Zagallo biography

Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo was born in Maceió, Alagoas, to a family of Lebanese and Italian heritage.

Zagallo started his footballer career in América in 1948.[1] He was the first footballer to win the World Cup as a player (1958, 1962), as a manager (1970), and as assistant coach (World Cup 1994), all with the Brazilian national team. He also coached his country to a fourth-place finish in the 1974 World Cup and to a second-place finish in the 1998 World Cup.[2]

Zagallo guided the United Arab Emirates to their first World Cup in 1990, but was dismissed from his post before the tournament. Zagallo was assistant coach (as in 1994, the main coach was Carlos Alberto Parreira) of the Brazilian team in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which was eliminated by France.

As a player, Zagallo was the left-forward of the Brazilian teams in the Cups of 1958 and 1962; he scored goals in both tournaments, including one in the final against the Swedish team, in 1958. What he lacked in physical stature, Zagallo compensated with exquisite technique and by always being the first man back to defend if his team lost the ball.

In 1970, Zagallo assumed the national team after the previous coach João Saldanha resigned alleging that he was suffering external pressures to include players in the team. Zagallo had the task – and succeeded in performing it – of finding a place in the team for a group of outstanding players such as Pelé, Gérson, Tostão, Jairzinho and Rivelino. In his 1977 autobiography, Pelé writes that Zagallo initially restricted his team from playing their attacking game at the 1970 World Cup. Based on a chess format, Zagallo organized a sophisticated method, which he ultimately had to abandon due to player complaints. His side won all six of their matches, scoring 19 times in the process. It was the first time football had witnessed a 5-3-2 formation that could seamlessly transform itself into a 3-5-2 and back again.

On July 23, 2001 the Brazilian football team was defeated (0-2) in the quarter-final of the 2001 Copa America tournament by the low-ranked (and last minute invitee) Honduras. Zagallo, stunned, stated that he never thought to live long enough to see the powerful Brazil being defeated by Honduras.

He is famously superstitious about the number 13,[3] believing that the 1958 and 1994 World Cups were special for him (and therefore for Brazil), because 5+8=13 and 9+4=13. Regarding the 1994 victory, he used to state that the phrase Brasil Campeão ("Champions Brazil") has 13 letters.

After being introduced by Cláudio Coutinho in 1978, Zagallo was one of the managers to fully use attacking full backs, a concept he has always remained loyal to—as the importance of Cafu, Leonardo and Roberto Carlos to the Seleçao’s forward play in 1994 and 1998 stands to prove.

Zagallo