By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 10 minutes ago
Mario Zagallo. NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP
The Brazilian soccer legend is being treated in Rio de Janeiro, where his condition is ‘stable’.
Brazilian soccer legend Mario Zagallo was hospitalized on Tuesday with a urinary tract infection, the Rio de Janeiro medical facility where the 92-year-old former player and coach is being treated said on Wednesday. “His clinical condition is stable, he is lucid and he is not on life support.“, explained the Barra d’Or hospital in a press release, specifying that no release date was yet planned.
The Brazilian, who made football history by becoming the first to win the World Cup as a player (1958 and 1962), then as a coach (1970), celebrated his 92nd birthday last week. “I celebrate my birthday in the best possible way, with my family“, he had published on his account Instagram, where he is very active. In the photo that illustrates the message, we see him smiling, surrounded by his loved ones.
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World champion as a player then coach
A year ago, theOld Wolf“had been hospitalized for almost two weeks in a semi-intensive care unit in the same hospital in Rio, for a respiratory infection. As a left winger, he was known for his defensive withdrawals, something rare at the time for players in his position, during the 1958 and 1962 Worlds won alongside cracks like Pelé and Garrincha.
He was then coach of Brazil, world champion in 1970, considered one of the best national teams of all time, with Pelé, Rivellino, Jairzinho, Tostao or Gerson. Zagallo was also assistant to Carlos Alberto Parreira during the Seleçao’s fourth world title, in 1994.
Four years later, Zagallo regained his position as coach, but Brazil lost 3-0 in the 1998 World Cup final against France in Saint-Denis. Only two other personalities have won the World Cup as a player and coach, the German Franz Beckenbauer (1974 and 1990), and the Frenchman Didier Deschamps (1998 and 2018).
