ESPN FC is counting down the 20 greatest World Cup players of all time, with two unveiled per day until the final five. The identity of the No. 1 player will be announced on April 18.
Name: Manuel Francisco dos Santos (Garrincha)
Nationality: Brazil
Position: Winger
Clubs: Botafago (1953-65), Corinthians (1966), Portuguesa Carioca (1967), Flamengo (1968-69), Olaria (1972)
International career: 50 matches, 12 goals
World Cup participation: 1958, 1962, 1966 -- played 12, scored 5
Finest World Cup moment: Key man in Brazil’s 1962 championship
Roll of honour: Winner 1958, 1962
The Estadio Nacional de Brasilia Mane Garrincha will host six World Cup matches this summer. Brazil’s capital city named its stadium after a player who remains closest of all to his country’s heart.
Pele is a global brand ambassador for Brazilian football, but Garrincha far better embodies the jogo bonito (beautiful game).
A dribbler par excellence but also a supreme creator and convertor of chances, Garrincha combined with Pele in Brazil’s rise to becoming the national team most closely identified with the World Cup. When Pele was lost to injury in 1962, it was Garrincha who inspired Brazil to become the second -- and last -- team to retain the trophy.
“Pele’s a king because he scored the most goals,” Alex Bellos, author of "Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life," tells ESPN FC. “But in Brazil, for what we would call the Pele years, they would probably talk of the Pele and Garrincha years, because the pairing of them was so devastating.”
Once coach Vicente Feola selected them together for the 1958 World Cup campaign in Sweden, their beautiful on-field relationship did not let the Selecao down. Brazil never once lost when they played together for eight years. Indeed, Brazil lost only one match that Garrincha played in, to Hungary at the 1966 finals during his career’s sad finale.
"When he was on form, the pitch became a circus,” wrote Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano in his book "Football in Sun and Shadow." “The ball became an obedient animal, and the game became an invitation to party.”
His achievements all came despite birth defects that deformed his spine and bent his right leg, making his left leg shorter than the other. He was also born into an alcoholic family, and the condition claimed him too. Tragically, it took his life in 1983 at age 49. A nation mourned, and millions attended his funeral procession in his home city of Rio where he had made over 500 appearances for Botafogo.
“He was everything that Brazilians like to think Brazilian football is, which is all about the dribble, the attack, having fun,” says Bellos.
While Garrincha means “little bird,” he was also called Alegria De Povo (The Joy of the People).
“At his best, he was capable of doing the best a player can do,” Tostao, Garrincha’s teammate at the 1966 World Cup, tells ESPN FC. “Some people think that he was always dribbling just for sport, for fun. But it was much more than that. First, he dribbled, then he made a perfect pass for someone to score. Also, he could strike with complete accuracy, put the ball wherever he wanted.”
Says Bellos: “The game that launched Brazilian football as the world knows it was the game against the Soviet Union in the 1958 World Cup."
In the second group game, Brazil dominated the Soviets from kickoff. First Garrincha hit the post, then Pele, just 17 years old, hit the post before Vava scored to place them into the lead.
“It was the watershed moment,” says Bellos.
Brazil cruised to their first Jules Rimet Trophy -- with opponents totally unable to live with their attacking -- beating the hosts 5-2 in Stockholm’s final. Garrincha’s wing play had dazzled opponents, and he supplied two goals in the final.
It was at the 1962 finals in Chile that Garrincha’s legend was fully formed. Pele tore a thigh muscle in Brazil’s second match, but Garrincha carried the burden.
“In Brazil, people used to say Garrincha was the only man to decide a World Cup alone,” says ESPN Brasil’s Paulo Vinicius Coelho.
Garrincha’s skills inspired Brazil to the final, with match-winning performances against England and Chile. In the semifinals, after scoring twice against the hosts in Santiago, he was sent off after reacting with frustration to heavy-duty defending. A suspension would be an international crisis, let alone a Brazilian one, but some backstage dealing between the Brazilian FA and FIFA meant that Garrincha played and starred in the final victory against Czechoslovakia.
He returned to the tournament in England in 1966, but by then, the demon drink and frequent injuries exacerbated by his deformities had robbed him of the magic. He signed off with a swerving free kick against Bulgaria in the opening 2-0 win before the 3-1 defeat to Hungary signalled he was finished. He was not present for the 3-1 defeat to Portugal that saw Brazil crash out. Nevertheless, Brazil has only good footballing memories of Garrincha.
“He was capable of playing in spectacular ways,” says Tostao. “We never saw anyone like him again. But we should not remember him just as a ‘ballet dancer,’ someone fun to watch. He was a lot more than that.”