Mário Zagallo

Biography

Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈmaɾju zaˈɡalu]; 9 August 1931 – 5 January 2024) was a Brazilian professional football player, coordinator and manager, who played as a forward.

Zagallo holds the record for FIFA World Cup titles in general with four titles in total. He also holds the record for World Cup finals with five participations. He was the first person to win the World Cup as both a manager and as a player, winning the competition in 1958 and 1962 as a player and in 1970 as manager. In addition, he won the 1994 FIFA World Cup as assistant manager. Zagallo also coached Brazil in 1974 (finishing fourth) and in 1998 (finishing as runners-up) and was a technical assistant in 2006. He was the first of three men, along with Germany's Franz Beckenbauer (who coincidentally died two days after Zagallo) and France's Didier Deschamps to have won the World Cup as a player and as a manager, and the only one who had done each more than once.

In 1992, Zagallo received the FIFA Order of Merit, the highest honour awarded by FIFA, for his contributions to football. He was named the ninth greatest manager of all time by World Soccer Magazine in 2013. On 5 January 2024, Zagallo died at the age of 92. He was the last surviving Brazilian player who participated in the 1958 World Cup final, and his death left Amarildo as the last surviving Brazilian player of the 1962 final.