Garrincha

Manoel Francisco dos Santos (October 28, 1933 – January 20, 1983), known by the nickname "Garrincha" ("little bird"), was a Brazilian football right winger and forward who helped the Brazil national team win the World Cups of 1958 and 1962. He is considered one of the best dribblers in football history,International Football Hall of Fame - Garrincha and the best Brazilian player ever after Pelé.FIFA.com Classic Football - Garrincha

The word garrincha itself means wren. Besides football and women, activities involving songbirds were among Garrincha's greatest passions; specifically, he liked shooting them. Garrincha was also known as Mané (short for Manoel) by his friends, a name which in Brazil also means "fool" or "half wit". It was possibly used in that sense at some point – or even as a double entendre – due to Garrincha's child-like personality. The combined "Mané Garrincha" is common among fans in Brazil. Due to his immense popularity in Brazil, he was also called Alegria do Povo (Joy of the people).

Biography

Garrincha was born in Pau Grande, a district of Magé, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in 1933. He had several birth defects: his spine was deformed, his right leg bent inwards and his left leg six centimeters shorter and curved outwards; yet he still became one of the greatest players in football history, due to his ball handling, explosiveness and dribbling skills, along with being a very effective shooter and crosser. He had the ability to turn on himself at top speed, which he used to great effect. The constant attacks and goal opportunities he generated from individual plays on the right wing would often end on an accurate pass to a teammate in position to score.

The success he had on the football pitch had great contrast with his personal life. He drank heavily throughout his adult life, and was involved in several serious road accidents, notably a crash into a lorry in April 1969 which killed his mother-in-law.Futebol 106. He was married twice, first to Nair Marques in 1952 (they separated in 1965), a factory worker from Pau Grande with whom he had eight daughters, and second to Elza Soares, a samba singer whom he married in an unofficial ceremony in March 1966; they separated in 1977. He had other significant affairs, including one with showgirl Angelita Martinez, and he is known to have fathered at least 14 children.

Garrincha died aged 49 of cirrhosis of the liver, after a series of financial and marital problems. Seemingly, he was a forgotten hero –his last years had been unhappy and obscure– but his funeral procession, from the Maracanã to Pau Grande, drew thousands of fans, friends and former players to pay their respects. His epitaph reads "Here rests in peace the one who was the Joy of the People – Mané Garrincha." A multi-use stadium in Brasilia, Estádio Mané Garrincha, is named after him.

Club career

Garrincha's footballing talent was not discovered until his late teens. He was already married and a father when he signed for Botafogo in 1953. Team officials were ecstatic to learn that he was over 18 and able to be treated as a professional. In his first training session, he demonstrated his skills by dribbling the ball through the legs of Nilton Santos, a Brazilian international defender and defensive midfielder, who then requested himself for Garrincha to be hired.Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas official web site - Garrincha bio He played in a 5-0 win for Botafogo's reserves and then scored a hat trick on his first-team début against Bonsucesso on 19 July 1953.

Garrincha continued to play well, but Brazil had other talented players in his position, notably Julinho, so he was not named in the squad for the 1954 World Cup. He helped Botafogo win the Brazilian Championship in 1957 and this convinced the national team selectors to name him to the 1958 World Cup squad. After the 1962 World Cup, Garrincha returned to Rio and carried Botafogo to victory in the 1962 Campeonato Carioca final against Flamengo. Garrincha played for Botafogo for 12 years, the bulk of his professional career. He won the Campeonato Brasileiro once and the Campeonato Carioca three times with them, scored 232 goals in 581 matches, and became a symbol of the history of the club.

In 1966, with his career declining, he was sold to Corinthians. Two years later, he signed for Colombian team Atlético Junior. The same year he went back to Brazil and joined Flamengo, where he would stay until 1969. In 1971, there were rumours that Garrincha, 34, would join French club Red Star FC 93, but he never signed and returned to Brazil."Garrincha to Red Star!" - allezredstar.com

Garrincha's professional career as a footballer lasted until 1972, when he played for Olaria, but he played occasional exhibition matches until 1982.

National team

Garrincha played 50 international matches for Brazil between 1955 and 1966, and appeared in the 1958, 1962 and 1966 World Cups. Brazil only lost one match with him on the pitch, against Hungary at the 1966 World Cup. Pelé did not play the game against Hungary, and thus Brazil never lost when Garrincha and he were on the same team.

His first cap was against Chile in Rio de Janeiro in 1955. He played two matches at the Copa America of 1957 and four in the 1959 edition.

1958 World Cup

Garrincha was not picked for Brazil's first two matches of the 1958 tournament, but started their third match against the USSR; this match marked the debut of both Garrincha and Pelé. The Soviets were one of the favourites for the tournament, and the Brazilians had been nervous about playing them. Their manager, Vicente Feola, decided to attack directly from the kick off; Garrincha received the ball on the right wing, beat three opposing players and took a shot which hit the post. With the match still less than a minute old, he set up a chance for Pelé, who hit the crossbar, and continually caused problems for the Soviet defence. Brazil won the match 2-0.

In the final against Sweden, Brazil fell behind 0-1 early, but rapidly equalized after Garrincha surpassed his marker on the right wing and sent a cross for Vavá to score. Before the end of the first half, Garrincha made a similar play, again setting up Vavá to make the score 2-1. Brazil ended winning the match and its first World Cup trophy, with Garrincha being one of the best players of the tournament.

1958-1962

Garrincha put on weight after the World Cup, partly because of his drinking,[1] so he was dropped from the national team for a friendly match in Rio against England on 13 May 1959. Later that month, he went on tour with Botafogo in Sweden and got a local girl pregnant.[2] When he returned to Brazil, he drove home to Pau Grande and ran over his father, Amaro. He drove off without stopping, with an angry mob chasing him, and when they caught up with him they found him "drunk, almost catatonic, and with no grasp of what he had done."[3] In August, his wife, Nair, gave birth to their fifth child, and his mistress Iraci announced her first pregnancy. His father died of liver cancer on October 10 having been dependent on alcohol for years.[4]

1962 World Cup

Garrincha was the outstanding player of the 1962 FIFA World Cup. When Pelé suffered an injury after the second match and was sidelined for the rest of the tournament, Garrincha played a leading role in Brazil's triumph, excelling particularly against England and Chile, scoring 4 goals in those two matches.

After one win and one draw, Brazil faced Spain, without Pelé. The South Americans were losing 0-1 in the second half. Amarildo, Pelé's substitute for the remainder of the tournament, scored the equalizer. Five minutes before the end, Garrincha took the ball on the right flank, dribbled past a defender and paused. Then he dribbled the same man and another defender,"Mané Garrincha, Alegria do Povo" and sent a cross to Amarildo, who scored again to win the match."Brazil in the 1962 World Cup" - v-brazil.com

In quarter-finals against England, Garrincha opened the score with a header off a corner kick, but England equalized before half time. In the second half, Vava scored the 2-1 off a rebound on a shot by Garrincha; minutes later, Garrincha received a ball outside the penalty area, paused, and sent a curved shot – known as the "banana" shot – into the bottom of the net. Brazil won 3-1 and advanced to the semi-finals.

He scored two more goals in the semi-final against the hosts, Chile, as Brazil went on to win 4-2. His first goal was a 20-yard left-foot shot; the second one, a header."Icons of the World Cup" - The Sportstar, Vol. 25, No. 17; Apr. 27 - May 03, 2002. A subsequent headline in the Chilean newspaper EL Mercurio read: "What planet is Garrincha from?" Garrincha was sent off that match after 83 minutes for retaliating after being continually fouled. However, he was not suspended for the following match.

Brazil faced Czechoslovakia in the final. That day, Garrincha was below the level shown in the previous two games, as he was suffering from a feverFutebol, p103, but that did not prevent Brazil from winning 3-1 and him from getting voted player of the tournament. It was the second consecutive World Cup won by Garrincha and Brazil.

1966 World Cup

In the first match of the tournament, a 2-0 win against Bulgaria, Garrincha scored from a direct free kick. Then Brazil lost 1-3 to Hungary, in Garrincha's last ever international match, which was the only time Garrincha lost a match with the Brazil national team; he did not play in the last match of the first round against Portugal. Brazil was eliminated in the first round.

Post-1966

On December 19, 1973, a farewell match for Garrincha between a FIFA World team and Brazil was celebrated at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, in front of 131,000 spectators.FIFA XI Matches - RSSSF

Honours

World Cup champion: 1958, 1962
Campeonato Brasileiro winner: 1957
Campeonato Carioca winner: 1957, 1961, 1962
O'Higgins Cup winner: 1955, 1959, 1961
Oswaldo Cruz Cup: 1958, 1961, 1962
Roca Cup: 1960
Tournament Rio - São Paulo: 1962, 1964, 1966

Individual

World Cup top scorer: 1962 (tied)
World Cup Player of the Tournament: 1962

Quotes

Without Garrincha, I would never have been a three-time world champion. - Pelé
Pelé was the best but Garrincha was better. Pelé was a machine, Garrincha was an artist. Garrincha was Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and a snake charmer all rolled into one.
He can dribble twenty players before scoring! – Nilton Santos, Brazilian teammate
He was never interested in money; he was simple and, for him, football was fun. – Elza Soares.Ben Lyttleton, 1962 was Garrincha’s finest moment, The Telegraph, May 15, 2006
Pelé was an exceptional player, but Garrincha played with the ball as a kid with a toy. - Leonidas da Silva

Trivia

According to Ruy Castro's Book Garrincha: The Triumph and Tragedy of Brazil's Forgotten Footballing Hero, he lost his virginity to a goat.Guardian review of "Garrincha: The Triumph and Tragedy of Brazil's Forgotten Footballing Hero"
Garrincha never bothered about the 'details' of the game. When his team-mates were celebrating World Cup win, he was initially bemused, having been under the impression that the competition was more league-like and that Brazil would play all the other teams twice.
During the 1962 World Cup quarter final between Brazil and England, a stray dog ran on to the pitch and evaded all of the players' efforts to catch it until England striker Jimmy Greaves got down on all fours to beckon the animal. Though successful in catching the dog, it managed to urinate all over Greaves' England shirt. Greaves claimed that Garrincha thought the incident was so amusing that he took the dog home as a pet.
His career was presented in the 1962 film Garrincha, Alegria do Povo.English title: "Garrincha: Hero of the Jungle". See film information at IMDb.com In 2003, a movie called Garrincha - Estrela Solitária ("Lonely Star"), based in Ruy Castro's book, depicted his life on and off the field.See film information at IMDb.com