Arthur Antunes Coimbra, or simply Zico, the greatest idol in the history of Flamengo, turns 70 this Friday (3). What more can be said about this player, who in 1981 was chosen as the best in the world by Diário 16 (Spain newspaper) and Guerin Sportivo magazine (Italy), playing for a Brazilian team? A feat he repeated in 1983, at the time for World Soccer (England), at a time when there was not much exchange of information between football in Brazil and Europe. No wonder he is in the FIFA Hall of Fame. Zico lifts the 1981 Intercontinental Cup, disputed between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the Copa Libertadores. From the year 2000 FIFA began to organize the current Club World Championship – Zico/Personal Archive I could list the many championships that Galinho de Quintino – a neighborhood in the north of the city of Rio – helped to win, the total number of goals, the injuries he suffered and the times he entered the field injured so as not to harm the team – in one of them, in 1987, in the final stretch of the Copa União, he played in the last four games in sacrifice and operated on his knee the day after the victory about the International. Another unique situation was when he played for Rubro-Negro in Rio de Janeiro in the final of the 1983 Brasileirão, even though he was traded to Italian football. It would be worth remembering when Zico went to Udinese and shone in Italy. Then, passing through Japan, he became an idol, coach and even commander of the Japanese national team in the World Cup in Germany (2006). When Zico turned 60, I had the honor of being asked by the then director of Jornal dos Sports – a periodical printed in pink pages, which circulated until 2010 – to tell the story of the rubro-negro idol, having as a guiding principle the first pages from the newspaper. There were a total of 60 covers, chosen by Zico himself, from his debut in 1971 to his farewell in 1990. On the day of the release, I thanked him. “Now our lives have intersected forever.” Who would say! So why not talk about personal interaction? And there goes more than 40 years. In 1982 I was the reporter for Jornal dos Sports, and substituted for the sector reporters of each club when they were off duty. Monday was the day to take care of the Flamengo news, which I started to follow daily in 1983. In a short time I made friends – Mozer, Cantarelli, Júnior, Leandro, Tita, Lico, Andrade, Adílio (good weather, wasn’t it? ), but with Zico it was different. And not because of him, but out of respect for the guy who was the idol of that team. It is worth mentioning that, at a time when there were no cell phones, nor the current practice of taking pictures all the time, the day the photographer Jair Motta gave me a photo (18 x 24cm), in black and white, taken during a interview with Zico, at his house, I kept it like a trophy. Zico went to Italy, returned to Flamengo, stopped playing. And he once appeared on Copacabana beach, at the Beach Soccer World Cup. I received him and we walked to the playing field and, as he spoke, he gave me a hug. I stopped at the time and he asked what had happened. “You must be kidding, right?”, I asked him, who even got scared. “Why?”. “Gee Zico, you’re my idol, I’m tired of being there in the stands screaming your name. And you give me a hug in front of everyone? I confess that it remains an unforgettable day. Zico beside the journalist Sergio du Bocage, author of the book ’60 covers’, which tells the story of the red-black idol, having as a guiding thread the front pages of Jornal dos Sports – Zico/Personal collection Galinho de Quintino opens his heart Zico that’s how it is: simple in acts, a serious guy who doesn’t hide his feelings. He really became a friend, and every now and then I even abused this friendship. Like now. Forty minutes of conversation about what he almost never talks about. Or what he wanted to talk about. “As a coach, I don’t remember being asked about my preferred game formation, the 4-4-2. With him, the team is more balanced, with conditions to block better. Every team I put together I try to implement this system, which compacts the team”, details the ace, now coach. What a failure of ours as journalists! By the way, Zico fondly remembers the press coverage when he was a player. “I even bought five newspapers, each one said something, the journalists were looking for a different story, the scoop. Today everything is the same, the internet makes the news instantaneous and the newspaper, the next day, looks old, ”he complained. And it went ahead. “With me there is no such thing as ‘talking off’ [quando o repórter se compromete em não divulgar o que o entrevistado revelou]. If I’m talking to a journalist, he is free to publish. And I like the signed reports better, when the guy assumes what he’s writing. That one deserves more of my respect,” he says. There are so many awards and trophies throughout his career that Zico keeps a rich collection at his home in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, where he was interviewed – Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil Zico loves to talk about football. “If you suck, I even watch button football on TV”. But it’s when he talks about the family, which doesn’t stop growing, that the Rooster melts. Son of ‘Seu Antunes and Dona Matilde’, married to Sandra – “the great love of my life since 1975” – father of Arthur Júnior, Bruno and Thiago and grandfather of Felipe, Gabriel, Antônio, Arthur Neto, Alice, Larissa, Davi, Sofia and Tom, Galinho is not reluctant to say that “being a son, husband and father is good, but being a grandfather is much better”. “We arrive at a moment in life when we know what we can and cannot do, it’s easier. As a grandfather, we gather all the lived experiences, we can know how far we are going, what can be good or not for the grandson, and help the son in their education. And don’t come with this talk that grandfather diseducates. We educate with actions, with example. We give freedom for one thing or another, but up to the limit of right and wrong. Today’s children are observant. When they see that their grandfather doesn’t do a certain thing, they know that that is the right thing to do”, emphasizes the red-black idol. Father of three children, the arrival of Alice, the first girl in the family that Zico created with Sandra, was remarkable. “Look, I don’t have a preference for a grandson, but I confess that it’s very different when the grandson calls him ‘grandfather’ and the granddaughter ‘grandpa’“, she melts. Of course, football enters the conversation. What goal would you like to have scored in your career? And the answer is immediate: ““I just wanted to score the equalizing goal in that match against Italy, in 1982. chances. In the end, Oscar almost scored with a header, there were people thinking it was me in the bid. If I could go back in time, and score one more goal, it would be in that match. With a beak, with a shin, anyway “, assures “I just wanted to score the equalizing goal in that match against Italy, in 1982”, says Galinho de Quintino, who is part of the Brazilian team led at the time by coach Telê Santana – CBF Archive And which goal do you regret not having done? Another immediate response. “That’s an easy one to answer. The penalty against France, in the 1986 World Cup. That goal would put Brazil ahead, although there was still a game to go and France could draw, but I ended up taking the onus from that elimination. I live the same situation as Barbosa, from the 1950 World Cup. we live with it. Ten make mistakes, but only one turns the bull into a piranha. I accept this injustice coolly, it was a game error, like the goalkeeper’s chicken, the defender’s puncture. It wasn’t on purpose, it was a glitch in the game. I live with this situation very well, because I know that I am not to blame for the elimination ”, he emphasizes. Zico scored 854 goals, 525 recognized by FIFA, which puts him in 14th place among the greatest in the world. He even remembers each one of them in detail. And what he considers one of the most beautiful moments of his career – on May 11, 1974, the eve of Mother’s Day, against Grêmio, at Maracanã – has even greater significance. “It was beautiful and I was even able to honor my mother. Geraldo launched Vanderlei [Luxemburgo] and he crossed in measure. I took it with a volley, in the vein. When the goalkeeper jumped, the ball was already returning. If I got the ball wrong, it would end up in the stands. I joke with Luxa until today, saying that he is only remembered as a player by me, in this play. No one talks about him anymore”, teases Galinho with good humor. When it comes to important goals, Zico’s memory is even more immediate. “In the final against Grêmio, in the 1982 Brazilian Championship, we were losing 1-0 in Maracanã, and if there was a draw in the return game, in Porto Alegre, they would be champions. I scored at the very end and then we won the title in the South. But before that game, there was another one against Santos, in Morumbi. We won 2-1 in Rio and were losing 1-0 when Leandro ruled the area. I had my back turned and I headed it, turning my body, hoping Marola was in the middle of the goal. It worked, we tied and continued in the championship. But there is no doubt that, for me, the most important goal of my career was the second, from a free kick, against Cobreloa, in the Libertadores final. It was worth an unprecedented title, South American, allowed us to fight for the Worlds. Not to mention the war that was in the two previous games. It was an unforgettable campaign”, he recalls proudly. “I loved the nickname that Celso Garcia gave me: Alegria da Gávea. It’s a shame that it didn’t stick, it became more like Galinho de Quintino”, revealed Zico – Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil How unforgettable, too, are the funny stories. Well, we were doing a preliminary at Maracanã, the game started at 7:15 at night, the crowd only arrived during the break, they came from work. The stadium was almost empty, I think it was against Campo Grande, I don’t know. But Luís Paulo he scored the goal and left with his mouth open, screaming. Then the frog (mobile dental prosthesis) jumped. The crowd in general shouted at the time: ‘look at the frog’. We fell on top of him to celebrate, and he asked us move away, so as not to break the frog. He ended up finding it. Another happened to me, in a Flamengo x Vasco. It was raining and in a ball dispute with Orlando, my wedding ring fell off. It was a classic, there was no way I could look for it during the game, even more there next to the small area. When the match was over, I looked for the staff do Maracanã and asked them to look for it. I remember that they didn’t turn off the floodlights or turn on the irrigation system. On Wednesday, in the next game, they returned it to me in the locker room.” Zico was never one to fight on the field, despite having suffered some violent moves. “Edinho, one day, elbowed me and knocked out a tooth. Guina kicked me in the stomach, I went to complain and [árbitro] Wright kicked me out. What to do, right?”. But it was in a soccer match, in the interior of Minas Gerais, that the Flamengo star lost the line. “I went with Juventude, from Quintino, to participate in a soccer game in Leopoldina, on a dirt field. We always played these games on vacation. In the middle of their team’s field there was a guy with one arm, who played like shit. He dribbled everyone, he had skill. He was laying down! He came at me and I got together, I hit him, we fell one on each side”, he says with a laugh. “He got up cursing me, ordering me to take that place, but the funniest thing is that, even with just one hand, he made the gesture. First, with an open hand, he gestured downwards. And then, with the closed hand, upwards. No one believes that story, but it’s true”, he assures without holding back his laugh. The conversation is coming to an end. Zico remembers that, in the past, he stopped doing a lot of things because of his fame. “I couldn’t go with my children to the children’s theater, to the amusement park. Now I’m trying to do that with the grandchildren.” Of regret, only one project, the film “An adventure of Zico”, from 1999. “I didn’t like it, I only accepted it because it was a request from my friend Luís Carlos Barreto. It wasn’t well crafted, it wasn’t what I wanted. If there was anything I could trade in my life, I certainly wouldn’t have made that movie,” he laments. And what does Zico like to be called? “At home, Sandra calls me ‘son’. My friends call me Galo, Galinho. It’s funny that, on the street, the guy passes me, he’s never seen me and taps me on the shoulder: ‘What’s up, Rooster?’, in the utmost intimacy. Zico seems to have stayed with the fans more. But you know what? I loved the nickname that Celso Garcia gave me: Alegria da Gávea. A pity it didn’t catch on, it was more like Galinho de Quintino”. Do you now understand the reason for the title? And between us, Alegria da Gávea is all about Zico. * Sergio du Bocage is host of the program No Mundo da Bola, on TV Brasil
Agência Brasil
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