - Pele or Maradona... Because the best would be Pele, who did not score more than a thousand goals, not Maradona with his “God's hand” , and the stooped, lanky little football genius Garrincha.