2024-01-06T05:34:52+00:00
A-
A
A+
/ Mario Zagallo, who won the World Cup four times with Brazil as a player and coach, died today, Saturday, at the age of 92.
As a player, Zagallo was a mainstay of the Seleção, two-time world champions in 1958 and 1962, alongside stars such as Pele and Garrincha, and the former left winger was known for his defensive qualities, which were unusual for his position at the time.
After retiring, he entered the world of coaching, and supervised the training of the Brazilian national team, the world champion in 1970, which is considered one of the best national teams ever, with Pele, Rivelino, Jairzinho, Tostao and Gerson.
In the 1998 World Cup, Zagallo was in charge of the Selecao, which qualified for the final match before losing to host France.
Only two other players have won the World Cup as a player and a coach: Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer (1974 and 1990) and France’s Didier Deschamps (1998 and 2018).
Zagallo served as assistant coach to Carlos Alberto Parreira during the 1994 World Cup, during Brazil’s fourth of five world titles.
The Brazilian football legend left the Barra d’Or Hospital in Rio de Janeiro last November, after spending more than two weeks there with a urinary tract infection.
In 2022, he spent nearly two weeks in semi-intensive care at the same hospital due to a respiratory infection.