Strangely enough, a day apart saw the passing of two football personalities who were the first to be able to win World Cup both as player and manager: Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer. Didier Deschamps of France is the other footballer who was a World Cup winner as player and manager.
Brazil’s Mario Zagallo - No
one man can boast more success at the World Cup than Brazilian Mario Zagallo,
who died at the weekend at the age of 92. Zagallo played alongside a
17-year-old Pele in the 1958 final as Brazil won the title for the first of
three times in 12 years in 1958 with a 5-2 victory over hosts Sweden, and
repeated the feat four years later in Chile, when they beat Czechoslovakia 3-1
in the final. He was the coach of Brazil
by the time arguably the greatest side to have graced the competition completed
a treble in 1970 with a 4-1 demolition of Italy in Mexico City.
West Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer – or ‘Der Kaiser’ as he was known to his adoring
fans – suffered the disappointment of losing to England in the 1966 final at
Wembley, a game in which he and the late Sir Bobby Charlton famously cancelled
each other out only for Geoff Hurst to score a hat-trick.
The Germans, who ended England’s title defence at the quarter-final stage in
Mexico four years later, had to wait until 1974 for captain Beckenbauer to get
his hands on the trophy on home soil, bouncing back from Johann
Neeskens’ early penalty to beat the Netherlands 2-1 in the final. He repeated
the feat as a coach in 1990 when, with his side having edged out England on
penalties in the semi-finals, Andreas Brehme’s penalty saw Germany brush off Argentina at
Rome’s Stadio Olimpico. May they both rest in peace.
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