His mother was a housewife, his father was an alcoholic and he was forced to go to the factory as a child. He had one leg shorter than the other, but he dragged the Seleçao to the 1962 World Cup and became one of the best of all time. Then the self-destruction: women, psychotropic drugs, a shredded liver, fourteen children (some never recognized…), until the abandonment of his Elza
The photograph is dated Sunday 17 February 1980. It was taken in Rio de Janeiro, during Carnival. On the float of the “Mangueira” samba school there is a man sitting, with his legs abandoned and an absent look: he is dressed in the Brazil shirt, shorts, socks and football boots on his feet. His eyes stare at an indefinite point on the horizon, down there where none of those who observe can reach. That man was a hero, a world champion, an absolute champion, a dream for children and their fathers, even a symbol of social redemption. His name is Manoel Francisco dos Santos, but everyone knows him as Garrincha: the best right winger of all time.