Carlos Alberto, who has died of a heart attack aged 72, captained Brazil to victory in the 1970 World Cup, scoring the most sublime goal in the history of “the beautiful game” when the greatest team to have graced the tournament won the trophy outright.
The seeds of Brazil’s triumph were sown in England in 1966 when the side were outmuscled by European opposition despite their technical superiority. Carlos Alberto, who had made his international debut two years before in a 5-1 drubbing of England at the Maracana, had been unexpectedly omitted from the squad.
The experience toughened him still further and he became such a commanding presence in the dressing room that the new manager, Mário Zagallo, made him captain at 22. Aware that the next tournament would be played at altitude in Mexico, the Brazilians worked hard at their fitness in the months before.
Moreover, perhaps for the first time they began to play as a unit. With the side based around players from Santos – Carlos Alberto and Pelé’s club – they won all their qualifying fixtures. They then advanced in similar style to the World Cup final against Italy, having beaten holders England at the group stage in the match remembered for Gordon Banks’s save.
Italy had defeated West Germany 4-3 in extra time in the semi-final, but were simply dismantled by the sorcerers in gold and green. Leading 3-1, Brazil capped their performance with an unforgettable goal. On the edge of the penalty area, Pelé rounded off the eight-man move with a blind pass for the overlapping Carlos Alberto, galloping up from right back, to score with a fulminating shot.
A few minutes later, the captain was raising aloft the Jules Rimet trophy. It was Brazil’s third triumph in the competition, one which allowed them to keep the cup and brought legendary status to “o capitão” in his homeland. On his death, the Brazilian football federation declared three days of public mourning.
Carlos Alberto Torres was born in Rio de Janeiro on July 17 1944. His father worked as a mechanic and, too poor to afford a football, young Carlinhos learned the game on the streets using old socks stuffed with newspaper. An older brother was already on the books of Fluminense, one of Rio’s main clubs, and Carlos Alberto followed him there at 16. Their father wanted them to become doctors and strongly opposed their choosing a career which then paid little and in Brazil was associated with the slums.
But while his brother opted for work in a bank, Carlos Alberto’s talent was such that at 18 he was chosen for the Olympic team which went on to win gold in Tokyo. The following season he made his debut at full-back for Fluminense. The team claimed the regional championship that year – Brazil was so large that it then had no national league – and Carlos Alberto was hailed for both his marauding attacks and aggressive tackling.
In 1966 he moved teams to Santos, playing alongside Pelé, Gilmar and Coutinho. The side won the Sao Paulo championship four times in the next six years. Carlos Alberto made 445 appearances for the club, scoring 40 goals, before returning to Fluminense in 1974. Although he won two more titles there, he missed that year’s World Cup with a knee injury.
This led to a loss of pace, and when he was recalled to international football in 1977 it was at centre-back. Though he acquitted himself well in qualifying for the World Cup, he decided to retire from the national side after 53 caps and moved to New York to play for the Cosmos. There he was reunited with Pelé, became great friends with Franz Beckenbauer, and won three NASL titles as well as being voted the league’s best player.
After hanging up his boots in 1983, he became a manager, although like many of his contemporaries he never matched his achievements on the pitch. Of the dozen clubs of which he took charge over the next two decades, he enjoyed most success with Flamengo. With Zico inspiring them, they became national champions in 1983. The next season, Carlos Alberto won the Rio regional title with Fluminense.
Later he coached Oman and Azerbaijan. In 2005, soon after the latter had lost to Sven Eriksson’s England at St James’s Park, he resigned following defeat by Poland, having attacked a referee and made claims that the match was fixed.
He became a commentator in Brazil and latterly bemoaned the sterility of the national team’s play and urged young players to sleep with a ball as a pillow as proof of their dedication.
From 1989 until 1993, he was a local councillor in Rio and in 2008 a candidate for deputy mayor. In 1998, he had been one of three Brazilians named in Fifa’s team of the century, the others being Nilton Santos and Pelé.
He was married three times and is survived by his widow Graça and two sons of his first marriage.
Carlos Alberto, born July 17 1944, died October 25 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment