Brazilian football legend Mario Zagallo, who won four World Cups as a player, has passed away at the age of 92. Zagallo, who played as a winger, was part of back-to-back World Cup winning squads of 1958 and 1962. He started in both the finals. (More Football News)
Zagallo stopped playing professionally in 1965 and began his coaching career with Rio de Janeiro club Botafogo the following year. Moreover, he also managed the Pele-led Brazilian team that also included the likes of Carlos Alberton and Jairzinho, to World Cup glory in 1970.
Zagallo's final World Cup glory came in 1994 as an assistant coach to Carlos Alberto's side. Zagallo returned to maangement and led them to the 1998 final, where Ronaldo and co. were beaten by Zinedine Zidane's mercurial France.
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Zagallo is the first person in football history to win the World Cup as a player and manager - a feat that has since been matched by Germany's Franz Beckenbauer and France's Didier Deschamps.
Zagallo was hospitalized for more than a month in 2005 after undergoing stomach surgery. Four years earlier he was placed under medical care for an irregular heartbeat while coaching Flamengo.
He spent 12 days in a hospital just before the 2014 World Cup because of a back infection, released just in time to watch the opening match. He served in an ambassadorial role for that tournament. Zagallo was hospitalized for 22 days in August of last year due to a urinary infection. Upon his return to his home in Rio, he was filmed in a wheelchair.
“We are stronger than ever!,” he said then in a posting on his social media channels, which ended in his career motto. “You will have to put up with me!”
(With AP inputs)
