Mario Zagallo: Ten facts to know about Brazilian football legend

Brazilian football legend Mario Zagallo, who won four World Cups as a player and coach for the Seleção Canarinha, died on Saturday at 92.

Here are ten interesting facts about Zagallo, a tough and talented left winger known for his technical skills who won back-to-back World Cups for Brazil.

1. Nicknamed the Old Wolf, Mario Jorge Lobo Zagallo was born on August 9, 1931, in Maceio on the impoverished northeastern coast of Brazil.

2.  Zagallo’s dream was to be a pilot, but he could not fulfil his dream due to his poor eyesight.

3.  Zagallo started his football career with America in 1948, and he later played for Flamengo and Botafogo.

4.  Zagallo was nicknamed ‘The Professor’ by his players throughout his coaching career due to his tactical prowess and commanding presence on the bench.

5.  Zagallo was tactically astute and assembled some of the strongest and finest Brazilian attacking talents like Pele, Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostao, and Rivellino.

6.  Zagallo was the first to win the FIFA World Cup titles as a player and manager. He won two as a player in 1958 and 1962. In 1970, as manager and in 1994 as assistant manager.

7.  Zagallo married Alcina de Castro in 1955 and remained with her until she died in 2012. The couple had four children.

8.  He is one of three football icons, along with Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer and France’s Didier Deschamps, who have won the World Cup as a player and manager.

9.  For his contributions to football, Zagallo was honoured with the FIFA Order of Merit in 1992, which is FIFA’s highest honour.

10.  Zagallo was also well-known for his extreme superstition, which led him to assume that the number 13 was auspicious. He married on the thirteenth of the month and enjoyed making up words with thirteen letters.

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