Garrincha – the "Angel with Crooked Legs"

Mané Garrincha, or Manoel Francisco dos Santos, was born in October 1933 in Rio de Janeiro and was a Brazilian soccer player and a striker who played as a right-wing.

Known for his great skill and disconcerting dribbling, he is almost unanimously considered the most famous right winger and the best dribbler in the history of world soccer.

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A legendary figure is enormously popular among football lovers, especially in Brazil, where older fans consider him better than Pelé.

Despite having several congenital disabilities (strabismus, a pelvic imbalance, a centimeter difference in length between the legs; the right knee had valgus and the left varus), Garrincha was one of the leading players in Brazil's conquests of the 1958 FIFA World Cups and, mainly, in 1962, when, after Pelé's injury, he became the team's central and most decisive star.

Of the Brazilian team's 14 goals in the 1962 World Cup, six came through his feet (he scored four and assisted two goals). He became the first player in history to win the Ballon d'Or (best player of the tournament), the Golden Shoe (top scorer of the competition), and the World Cup trophy in the same edition. For these reasons, the 1962 World Cup is known in Brazil as "The Garrincha Cup."

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250 of the world's most respected football writers and journalists included Garrincha in the Soccer Team of the 20th Century. He was also selected for the 1994 FIFA World Cup All-Time Team. He came seventh in a vote among FIFA experts about the best player of the 20th Century.

Mané Garrincha overcame a legion of defenders and turned them all into simple John. He defied his body's deformity and immortalized himself as the "Angel with Crooked Legs."

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There were thousands of dribbles, hundreds of goals, and a pair with Pelé, who never lost a match for the Brazilian team.

The best player of the 1962 World Cup was the protagonist of dozens of fantastic and unusual stories and anecdotes; he was known for the innocence of his way of being, which contrasted with his extreme intelligence and sublime genius on the field. He, however, was not as naive as he was thought to be. The stories that portray him as a simple idiot contain doses of exaggeration and mysticism and corroborate the saying that every genius has a bit of madness.

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The strength of his charisma was indelibly marked in the words of the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade in a chronicle published in Jornal do Brasil in 1983, one day after the death of the brilliant Garrincha:

"If there is a God who regulates football, this God is, above all, ironic, a faker. Garrincha was one of his delegates tasked with mocking everything and everyone in the stadiums. But, as he is also a cruel God, he took away from the stunning Garrincha the ability to perceive his condition as a divine agent. He was a poor little mortal who helped an entire country to sublimate its sorrows. The worst thing is that the sadness returns, and no other Garrincha is available. We need someone new to feed our dream."

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On the field, Garrincha was a player who, with his magical moves, amazed spectators, enchanting them with his unusual and sinuous dribbles and making them laugh, being one of the few in history to be repeatedly applauded even by fans of opposing teams.

In the next episodes of this series, we will learn in detail about the life trajectory of this beautiful star, one of the greatest of all time, who was immortalized in the World Soccer Hall of Fame.

to be continued...

Bibliography: Garrincha: The Triumph and Tragedy of Brazil's Forgotten Footballing Hero by Ruy Castro

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Garrincha – the "Angel with Crooked Legs" – #part 1