Brazilian football mourns the loss of its icon Mario Zagallo. The former world champion died at the age of 92, as the family announced on Zagallo’s Instagram account on Saturday night (local time). Brazilian football is mourning “one of its greatest legends,” said association president Ednaldo Rodrigues, according to a statement from the CBF association. The CBF ordered seven days of mourning in Zagallo’s honor and a minute’s silence before the weekend’s games.
Zagallo won the World Cup alongside the legend Pelé in 1958 and 1962, and in 1970 he led the Seleção to their third title as national coach. He was the first man to win the World Cup as both a player and a coach. Later, Franz Beckenbauer and the Frenchman Didier Deschamps also achieved this.
In 1994, as assistant to national coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, Zagallo was also instrumental in Brazil’s fourth World Cup title and then took over as national coach for a second time. In 1997 he won the Copa America with the team, and a year later the Brazilians were defeated by France in the World Cup final. After Pelé’s death at the end of 2022, Zagallo was the last living member of the 19958 World Cup team.
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“I want to thank you for everything, because I owe a lot of what happened in my life and with the Seleção to you,” Pelé said to Zagallo on the occasion of his 90th birthday. And Ronaldo said: “I have had many important coaches, but Zagallo was without a doubt the best of them all.”
Zagallo was a “devoted father, loving grandfather, caring father-in-law, loyal friend, successful professional and a great person,” says the family’s statement, which praised the former national player as a “great idol.”
