The World Cup Diaries

Mane Garrincha-The Joy of the people

It was the 1958 world cup in Sweden and Brazil needed a win in their final group game against USSR to make it to the next stage of the competition. 2 youngsters(Pele,Gharrincha), who had missed the first two games through injury were in line to make their world cup debuts. Pele had missed the first two games through injury, while Gharrincha, was considered too irresponsible to play. The magnitude of the game ,coupled with Gharrincha’s magnificent performances in training meant they had to take that “risk” and put him in the line up. The decision turned out to be the perfect one as Pele and most importantly Gharrincha produced one of the finest performances, and certainly the best debuts ever in World Cup history. So good was it -especially the first three minutes- that his teammate Zegallo described it as ” The best 3 minutes he has ever seen in the world cup”. Vava scored his first of two goals in those three minutes as Brazil won the game 2-0 but it was Gharrincha who was the star of the day.

Manuel Francisco Dos Santos, (Mane Gharrincha) was born in 1933 in his hometown of Pau Grande, a small village in the state of Rio. His father was a known alcoholic ,a character Gharrincha would grow to inherit. That and his indiscipline and lackadaisical  attitude would  later on come back to haunt him. He was nicknamed Gharrincha  meaning wren due to his love for hunting that bird and Mané being the short form of Manuel,his first name. He had a unique physical stature with one of his legs longer than the other and one knee coming inside and the other going outside of his body. This should have made it impossible for him to walk properly, let alone play football yet he turned out to be one of the greatest footballers the game has ever seen. Pele in his own words said: “In his position, Gharrincha was the greatest ever he had seen”. Gharrincha showed these attributes in the final of the 1958 world cup when Brazil faced host nation Sweden in the final. When Brazil conceded in the early stages, many feared the heartbreak of the 1950 world cup was repeating itself but Gharrincha produced two crosses to feed centre forward Vava, from some good work on the flanks to put Brazil 2-1 up almost immediately. Goals from Zegalo, a brace from Pele and a late consolation from the host nation gave Brazil a 5-2 win as they won their first ever world cup trophy. The decision to introduce those two youngsters early on in the competition turned out to be a masterstroke and changed football forever. However, it was in 1962 where Gharrincha had his best period in the yellow shirt of Brazil.

Brazil went into the 1962 world cup in Chile  as defending champions with their star players Gharrincha and Pele in the form of their lives and with some experience. They were the favourites in that tournament. However, when Pele got injured in the second group game against the Czech Republic, Brazil’s defense of their trophy was in somewhat doubt. Gharrincha however stood up and produced an extraordinary performance and all but single-handedly won that world cup for Brazil. His 5 goals in that tournament included a brace in both the quarter finals and the semi finals. If his performance in 1958 was world class, then the one of 1962 was simply out of this world. He won both the golden ball and the golden boot in that tournament. In Pele’s own words, “It was as if an angel had come down from heaven and touched him”.

At club level, Gharrincha played for a host of Brazilian top sides like Flamengo, Corinthians and Olaria but the 12 years he spent at Botafogo ,(1953-1965)was the best part of his career. He joined Botafogo aged 19 after several unsuccessful trials at other clubs like Fluminense and Vasco.He grew frustrated and almost gave up on his dream bit decided to have a trial for Botafogo after he was spotted by scouts from the club. His first training session saw he come up against Brazilian international left back, Nielson Santos. He was so good that Santos personally took him to the president after the session and requested for him to be signed so he doesn’t have to face him ever.  He scored a hattrick on his debut and helped Botafogo win the 1957 Campeonato carioca, scoring 20 goals in 26 games that season. He won the campeonato carioca trophy 3 times and scored 232 goals in 581 games for Botafogo. His magnificent dribbling and immense skill was always a joy to watch . He thrilled fans to a wonderful spectre every Sunday at the Maracana and was simply loved by everyone. Even opposition fans loved to watch him play.  However after a disappointing campaign at the World Cup in 1966 and with his career declining, Gharrincha left Botafogo and joined Corinthians. After unsuccessful spells at Corinthians, Flamengo, Olaria and Colombian side Atletico Junior, Gharrincha hanged his boots in 1972 putting to an end an illustrious 19-year career laden with lot of trophies and some marvelous football for both club and country .

A farewell match was held at the Maracana in 1973 between the Brazil national team and a FIFA all star team to bid farewell to one of the world’s greatest footballers. After football, Gharrincha’s poor habits of drinking and womanising crept into his life and gradually became his undoing. His careless and heavy drinking life led to him being involved in a car accident that killed his mother-in-law. Gharrincha never forgave himself for that and became worse. He divorced his first wife and mother of 8 daughters, Nair Marques and married Brazilian pop star Elsa Soares whom he All divorced. He had other affairs aside, bringing the total number of children he had to 14.

Suffering from depression due to marital and financial issues, Gharrincha increased his alcoholic intake even more and was diagnosed with Cirrhosis in 1982. He was literally hopping from one hospital to the other and on January 20, 1983, Gharrincha died in Rio after failing to recover from an alcoholic coma.

Thousands of fans flooded the Maracana for his funeral to pay their last respect to a true legend of the game. Several monuments including busts, statues and scupltures have been built all over Brazil in remembrance of him. The home team’s dressing room in the Maracana has also been named after him and in 2013, Brazil named the stadium in Brasilia ,the ‘Mane Gharrincha stadium’, built ahead of the 2014 world cup. A fitting tribute to ‘The angel with bent legs’. Only two people in history have won the world cup ‘single-handedly’, Maradona in 1986 and Gharrincha in 1962. Gharrincha would always be remembered as the player who United several factions of fans in Brazil and who was simply ‘El Porto d’alegre’ or ‘The joy of the people’.