Michael Batson

They say that falling in love is better than being in love as it can bring the wonder and excitement of discovery for the first time. When I was at school, I had a poster of the Brazilian football team on my wall taken in the Azteca Stadium before the 1970 World Cup final. The poster was produced by Adidas proud that most of the players chose to wear their footwear and signalling the start of global marketing for sportswear. For me though it was about something else entirely and that would change my life forever. It was through that poster that I fell in love with football the favourite game the world over. and had embedded in me the wonder of far-off places with exotic sounding names and the desire to wander, all of which have stayed with me to this day.

For many the 1970 World Cup stands as the apogee of football with the winners the greatest side the world has known or will ever know. People watching the games shown live for the first time around the world in colour on television (even in packed movie theatres in the USA) and those in the stadia in Mexico thought they were witnessing a golden age, the start of something bright and beautiful as the neutrals’ favourites won what was called the battle for football’s soul. What they were in fact seeing, though no one realised it at the time, was the end of an era the likes of which would never be seen again for the game of football had changed. The World Cup would never be the same again and Brazilian football had reached its zenith. All of which looking back is part of that tournament and the winning team’s special appeal.

I watched the matches of the 1970 World Cup with my father on giant reels of film. He was then a schoolteacher and a football coach, the two occupations sharing many similarities. He had booked out a room with a projector where he worked in out of office hours, and I was enthralled with what I saw on the screen. I recall the sunshine, the colours in the stadiums, the different teams, the players, and the goals. But for me the real fascination was with the Brazilian team. I knew all the names of the players lined up in the poster by heart, or at least the names they were known by, which in Brazil isn’t always the name they’re born with.

Looking at the poster you are inevitably drawn to viewing it from right to left; your eyes then following along the line to the end where the officials were positioned between the teams and beyond them, to the Italians who are out of sight. I always was intrigued by the players’ names as for me and many others there was something unconventional about them which only added to their mystique and therefore their appeal. They say Brazilian football is different and not just the way the play, a kind of hybrid of virtuosity and invention mixed with artistry, dance, martial arts, and originality. More like jazz than rock, or at least it was. Going back a century or so there has been a tradition of nicknames and of being named after someone or something. So, because of the players’ names they reckon that Brazilian football is an international advert for the cordiality of Brazilian life. The players had nicknames within the squad. Then there are the names they were known by, also nicknames, and then some had other names their fans called them. Whatever names they were known by it all fascinated me.

As the poster drew you in the first player you tend to look at is the goalkeeper, the much-maligned Félix (Félix Mialla Venerando, then of Fluminense FC) standing to attention as if on military parade. People often joked there wasn’t much feline grace about him. He was part of the five-man players’ committee of the Brazil squad with Gérson, Piazza, Brito, and Carlos Alberto, and with Brito was one of the team’s jesters giving everyone nicknames. Broad-shouldered but slight of frame and seeming under-fed, he was small by today’s goalkeeping physical standards. Brazil’s preparation for Mexico included daily running based on the Cooper tests but despite improvements to fitness, Félix matched Gérson for chain-smoking. Brazilian goalkeepers fared badly by reputation probably because all their football is premised on always outscoring the opposition, whoever they are, so it didn’t’ really matter how many you let in. Cláudio Taffarel of Internacional from Porto Alegre was the first Brazilian goalkeeper to transfer to a major European club when he went to Parma in 1990 but now arguably the two of the best goalkeepers in the English Premier League are Brazilian; Ederson and Allison.

Like the great World Cup winner Gilmar (Gylmar dos Santos Neves but usually just Gilmar), probably Brazil’s only goalkeeper hero of last century, Félix was a product of Clube Athletico Juventus of São Paulo, which following name changes was originally the works team of Cotonifício Rodolfo Crespi, a textile manufacturer. At cross-town rivals Portuguesa (Associação Portuguesa de Desportos—as the name suggests was founded by the city’s Portuguese immigrants) —his nickname was Papel (Paper) because he was so thin. He was one of the Azularia Squad of 1966 (the Unlucky Ones) or those dropped from the 22 that went to England. When Gilmar retired soon after the 1966 World Cup disgrace, and his number two Manga went to Nacional in Uruguay, Félix emerged as number one in a new look Brazilian team. He was Saldanha’s first choice in the away qualifying World Cup group two matches in 1969 against first Colombia, then Venzuela and then Paraguay where he kept three cleans sheets. But when Saldanha returned from Europe obsessed with having bigger players, he opted for Emerson Leao of Palmeiras.

After Saldanha was sacked, new manager Mario Zagallo reinstated him over Leao and the squad’s other goalkeeper Eduardo Ado of Corinthians FC on the suggestion of the so-called Three Cobras: Pelé, Gérson, and the teams’ captain Carlos Alberto, the senior players’ group within a players group, who decided tactics and personnel before and then taking their thoughts to management.  Later at the tournament itself, they would change things once on the field, depending on how a match was going. Who needs a manager? The Three Cobras (the name came from the Kojak-like figure of the team masseur Mario Americo) had their seminal meeting on 28 April 1970 at the Hotel Palmeiras in Rio following Brazil’s woeful warm-up performances including against two matches against Argentina—after which the first match the opposing captain said it was the worst Brazil team he had ever faced—and against Bulgaria, and then when they struggled to beat Athlético Mineiro 3-1 in Belo Horizonte, the team was booed from the field. So, they decided things needed to change.

At 33, Félix was the oldest member of the final squad of 22 for Mexico but roomed with Marco Antonio, at 20 the youngest (he had his 21st while in Mexico), and his teammate at Fluminense. Saldanha had once criticised him for being unable to play in the rain. The night before the final there was a deluge and the day itself dawned overcast, damp, and cool, so he wore gloves in the match. He thought the criticism that the defence received before, during, and even after Mexico unfair. He later went into coaching before he ran his own business buying and selling cars which he called Gato Félix (Félix the Cat). His motor repair business was called LLAR Special Cars – an acronym of the names of his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. He carried on smoking industrial-strength cigarettes until he died in 2012.

Next to Félix and just as rigid feet together was one of the Botofogo triumvirate in the squad, the flying winger Jair Ventura Filho (known as Jairzinho meaning Little Jair) and nicknamed Furacão or “The Hurricane” by the Botafogo faithful on the terraces of the Maracanã. The fastest player in the Brazil squad over 50m Jairzinho played in every game and achieved fame as the first, and so far, the only player to have scored in every round of the World Cup finals scoring seven goals in all in the six matches. Aside from his goal in the final, he scored two goals in the last quarter of an hour against Czechoslovakia, belted the only goal of the match against England, scored the second against Romania, the last goal and Brazil’s fourth against Peru, and Brazil’s second in the semi-final against Uruguay. Heir apparent at club and national level to the incomparable Garrincha, Jairzinho played in all Brazil’s group matches in England in 1966. Before that tournament Brazil was the two-time world champion looking for a hattrick of titles but were brought crashing down to earth by European opposition in what became known as the fracasso – the shame of 1966. Brazil’s preparation was chaotic, a vast squad of 44 eventually trimmed down to the final 22 and included newcomer Tostão and the brilliant Gérson but dominated by the giants of a bygone era. Like those two players, Jairzinho was one of a handful to emerge with credit but following the team’s early exit, watched the rest of the competition back home.

During the qualifiers Saldanha deployed two wingers, Jairzinho and Edu of Santos. Then Zagallo and the Cobras opted for the versatility offered by Rivellino, the rising star of Corinthians, and Jairzinho got the nod over Edu as the sole winger. Jairzinho benefitted in Mexico from the tactics designed to provide him space on the right, with the flying Carlos Alberto overlapping. In the semi-final he and Rivellino were instructed to swap wings to break down the strong defence and the man-marking employed by Uruguay.  In the final his impact was limited in the first half because his man-marker Facchetti, the Italian captain and left-back, was the biggest and fastest opposite he had come up against.  Gerson and Pelé set up his seventh goal of the World Cup and his work off the ball created the space for Carlos Alberto to score his memorable goal in the 86-minute. He was picked along with Gérson, Pelé, Tostão, and Rivellino in the team of the tournament, a quintet his teammate Clodoaldo referred to as the “Fantastic Five”. After football he worked as an agent and discovered Ronaldo.

Next in line was Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) looking left and slightly down, so not at anyone, probably tired of all the lenses pointed at him. The first thing I always noticed were the tongues of his boots stood up to his shin pads. There was no sun in the Azteca before the game started, it only came out later, so the whole image is darker than it would have been otherwise. My mum said once “there he is all padded up” because of his shin pads. Even she knew who he was but didn’t really follow football though being from Liverpool grew up in a house of football fans – red ones. Pelé was then the most famous sportsman on the planet, was the highest paid and was the first black man to appear on the cover of Life magazine. In 1960 when the Italians offered USD1 million for his services (a fortune back in the day) the Brazilian congress went into emergency session and declared him a national treasure, unable to be exported.

Pelé like Brito, like Félix, and Gérson wore Puma King boots, probably the most iconic football boots ever. Eusebio had asked Rudi Dassler. Puma’s owner and founder, to make soft and flexible boots for him for the 1966 World Cup. Before football boots with studs were rather stiff. Puma came up with their Wembley boots in time for England where Eusebio became a global sensation as both player of the tournament and top scorer. In 1968 came the Puma King Eusebio with more innovations including non-slip nylon screw studs and a new sole construction which made the boots extremely flexible.

For the World Cup in Mexico came the Puma King (Pelé’s nickname in Brazil was O Rei, the King) its flat structure made it lighter with increased softness and comfort and worn by Pelé became world famous which is exactly what the German manufacturer wanted. It was rumoured that Adidas and Puma had agreed pre-World Cup that Pelé would be a no-fly zone as a bidding war might bankrupt both. Pelé was encouraged to employ tricks to highlight his footwear like bending down pretending to tie his boot laces right on kick-off knowing that the cameras beaming the match live around the world would zoom in. For that he got paid USD120,000 (about USD800,000 today) for just a few seconds effort.

Pelé’s nickname in the squad was Criola or Negrão both self-explanatory, rather than O Rei though Pelé itself is a nickname. There is a tradition in Brazil for especially forwards to have nicknames Zagallo being an exception. Of Brazil’s all-time top scorers, seven out of the first 10 are known by their nicknames – the only surname among the top 25 scorers is Rivelino, which sounds like a nickname (Rivelino is a nickname as his real name is Rivellino with two “l’s). No one is sure where the name Pelé came from, even the great man himself but might have been a mispronunciation of the name of one of Minas Gerias’ most famous players at the time, Bele. It might have been a half-Portuguese, half-Turkish concoction dreamed up by one of the many Turks who watched him at the time. Pelé was born in a town called in Portuguese, Three Hearts in the state of general mines (Minas Gerias) but grew up in a railway town in São Paulo state, Bauru, where he playing ability shone through. He was scouted and moved to Santos, where he was put on a special diet and told to build-up in their junior sides. As one of Santos’s unofficial errand boys he was given another nickname, Gasolina (“Get me a coffee kid, and don’t spare the Gasolina”).

At age just 16 Pelé stepped into the number 10 shirt at Santos and became top scorer in the league. He won the Paulista championship in 1958 scoring an incredible 58 goals. In the 1960s, Santos was the most famous team in the world known by another nickname, the Santistics (Os Santásticos) which made them seem like a R ‘n’ B band from Motown. They had three two-time World Cup winners – Gilmar, Pelé, and Zito; two more 1966 World cup squad members – Orlando and Edu; two more new Brazil national stars – Joel and Carlos Alberto. Since winning the World Club Championship in 1961 and 1962, the all-star 11 had superseded Real Madrid as the glamour club of the international scene. In demand worldwide Santos became the first globetrotting football team playing exhibition matches in dozens of countries drawing comparison with the Harlem Globetrotters. In just one example in 1969 they had a lightening tour of Europe and played four matches in seven days in four different countries – all of which they won. On the way back to Brazil they played an exhibition match in the city of Benin in southern Nigeria then embroiled in bloody civil war (also known as the Biafra War) where the two factions stopped fighting just so they could see Pelé's team play.

In many ways he was the first truly global, truly commercial sports star. His signing on fee was huge by the day’s standards. His salary even larger, whether he played or not, he got a car a VW Beetle. Even his parents got a house. By 1962 the club’s famous coach Luís Alonso Pérez (known as Lula, he managed Santos from 1954-66) declared “Pelé can no longer be compared to anyone else.” By 1963 he was the world’s highest paid sportsman. In the finals Pelé scored four goals and set up six others including two in the final, one of which was Carlos Alberto’s wonder strike in the 86th minute, one of the most replied goals of all time. Santos had three in the starting line-up for the final (Carlos Alberto, Clodoaldo, and Pelé) and five in total in the final squad for Mexico (Joel a defender, and Edu a winger being the others). One of his teammates at Santos and in the Brazil winning team Clodoaldo said of Pelé he was “always in front of everyone in reasoning, speed and physical condition. One of his main virtues was that he observed everything – the supporters, the terraces, the goalkeeper, the work of the referee. If Pelé was without the ball he was observing.” He had an extraordinary gift for seeing everything around him writer Garry Jenkins said he was surprised it wasn’t called “Pelé-vision” and he wielded it to lethal effect. Pelé it was combined the power and speed of a sprinter with the explosiveness of a gymnast, and extraordinary imagination and vision on the filed with the mental and physical toughness of a boxer. For Tostão, Brazil’s attacking trio’s sublime link man on the field Pelé’s football was “complete simplicity itself – there were no weaknesses.”

Later in life Pelé described the brotherhood in the 1970 team as “impressive” and the World Cup a “blessing”. His life off the field was less successful; there were failed marriages, he was twice driven to the verge of bankruptcy, and his son a goalkeeper at Santos did serious jail time for money laundering. He was once Brazil’s special minister of sport under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2001) shortly after the 1994 World Cup, the first Brazilian president to be re-elected. Politics, however, weren’t really his thing, “I don’t belong to a political party – that way I can get out of here quickly.”

Pele’s goal against Italy, a thunderous header from a Rivellino lobbed cross, was the 100th goal Brazil had scored in World Cup finals. Great players, as they say, score great goals in the great games. Pele scored four goals and had six assists during the tournament, but his influence was felt on and off the pitch amongst the squad. His work off the ball dragged defenders out of position and created doubt in the best defences. He also scored in the opening group match against Czechoslovakia where Brazil found themselves behind after just 12 minutes. Rivellino had equalised with a scorching drive from Pelé’s free-kick, Brazil’s opening goal in the World Cup. Pelé then performed a feat of magic three minutes before half-time gave us one of the most memorable moments of the whole World Cup. Pelé was biding his time and no player as David Miller commented, is ever more dangerous when apparently doing nothing. Collecting a ball in the centre-circle out of defence, Pelé alone in the whole stadium realised that Viktor, the Czech ‘keeper, had come out of goal almost to the edge of the penalty area, as he watched the play from a distance, Pelé suddenly turned and hit a remarkable lofted shot all of 50 yards: for a split second no one understood what he was attempting, until Viktor was seen sprinting back towards his goal, looking up in the air over his shoulder like a man pursued by a vulture. The ball flew overhead and just wide. The crowd erupted in appreciation.

The next match against England was the confrontation of the past and present champions: a fascinating tactical duel punctuated by the flashes of individual mastery of Brazil and breath-taking defensive anticipation by England of Banks and Moore. Alan Mullery was given the man marking job on Pelé as he had done the year before when they met in Rio. Brazil were without Gérson and included Paulo Cézar.  Banks made the save which will never be forgotten. Jairzinho beat Cooper on the outside, cut into the line, and centred back and beyond the far post. Pele was waiting, coiled like spring beyond Mullery. Taking off with perfect timing, Pelé climbed up and up, seemed to hang in the air waiting and then with a fearsome snap from the waist headed down for the near post. It seemed a goal all the way, but somehow Banks, twisting back and down, reached the ball as it bounced inches in front of the goal0line and punched it up and round the post. It was a feat of agility difficult to believe and has been called the “save of the century”. Pele set up the only goal of the game scored by Jairzinho. Brazil scored from a movement often repeated during the finals and always menacing. Tostão drifted to the left, out on the edge of the penalty area, Pelé moving into the middle. As the defence came to cover, Tostão chipped the ball square into the middle, Pelé moved left controlling the ball in his stride. With velvet touch and peerless timing, Pelé slid the ball on to his right, in the now empty space into which Jairzinho was speeding. Jairzinho, who always belts the ball as hard as he can, shot close to Banks form the edge of the six-yard area. Mullery vainly attempting to cover behind Banks was left to pick the ball out of the net as Brazil did their dance of triumph.

Against Romania he scored twice. Rumania played an offensive, imaginative game, but could not match the individual talents of the opposition. Brazil scored twice early on, a magnificent free-kick by Pelé and shot by Jairzinho from Paulo Cesar, after which Rumania substituted their goalkeeper – a first for World Cup finals. Pele scored his second from a defensive blunder. Against Peru, Brazil dominated throughout and capable of scoring whenever they felt the need, their defence relaxing in between times with a sense of security which Peru were more than capable of proving false without having a hope a turning the result. Against Uruguay in the semi-final brazil again went behind to an early goal but in the end won scoring three, only takin the lead with a quarter-of-an-hour left. Putting Brazil ahead was the product of that incomparably formula: Pelé and Tostão contrived the opening, Tostão at the last minute slipping the ball to Jairzinho in full flight. Holding off the challenge of Mujica, he thrashed the ball past Mazurkiewicz, a repeat of the goal which had defeated England, and symbolic of Brazil’s recovery, now not far away. Then Pelé, with taunting simplicity, enticed the defence before rolling the ball into the path of Rivellino, who scored with a scorching shot.

Pele was not quite finished. Chasing a through ball, and with Mazurkeiwicz racing out to meet him, he suddenly swerved away from the path of the ball, fooling the goalkeeper into going with him. Darting around Mazurkiewicz, Pelé then shot wide of an empty net: it was a final flourish which let Uruguay, not to mention the millions watching on television, know who was master. In the final Italy employed man-to-man marking but Brazil, in case everyone needed reminding, had two players, Pelé and Jairzinho, against whom one-to-one defensive cover is never safe. Brazil were next in front. Tostão tool a quick throw on the left, Rivellino swung and flighted the ball over 30m to the far post, and it was not the slightest use that Cagliari’s Pierluigi Cera was there in front of Pelé. The first half finished one-all but not before Pelé again had the ball in the net a fraction after the East German referee had blew for the break. In the second half the tide turned in Brazil’s favour. Gerson scored a scorcher on 65 minutes followed by Jairzinho’s seventh for the tournament when Gerson found Pelé with another lançamento, his precise laser-like distribution, who chested the ball into the path of the winger who took the ball on the half-volley with his shins and ran it into the net to make history as the only player to score in every match of a finals.

Then the crème-de-la-crème.  It typifies Brazil in Mexico that with just 3:27 minutes to go there was no thought of making the game safe by playing for time of sitting  back to defend a lead, Jairzinho weaved in from the left, slid the ball to Pelé; he held it for a couple of seconds, then, looking one way, rolled it the other, perfect for pace and angle, into the path of Carlos Alberto, who was going like a train down the outside. Carlos Alberto hit the ball low past Albertosi, and the crowd began streaming over the moat which is supposed to separate spectators from the pitch.’ After the final whistle he sat in the shower – reflecting on the long road from Trés Coraçōes, the small town in Minas Gerais, the only player to win three World Cups.

Next to Pelé was the moustachioed Roberto Rivellino of Corinthians nicknamed by Félix as Big Ears”. Initially brought in by Saldanha as a super-sub, he established himself as a crowd favourite during the qualifiers or eliminatorias (the elimination rounds). In the final match against Paraguay in front of 190,000 at the Maracanã the crowd were chanting his name Sao Paulo is a city built by Italians, his heritage. It is Brazil’s equivalent of Chicago. A Brazilian joke is that God made São Paulo so ugly people would want to go to work every day. He grew up playing futebol de salão a game usually played indoors on a hard pitch the size of a basketball court and with a ball smaller and heavier than normal. Players learn to think and act faster. Control and technique are improved by the fact that the ball rarely leaves the floor. By the time the good salão player graduates to the full-size version, he should have a clear advantage.

A star of São Paulo’s futebol de salão league he moved first to Palmeiras (the team of the Italians) but shone with Corinthians where he spent hours perfecting a lethal armoury of bater falta – free-kicks to become an expert in dead ball situations. Gérson’s left foot may have been more precise but Rivellino’s was the most spectacular. At school he said one of his shot’s knocked out a class-mate. Almost wholly left-footed, he had a rapid rise through the game. As well as shooting he possessed a flair for Garrincha-style dribbling, which with his high-octane style made him a favourite with the Corinthian crowds. He was also a fantastic dribbler. His famous dribble was the elastica (or flip-flap or “akka” in Surinamese which means “hook”), which comes in various forms and was later adopted by Ronaldinho, Maradona and Messi. Rivellino himself though attributes the move’s invention to a former futsal teammate, Sergio Echigo a Japanese-Brazilian midfielder and highly technical.

Superstitious – his moustache was the product of his conviction Brazil would not lose while he refused to shave (his wife then told him to keep it) In Mexico, Rivellino played vaguely on the left as he also favoured the ponta da lança, a Portuguese term for an advanced attacking midfielder as was Tostão with Pelé not really a conventional centre-forward. Playing on the left in midfield it would be wrong to describe him though as an outside-left. Tactically for Brazil it was 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-4, even 4-5-1 and it was none of these. At the player’s meeting before Mexico it was determined Rivellino would adapt to a dual role as a covering midfielder whilst attacking on both wings, but it varied. He scored Brazil’s opening goal at Mexico against the Czechs, a scorching drive from Pelé’s free-kick. He played against England but was then rested against Romania where Botafogo’s Paulo Cézar Lima made his second appearance for the injured Gérson with Wilson Piazza reverting to his usual midfield position for Rivellino.  Against Peru he again scored Brazil’s first goal whipping a fearsome free-kick in off the post. In the match he and Pelé dropped back to provide cover in a 4-4-2. He got the third against Uruguay with a minute of regulation time left when Pelé rolled a pass into his path and he finished with another scorching shot.

On the thick, greasy Azteca pitch he slipped all over the place largely because of the moulded rubber studs. Of his 12 shots in that match only one was on target – because of the altitude the ball tended to go up, “It was terrible,” he reflected. He set-up the first goal in the 30th minute, when he lobbed in a cross from a Tostão throw-in for Pelé to score with a whiplash header at the far post. “Pelé was up there waiting. It was an incredible thing.” Rivellino’s clashes with Mario Bertini, Italy’s defensive midfielder and chief ball winner, took on an abrasive edge and there’s a famous photo of him being hacked by the floored Cagliari defender. He was booked at the end of the first half in the final for protesting Brazil’s disallowed goal. After the Final he said he passed out and had to be helped to the dressing room by Marco Antonio. After football, he and his family set up football schools, where Brazilians now learn football, by drill rather than by instinct. Apart from Pelé, Rivellino is probably the most wealthy and successful of the surviving members of the 1970 side.

To be continued …