Carlos Alberto obituary

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/oct/26/carlos-alberto-obituary

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As captain and one of the best players in what is generally acknowledged to be the greatest international side of all time – Brazil’s World Cup-winning team of 1970 – Carlos Alberto, who has died aged 72, could scarcely have had better footballing credentials. Not only was he a leader and star of that wonderful side, which included Jairzinho, Rivellino and Pelé; he scored what many footballing experts and fans regard as the “perfect goal” in the 1970 World Cup final, as Brazil beat Italy 4-1 in Mexico City.

The nature of Alberto’s 86th-minute strike, which put that game to bed in spectacular fashion, summed up the grace, precision and flair of a Brazil team which, above all others, played “the beautiful game”. After winning the ball in their own half through the tackling of the centre-forward Tostão, Brazil essayed a series of languid passes in midfield before feeding the ball to Clodoaldo, who dribbled exquisitely past four Italian players to give Rivellino an opening down the left flank. Rivellino swiftly moved the ball further down the wing to Jairzinho, who cut inside to draw in two opponents before sliding the ball across to Pelé, who was just outside the penalty box.

As the move built up to a thrilling crescendo, Pelé sensed Alberto crashing in on the overlap from his right-back position, and waited for a crucial half-second to deliver a perfectly weighted pass to his skipper. Alberto hit the ball so hungrily and with such power that both feet came off the ground, yet he lost no control in doing so, and his shot flew with absolute accuracy across the angle and along the ground into the bottom left-hand corner of the goal, giving the goalkeeper no chance. It was a joyous, tear-welling, , celebratory finish to a marvellous game, and was testimony to the ability of that Brazilian side to raise football to an art form.

“I realise how beautiful and how important that goal was, because everybody is still talking about it,” he told the BBC many years later. “Nobody talks about Pelé’s goal, the first goal, the second goal. It is always about the fourth goal. I think it was the best goal ever scored in a World Cup.”

Alberto was born in Rio de Janeiro, and joined the city’s Fluminense team at the age of 19, in 1963. Though a defender, he immediately caught the eye with the range of his play – including his reading of the game, leadership skills, dribbling, ball control and passing. Those all-round abilities won him the first of his 53 Brazil caps within a year, yet to general surprise he was not picked for the 1966 World Cup squad. Brazil’s gifted team were knocked out of the 1966 finals in the group stages, after which a new managerial regime not only brought Alberto back into the fold, but, judging that a collection of strong-willed players needed greater direction and backbone, chose him as captain with a brief to put the team back on track.

That he did, in spades, delivering the 1970 World Cup at the age of 25 in a tournament celebrated for some superb football and competed for by a number of excellent sides, including England, West Germany and Italy. Alberto could not, however, follow up with the 1974 World Cup, which he missed due to a bad knee injury, and though at 32 he was again selected as captain of Brazil in the qualifiers for the 1978 World Cup, he had to move to centre-half to compensate for a loss of speed, and decided to retire from international football before the finals, having played only five matches for his country since 1970.

Domestically, after three years and almost 100 appearances at Fluminense, he had left his home city to join Pelé at Santos in 1966, playing more than 400 games there before 1974, when he returned to Fluminense for a successful three-year stint. After a brief period with the Rio club Flamengo, in 1977 he made a lucrative move to the US to sign for New York Cosmos, where Pelé was also playing. Apart from a short fling with the California Surf team, Alberto remained with the Cosmos from 1977 to 1982, winning three North American Soccer League titles before retiring there.

Within a year he was back in Brazil, managing Flamengo. He lasted two years in that job, and over the next two decades there followed head coach posts with 15 other teams, including Fluminense, Miami Sharks in the US, and, on the international scene, Oman and latterly Azerbaijan, where he finished his managerial career in 2005.

On his death Alberto was living in Rio, where he was still working as an entertaining and forthright sports commentator who rarely held back on his assessment of players or the game in general.

He is survived by his third wife, Graça Garbaccio, and by a son, Alexandre (a former footballer who made a single appearance for Brazil, in 1992) and daughter, Andréa, from his first marriage.

• Carlos Alberto Torres, footballer, born 17 July 1944; died 25 October 2016