Inside scoop #2! Meet Zagallo!

May 3rd, 2006 | by: Euler Costa | Comments(2)

What did Parreira said? Who is in the 23 group to be taken to Germany??? Calm down, man! Zagallo is a central figure in the Brazilian football scenario! He is now 74 years old and we must respect his white head of hair. Seriously! He won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups as a player, the 1970 World Cup as coach and the 1994 World Cup as assistant coach. He led Brazil to the 1998 final game as coach and now he is once more the assistant coach of our team.

He was the most enthusiastic of the three, however he was also the first to say that we are considered favorites by “everyone else”, but “we will be humble facing our enemies at the competition”. My personal fear is about our favoritism, and I was glad to hear him saying “It’s us against the rest of the world. Any little mistake can be fatal, so we must be cautious all the time in the World Cup”. He also said “There are no stars in our team. The star is the team! No one is bigger than anyone”. Someone asked what should be done to avoid the high-heel effect. His answer was cheered by the crowd: “We’ll cut the heels off”.

When asked if he would wear an Argentinean shirt to a TV commercial Zagallo was ironic: “I don’t dream in blue and white. My dream is realistic, green and yellow”. People cheered! Then he added, “Argentina is great too, but the difference is that we have five titles and they have only two”. All the three guys were in a very good mood, sometimes hinting jokes at each other.

About Adriano’s performance in the Inter Milan he used humor again, saying “I’m not worried. He is a Brazilian surrounded by Argentineans. It’s a completely different matter when he is inside the Brazilian family. I hope Adriano crushes* everyone at the World Cup”. *He used the verb “estraçalhar” that is a mix between to massacre and to squash.

The funniest aspect of Zagallo is that he has a well humored affair with the number ‘13’. “It all started when I was a little kid and my father paid for my football lessons. It was just a hobby then. In the meanwhile I studied five years in primary school, one in ‘admission’, four more in high school and additional three majoring in accounting technician… 5 + 1 + 4 + 3 equals 13. So this matter comes a long way”. Then he added some other accounting/philosophical pearls to his collection:

- I was born in (19)31, that’s 13 reversed.

- I started playing with the number 10 shirt… Pele’s shirt? Oh no, I must think big! I must get to the National Team! Then I got the number 11 shirt. Because of my wife I started using the number 13 on my shirt, since she was devoted to Saint Anthony of the July 13th… if you start thinking about all these coincidences… our coach’s name, Carlos Alberto also has 13 letters… use your fingers to count it!…

At this time Parreira said: “You stay at home thinking about that math, don’t you?” Everybody laughed, of course. Then Zagallo continued:
- I also used to say “Vamos que vamos!” (something like ‘Let’s go as we go!’). You can count in your fingers too… 13 again!
- Our fist game will be at June the 13th! I swear I didn’t ask for it!

About to finish his participation he said that he was a real ‘dribbler’ when he finally got to the Flamengo team. His new coach then said “Don’t dribble, unless it is absolutely necessary”. Zagallo thought his world just collapsed, but he learnt a lesson. There is always someone more experienced than you. You must be humble to listen.

He is a very experienced man and at the end of the interview he said “I can’t tell all my life here, or you all won’t have dinner and will sleep very late at night”. It wasn’t easy to take a picture with him, but he was very kind to everyone and I got my picture as well.