Hundreds of Brazilians greeted Lobo Zagallo: who were the historians who approached him

Hundreds of Brazilians and some legends of the national team said goodbye Mario Jorge Zagallo, the only one with four World Cups in the world of football, was buried this Sunday in Rio de Janeiro. The “Old Wolf”, who had suffered from poor health for a decade, died at midnight on Friday at the age of 92 in a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, the city where he began his football career as the club’s left winger America. . .

The funeral wake took place at the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), on whose facade there was a sign reading “Eternal Zagallo”, a phrase of “13 letters”, the favorite number of the “Old Wolf”, who he admitted that he was superstitious like few others.

Next to the coffin, a 1.70 meter high wax statue, his height, which depicts him with the coach’s uniform, and the five World Cups won by Brazil, four of which were won by teams that had among its members the ” Old Wolf”.

They went to Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962 as a player, to Mexico in 1970 as a coach and to the United States in 1994 as a technical coordinator.

Despite Zagallo’s importance, the few football personalities who appeared in Brazil attracted attention. Between them, Zinho, Grafite, Mazinho, Gilmar Rinaldi, Mauro Silva, Cafú and Bebetoformer players of the Brazilian national team and who at one point had Zagallo as their coach.

Bebeto, who shone as a striker in Spain with Deportivo La Coruña and Sevilla, remembered Zagallo as “a boy who never gave up” and said he was his “greatest reference and teacher” in football.

“An always positive guy, who was contagious in the locker room” and “encouraged his players like no other,” added Bebeto, the 1994 United States world champion.

Former Flamengo coach and current Adenor coach Leonardo Bachi “Tite” were also present, together with the managers of the clubs Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense and Vasco da Gama, the big four of Rio de Janeiro in which Zagallo played as a player or trainer.

CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues appreciated Zagallo’s “gigantic legacy” for world football and announced that the body will prepare “a series of tributes” to “honor his memory” throughout the year.

After the wake, the coffin, covered in the flags of CBF, FIFA and Conmebol, was transported by a fire truck to the São João Batista cemetery in the Botafogo neighborhood.

There those three flags were replaced by that of Brazil and the “Old Wolf” was buried in a ceremony reserved for his closest family and friends, who greeted him with long applause.

With information from EFE