Brazilians paid their final respects on Sunday to soccer legend Mario Zagallo, a four-time World Cup-winning participant and coach who died at age 92 and was the ultimate member of one of many nation’s best generations within the beloved sport. A gradual stream of mourners — wearing black, and the yellow of the Brazilian nationwide workforce or the colours of the quite a few golf equipment the place Zagallo performed and coached — filed previous his coffin on the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), whose facade sported an enormous banner in his honor.

On show close to the lace-draped coffin had been football-mad Brazil’s document 5 World Cup trophies. Zagallo, a diminutive left-wing recognized for his tactical brilliance, had a hand in successful 4 of them, greater than anybody in soccer historical past.

The “Professor,” as he was recognized, performed alongside Pele in Brazil’s 1958 and 1962 World Cup-winning groups.

He then coached the 1970 world champion facet starring Pele — thought-about by many the best workforce in historical past — and served as assistant coach when the “Selecao” repeated the feat in 1994.

“We’ve lost a sporting legend,” stated Bebeto, a member of the 1994 workforce.

“He was my second father,” he instructed journalists — a phrase echoed by fellow World Cup champion Cafu (1994 and 2002).

Others paying their respects included former Brazil coach Tite and CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues, who gave an emotional embrace to Zagallo’s son Mario Cesar.

‘Only one Zagallo’

Claudio Auvarenga, a 64-year-old driver, arrived early to be among the many first to file previous the casket.

“You can travel the world, you’ll only find one Zagallo. No one else in history won four World Cups,” he instructed AFP.

Zagallo’s longtime assistant, Eliana Gaia, 66, known as him a “human being without equal.”

“He was a magnificent person, a hero,” she stated.

After the general public wake and a non-public mass, Zagallo’s casket was hoisted atop a shiny crimson hearth truck for a funeral cortege by way of the streets of Rio de Janeiro, as a small crowd of followers applauded and cheered.

He was then buried at Sao Joao Batista cemetery, the ultimate resting place of a few of Brazil’s most well-known residents.

Zagallo died Friday of a number of organ failure, after struggling a collection of well being issues in latest months.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of nationwide mourning from Saturday.

Tributes have additionally poured in from the soccer world.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino known as Zagallo a “tactical genius,” World Cup winners Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Romario paid homage, and present Brazil and Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior merely known as him “LEGEND.”

The solely different males to win the World Cup as each participant and coach are Franz Beckenbauer of Germany (1974 and 1990) and Didier Deschamps of France (1998 and 2018).

Nostalgia for glory days

Beloved in Brazil for each his soccer heroics and outsize character, Zagallo is remembered for his heat humor, deep superstition — he swore by the quantity 13 — and combative ardour for the sport.

He was the final surviving starter from the workforce that received Brazil’s first World Cup in 1958, after the legendary Pele died in December 2022 at age 82.

The loss comes at a tough second in Brazilian soccer.

Brazil sacked nationwide workforce coach Fernando Diniz on Friday after the “Selecao,” taking part in with out injured star Neymar, suffered a humiliating string of losses in World Cup qualifiers.

Brazil are at present a lowly sixth place in South American qualifying.

Sao Paulo coach Dorival Junior has been named to take over the Brazil job, the membership stated Sunday — although the CBF didn’t instantly verify.

CBF chief Rodrigues — who was simply reinstalled within the job Thursday amid a messy authorized battle over management of the confederation — instructed journalists on the wake he “just want(ed) to talk about Zagallo today.”

“This is a time to talk about this legend of Brazilian and world football,” he stated.

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