Mourning for Mario Zagallo: The Brazilian football legend died on Friday. “It is with great sadness that we inform you of the death of our eternal four-time world champion Mario Jorge Lobo Zagallo,” it said in a short statement Statement from the family on his official Instagram account. Zagallo was 92 years old. Brazilian football will never forget one of the “greatest legends”, said the Brazilian association CBF. He ordered seven days of mourning in Zagallo’s honor and a minute’s silence before the weekend’s games.
After Pele died at the end of 2022, Zagallo was the last living member of the Brazilian team that won the Seleção’s first World Cup title in 1958. Zagallo defended the title with Brazil at the 1962 World Cup in Chile, and in 1970 in Mexico he led Pele’s team to the pinnacle of success as coach. He was the first man to win the World Cup as both a player and a coach. Later, Franz Beckenbauer and the Frenchman Didier Deschamps also achieved this.
Brazil’s next triumph was to follow 24 years later: Zagallo was assistant coach to Carlos Alberto Parreira when they won the 1994 World Cup in the USA. Zagallo, whom they called “Professor,” was directly involved in four of his country’s five World Cup titles.
Mario Zagallo (second from left) at the 1962 World Cup in the match between Brazil and England.
(Photo: AP/AP)
“I want to thank you for everything, because I owe a lot of what has happened in my life and with the Seleção to you,” Pele said to Zagallo on the occasion of his 90th birthday. And Ronaldo said: “I have had many important coaches, but Zagallo was without a doubt the best of them all.”
Zagallo was born in Maceió, Brazil, in 1931 and played professionally in Rio de Janeiro for Flamengo and later local rivals Botafogo, where he ended his playing career in 1965. He joined the national team quite late, at the age of 26. Zagallo, who had four children, was a “devoted father, loving grandfather, caring father-in-law, loyal friend, successful professional and a great person,” said the family’s statement, which praised the ex-national player as a “great idol.” .