Mário Zagallo

Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo (born August 9, 1931 in Maceió) is a Brazilian of Lebanese origin (Zakkour) football coach and former player. Zagallo started his footballer career in América in 1948 ^*. He was the first footballer to win the World Cup as a player (1958, 1962), as a coach (1970), and as assistant coach (World Cup 1994), all with the Brazilian national team. He also coached his country to a fourth-place finish in the 1974 World Cup and to a second-place finish in the 1998 World Cup. Zagallo also guided the United Arab Emirates to their first World Cup finals in 1990, but was dismissed from his post before the tournament. Zagallo is currently assistant coach (as in 1994, the main coach is Carlos Alberto Parreira) of the Brazilian team in the World Cup of 2006, which was eliminated by France.

As a player, Zagallo was the left-forward of the Brazilian teams in the Cups of 1958 and 1962; he scored goals in both tournaments, including one in the final match against the Swedish team, in 1958.

In 1970, Zagallo assumed the national team after the previous coach João Saldanha resigned alleging that he was suffering external pressures to include players in the team. Zagallo had the task – and succeeded in performing it – of finding a place in the team for a group of outstanding players such as Pelé, Gérson, Tostão, Jairzinho and Rivelino. In his 1977 autobiography, Pele writes that Zagallo initially restricted his team from playing their attacking game at the 1970 World Cup. Based on a chess format, Zagallo organized a sophisticated method, which he ultimately had to abandon due to player complaints.

On July 23, 2001 the Brazilian football team was defeated (0-2) in the quarter-final of the tournament by the low-ranked (and last minute invitee) Honduras. Zagallo, stunned, stated that he never thought to live long enough to see the powerful Brazil being defeated by Honduras.

He is famously superstitious around the number 13. For example, since 5+8= 13 as well as 9+4=13, he believed that 1958 and 1994 World Cups were special for Brazil. Also regarding the 1994 victory, he used to state that the phrase Brasil tetracampeão ("Brazil four times champion") is comprised of 13 letters.

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FIFA Page about Zagallo

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