Michael Batson

Brazil won the World Cup in 1970 with a team that is widely regarded as the best side ever to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy. The national team in 1970 had two managers: João Saldanha followed by Mário Zagallo, the latter a protégé of the former, both of whom enjoyed a long association with Botafogo FC. Saldanha had been a player, coach, sporting director, and then chairman of the team in the black and white stripes; while Zagallo was a player for over a decade, and following his retirement from playing, also became their manager. These two managers each played a critical role in Brazil becoming World Champions for an unprecedented third time.

Saldanha was widely credited with building the Brazil squad that qualified unbeaten for the World Cup. He assembled the greatest international side ever with some of the world’s greatest players, while Zagallo is thought of by some as being a modest coach who was just in the right place at the right time, and was only offered the Brazil job after two other managers had turned the job down. Saldanha left his managerial role at Botafogo in protest at transfer decisions made to a Botafogo team dubbed “The Immortals”. He returned to journalism; while Zagallo juggled club football with the national team and enjoyed the greatest success of any caretaker coach, becoming a world champion. The two were polar opposites in many ways: Saldanha was highly principled, political, and outspoken with a modest playing career behind him. He was also volatile. Zagallo on the other hand, was quiet, reserved, kept his views to himself, and was to become the first man to win the World Cup as both a player and as a manager.

João Saldanha was Brazil’s manager from February 1969 until he was sacked just over one year later in March 1970. Brazil is a country with a history of football writers cum philosophers with high public profiles. Among Saldanha’s contemporaries there was Mario Filho (after whom Rio’s Maracanã stadium is officially named), Armãndo Nogueira, Nelson Rodrigues, João Máximo (Saldanha’s biographer and author who specialised in football and music), and Washington Rodrigues (known as Apolinho) who were all household names, all the more remarkably so because none played the game at a high level. They are seen not so much as football writers but as intellectuals whose specialist subject is football. Saldanha was held in awe by many off the field but also on the field being widely credited with the Brazil team of 1970 being his creation.

Nicknamed “Fearless João” by Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodriques, (whose brother championed the building of the Maracanã) his informal style and direct manner of addressing his audience had brought him huge national popularity. He often criticised players, managers, and teams, and was a member of then-illegal Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro or PCB) for which he was imprisoned more than once.His politics and his role as national coach brought him into direct conflict with Brazil's right-wing military rulers in a battle for the heart and soul of Brazil; as the ruling junta had seized on the country's passion for the game as a means of making their rule more popular.

João Alves Jobin Saldanha was born in Alegrete, a town in Rio Grande do Sul in the very south of Brazil, near the border with Paraguay. His family were involved in the last of the great civil wars in the state, the Revolution of 1923, called “A Libertadora” (“The Liberator”), which sought to end the rule of Borges de Medeiros who had ruled the state for 25 years and overthrow the pastoral oligarchs. The revolt failed following the intervention of well-armed paramilitaries, and the family fled moving to several cities before settling in Curitiba where the young João got a taste for football. He started watching training sessions at local side Athletico Paranaense, as the Saldanha family lived nearby. The family later returned Rio Grande do Sul where Saldanha’s father allied himself to Getúlio Vargas, thought by many to be the most influential Brazilian politician of the 20^th Century.

When the latter became Brazil’s president in 1930, the family moved to Rio de Janeiro. The young Saldanha then joined the Brazilian Communist Party where he became a prominent figure. He played professional football for Botafogo but also graduated in law at the University of Brazil (now the Universidade Federal de Rondonópolis, the UFR). He also studied journalism and became one of the most distinguished Brazilian sports writers, starting his career in 1960 (others also claimed that Saldanha was a linguist, an economist with a degree at Prague University, and a war correspondent). Encouraged by friends and his wife at the time, he accepted an invitation to audition to join Rádio Guanabara (now Bandeirantes AM) which hired him and never looked back. From then on, he achieved national fame on the Nacional, Globo, Tupi and Jornal do Brasil radio stations, TV Rio, Manchete and Globo where he presented his sports commentary programme Dois Minutos with João Saldanha, and wrote columns in the newspapers: Ultima Hora, O Globo, Jornal do Brasil and Placar magazine. With all his football experience, he didn't mince words when criticizing players, coaches and managers, winning over fans and foes alike.

For two years from 1939 he was the interpreter at Botafogo for the Hungarian manager Izidor “Dori” Kurschner, who had enjoyed great success coaching in Switzerland before moving to Brazil, first with Flamengo and then later Botafogo. It was he who taught Saldanha much about football tactics. From 1944, he was Botafogo’s football director with a break from 1949-1956 when he operated as clandestine leader of the PCB after which, in 1957 and despite a lack of experience, he was appointed manager of Botafogo. In a foreshadowing of his later appointment as national coach, Botafogo reportedly offered him the manager’s job because they were fed-up with his constant criticism of the team. In his second season as manager the club won the Rio state championship following an historic victory over Fluminense 6-2 in 1959. The derby with Fluminense is known as the “Clássico Vovô” (Grandfather Derby) because it is the oldest derby in the whole country. However, following the victory Saldanha resigned from the club in protest at the sale of the great midfield generalissimo Didi to Real Madrid (though he returned a year later) and prolific goal scorer Paulo Angelo Valentim to Boca Juniors. Arguably, he may not have lasted long anyway, having made a lot of enemies with both the players and directors. Following his departure, he returned to journalism.

 After the embarrassing failure of Brazil at the 1966 World Cup (the fracasso or the shame of 1966 as it was known), where they were dumped out as two-time world champions in the group stage, Brazil had some 12 managers in three years. Some took charge for just a solitary match and some held the position more than once, all of which drew the ire of Saldhanha and other commentators. In the end, much like his earlier club managerial appointment, he himself was appointed to the top job by João Havelange on the rationale it was said, that other journalists would be far less likely to criticise the national team, and by extension Havelange himself, if one of their own was in charge. It remained to be seen if he would have the last laugh. Saldanha succeeded Aymoré Moreira as Brazil’s national coach on 4 February 1969. Moreirra has been the coach for the previous two years but matches during his tenure were also overseen by other coaches including: Antoninho (Benedicto Antonio Angeli, two matches), Biju (one match), Dorival Knippel or Yustrich (one), and Zagallo (one match in August 1969 against Argentina).

Saldanha cut a somewhat emaciated figure physically due in part to his chain-smoking 50-a-day habit and looked barely strong enough to survive the microscopic goldfish-bowl existence the coach of Brazil’s national team must endure. Appearances, however, can be deceptive. He wasn’t one to be taken lightly something those who crossed swords with him quickly found out. Unlike other commentators Saldanha had managed before. He was outspoken, articulate, multi-lingual, and volatile. He regularly challenged journalists to fist fights and was known to pack a loaded firearm – a Colt .32 apparently made from Mexican gold. When managing at club level, he pulled the pistol on a rival team’s goalkeeper who had accused him of taking a bribe.

Saldanha wanted goals and built his team around a midfield or meio de campo of Gérson of Botafogo and Wilson Piazza of Cruzeiro, with Jairzinho on the right wing, Edu of Santos on the left and Tostão as the key supply link. Pelé back in the squad would play centre-forward. He also brought in Paulo Cézar of Flamengo and the rising star from Corinthians of Sao Paulo, Rivellino. He prioritised talent over tactics and favoured a 4-2-4 system. Unlike now their squad was made up of entirely Brazil based players but much like now there were none from the north. Gerson saw Saldanha as a kindred spirit, they both being from Botafogo, and both smoked heavily. As Brazil coach, Saldanha’s basic idea was to assemble all the best players and let them get on with it. On the day he was appointed, 4 February 1969, he announced two teams; his first team and his reserve team. the team that won the World Cup 16 months later was the first team he named that day, plus three moved up from the reserves. He based his squad around players from Santos and Corinthians from São Paulo State, Cruzeiro from Belo Horizonte, and his former club Botafogo taking advantage of the players’ rapport in their respective clubs.

His starting line-up for the World Cup qualifying rounds in July and August 1969 against Colombia, Paraguay, and Venezuela was: Félix (Fluminense – GK); and backline of Carlos Alberto, Joel Camarga, Djilma Dias, and Rildo (all Santos); a midfield of Gérson (Botafogo) and Wilson Piazza (Cruzeiro); and a potent forward line of: Jairzinho (Botafogo), Pelé (Santos), Tostão (Cruzeiro) and Edu (Santos). Paulo Cezar (Botafogo) made two substitute appearances and Brito (Flamengo), Lula in goal and Rivellino (both Corinthians, and Everaldo (Gremio) all made one substitute appearance each. The qualifying rounds were an outstanding success with a rampant Brazil scored 23 goals while conceding just two. Their home matches were played to near capacity crowds in the giant Maracanã Stadium in Rio which then had a capacity of 200,000 – the crowds pumped with expectation of victory and competing once again to be world champions.

Saldanha’s first match in charge of the national team before the qualifiers, however, was against a Peru side in Porto Alegre on 7 April 1969 coached by the Botafogo great Didi, who Saldanha knew well, and which Brazil won 2-1. The team that day featured seven of the players who would play in the World Cup final the following year. Two days later in Rio at the Maracanã, they again played Peru this time winning 3-2. In June at the Maracanã they faced world champions England, who had lost on their three previous visits. England modified their 4-4-2 so that one of the middle line of four was defensive, so 4-1-3-2, that defensive player was Alan Mullery who played Pelé with some success just as he would a year later in their World Cup encounter in Guadalajara. England eventually lost the match 2-1 after Colin Bell scored after only 14 minutes. England held on until the last 10 minutes when Tostão levelled before setting up Jairzinho for the winner. One month later they thrashed a Sergipe State Team 8-2 in Aracaju, in Brazil’s northeast. On 13 July they again won handsomely against a Pernambuco State Team, in Recife (6-2) with a hattrick from the young rising star of Santos, Edu. Then came the last of the friendlies before the World Cup qualifiers began, a game against Milionarios in Bogotá.

In total ten countries from South America competed for just three places at the 1970 World Cup finals. Brazil’s South American qualifying group included: Colombia, a powerful Paraguay, and a less threatening Venezuela. Brazil would be playing their last matches in their old shirts, with fold down collars before moving to round collars as part of their specially designed kit for the World Cup. Qualifying matches were played over August 1969 on a home and way basis. All Brazil’s home matches were played at the mighty Maracanã Stadium in Rio, the world’s largest football stadium. Their first three matches were all away. They beat Colombia 2-0 at altitude in Bogotá, with Tostão scoring both goals. Over the course of the qualifying matches he would emerge a star and be Brazil’s top scorer. He would get a hattrick in the next match against Venezuela in Caracas, Brazil winning 5-0. A week later, on 17 August, came an expected much tougher test but Brazil beat Paraguay 3-0, one of which was an own goal, in Asuncion. Brazil were half way through the qualifying, had scored 10 goals

and conceded none. They returned home to play their matches in the Maracanã in front of wildly expectant support.

They comfortably beat Colômbia in the return leg 6-2, Tostão scoring another brace. Three days later at the same venue they put another six past Venezuela. Then finally, on the last day of August, they clinched World Cup qualification beating Paraguay 1-0 in front of 183,000 fans. During the qualifiers Saldanha played a 4-2-4 system, and deployed two wingers, Jairzinho and Edu of Santos. Félix was Saldanha’s first choice goalkeeper in the away qualifying World Cup group two matches in 1969 against first Colombia, then Venezuela and then Paraguay where he kept three cleans sheets. Saldanha fused style with organisation and in Pelé and Tostão unearthed a goalscoring partnership. Tostão proved the perfect foil for Pelé, neither were orthodox centre-forwards, and the Cruzeiro man deftly linked Brazil’s star player with the Botafogo winger, Jairzinho.

A mere three days after World Cup qualification was secured Brazil lost a friendly against Atlético Mineiro in Belo Horizonte. The national team did not play again until March 1970 when they lost badly in Porto Alegre against Argentina in the first of two matches. Responding to a question by an Argentina journalist about Dario the Atlético Mineiro forward who had scored in that club’s match with Brazil, Saldanha responded saying he thought Tostão and Roberto Lopes Miranda of Botafogo were better. It is said that that any body who says that football has nothing to do with politics knows nothing about sport and even less about politics. Dario was a favourite of Brazil’s military rule, General Médici who, soon after his arrival in power, had invited the team for lunch at the Presidential Palace but Saldanho refused to alter the training schedule to allow the players to go. It is reported that Saldanha, after being told that President Médici would be pleased to see Dario in the team, answered, "well, I also have some suggestions to give in the President's ministry choices". The last straw came when the assistant manager resigned, saying that Saldanha was impossible to work with. Saldanha apparently did little to foster loyalty within the clubs and the Brazilian Sports Confederation, the CBD. Brazil won the next match at the Maracanã but played badly and left the field to boos and whistles. He had also made an enemy of Pelé, and said he was considering dropping the great man. Days later he was removed on the ground of “emotional instability”. The Argentina captain in those matches referred to Brazil team as the worst he’d ever faced, yet this was almost the same side that had romped through the World Cup qualifiers just months before.

With qualification secure the team seemed to go off the boil and Saldanha seemed powerless to turn things around. Saldanha had toured Europe in the autumn of 1969, to watch the World Cup qualifying games in many countries where he waged a propaganda war, stressing the physical extreme to which some of the Europeans had progressed in their ‘preparations’. He hit on the idea of bigger, heavier players to combat the physical game of the Europeans. The team began playing badly losing a friendly to Argentina. Tostão suffered a detached retina (he was struck in the face by a ball playing against Corinthians from which he never fully recovered, he eventually retired aged just 27) and was doubtful for Mexico. Saldanha himself was alluding darkly to “political pressures” on him. There were also rumours that he did not properly understand physical preparation and that there were some disagreements with the coaching staff about the conduct of training.

Theories still abound on precisely why he was removed only weeks before his team were due to travel to the Mexican retreat of at Guanajuato, 60 miles east of Guadalajara, where he planned to spend two months knocking his final team into shape. At this time Yustrich, the Flamengo manager and former national coach, criticised him in the most insulting terms. In response, Saldanha took his revolver to Flamengo’s ground looking for him (he didn’t find him but scared a young goalkeeper on trial so badly he left the club). His last match in charge was a 1-1 draw against Rio club team Bangu on 14 March 1970 in which Bangu conceded an own goal, so Brazil failed to even score. Saldanha then caused a furore by suggesting Pelé’s eyesight was failing (he wore glasses for reading) and said he would be rested for the next match. Three days later he was sacked by the Brazilian Sports Confederation.

He had been at the helm for a total of 17 matches. After his sacking, Saldanha went back to his journalistic career even covering the 1970 World Cup for TV Globo, the largest television network in Latin America. He was also outspoken in a country then ruled by a brutal military dictatorship of which he was opposed to politically. Football they said during the years of military rule, became a way for people to communicate without risking arrest, torture, or worse. Brazil’s military dictatorship ruled for 21 years (1964-1985) seizing power in a coup overthrowing a democratically elected government with the help of the CIA.

The apex of military rule came under General Emilio Garrastazu Médici (1969-74). A brutal but astute politician, he understood the media and the emerging power of television as a weapon of mass manipulation. In 1960 only 9.5 percent of urban homes in Brazil had TV, but by 1970 it was 40 percent. When Médici took office, Brazil had 45 licensed TV stations. His government issued 20 new licenses, and in the process greatly aided the growth of the O Globo network. By 1970 his propaganda body – AERP, Assessoria Especial de Relaçoes Publicas – had transformed his face into the most famous in Brazil after Pelé. Médici was also a football fanatic. He was a familiar face at the Maracanã where he would sit on the terraces without bodyguards, cheering on his favourite side Flamengo. He had begun influencing club policy. He was instrumental in negotiations to bring his favourite payer Dario to Flamengo from Atletico Mineiro and then Paulo Cezar from Botafogo. Joao Saldanho was hardly going to be a favourite of the right-wing militarists having been an outspoken communist sympathizer in his youth.

Later a story would develop that Saldanha was sacked for his politics. Brazil was then run by a right-wing military dictatorship who didn’t want an eloquent communist representing them in Mexico (they wanted to look good if Brazil won so they could take the credit). The reality, however, was more complicated. Both Saldanha and Médici were from the same state (Rio Grande do Sul) and supported the same club. Both were football fans (Médici had played to a moderate level). Despite the political chasm between them Médici was reputedly an admirer of Saldanha What seems most likely is Saldanha realised things were going against him and rather than suffer public humiliation engineered a crisis to cover his exit. Nelson Rodrigues, the prominent playwrite, said the Saldanha episode is swamped by political overtones – it was a highly politicised time. The press was heavily censored, and nobody could say anything about the government. Football was sometimes used as code for talking about politics.

Saldanha returned to journalism where he was prolific, often responsible for some famous quotes about football and the Brazilian way of life like; “Brazilian football is something played with music”. Later Saldanha covered other World Cups including in 1974 in West Germany working for Manchete, another Brazilian network. In 1985, the year military rule in Brazil ended, he was a candidate on the PCB ticket for mayor of Rio de Janeiro, a bid headed by lawyer Marcelo Cerqueira. At the end of his life, he was one of the biggest critics of the Europeanization of Brazilian football, with the adoption of more defensive schemes and the loss of some of our main characteristics, such as skilful and attacking play. Saldanha died aged 73 in Italy of emphysema in hospital while covering the 1990 World Cup.

The site of the Estádio General Severiano is today home to a training ground, inaugurated in 2004, and named Centro de Treinamento João Saldanha in his honour. Also, from 2004, the winners of the second half of the Campeonato Braziliero Serie A are awarded the Troféu João Saldanha given by the newspaper Lance!

João Alves Jobin Saldanha (3 July 1917 -12 July 1990).