ALEXANDRE ARAUJO AND EDER TRASKINI
RIO DE JANEIRO, RJ (UOL/FOLHAPRESS)
The crown of King of Football belongs to Pelé, but before the eternal number 10 emerged and blossomed, Brazilian football had other players worthy of royalty, and some of them played for Flamengo and São Paulo, clubs that compete in the final of the Copa do Brasil this year. Sunday (24), at 4pm (Brasília time).
Arthur Friedenreich, Leônidas da Silva, the “Black Diamond”, and Zizinho, Master Ziza, wore red and black and tricolor and were stars in a time of rarer records, but no less important for the history of Breton sport in the country.
“They were all very famous during the period in which they lived and played. Without a doubt, they were one of the most important players in our history, the stars of their times”, says Roberto Assaf, journalist and historian.
THE FIRST STAR
Friedenreich was born in São Paulo, in 1892, played as a striker and is considered the first idol of Brazilian football. He played for the Morumbi club between 1930 and 1935, scoring 102 goals in 124 games. He is the 18th highest tricolor scorer.
“Even in his 40s, he was the biggest name on the tricolor offensive line in the first phase of the club’s existence, becoming São Paulo champion in the second dispute, in 1931, and becoming the team’s top scorer, with 102 goals, a feat that It was only displaced by Luizinho, in 1943”, says Michael Serra, historian of São Paulo FC.
For the Gávea club, “El Tigre” or “Fried” played in just six matches, and with the most important appearance in 1935, when he went to the field on four occasions.
“Friedenreich didn’t play for Flamengo for long, he played a few matches. He played in 1917 and then returned to retire in 1935. He played his last matches at Flamengo”, recalls Guilherme Tardelli, responsible for the Flamengo Educational Museum.
Throughout his career, El Tigre also dealt with racial issues. A mixed race, he was one of the players excluded from the 1921 South American Championship, in Argentina, after Epitácio Pessoa, then president of Brazil, met with the directors of the CBD and recommended that only white players represent the team abroad.
Brazil did not do well in the competition. Given the performance, the CBD, in 1922, called up black athletes again.
BLACK DIAMOND
Leônidas da Silva was born in 1913, in Rio de Janeiro, and started at Bonsucesso. He arrived at Flamengo in 1936 and stayed until 1941. Top scorer in the 1938 World Cup in France, he was agile and was called “Rubber Man” by the French press.
It was in one of these moments of contortionism that he invented the “bicycle”, in a duel between Bonsucesso and Carioca, in the 1932 State Championship.
“Leônidas was extremely important for the history of Flamengo. He was one of the representatives of the team that shaped the club’s identity, in the 30s, together with the management of José Bastos Padilha, who was a president who thought about this issue of popularity. Part of this popularity It also depends on representative figures such as Leônidas. He had a unique personality, he knew how to navigate different layers of society, a typical carioca”, highlights Tardelli.
Leônidas had a problem with the military junta and was arrested, leaving Fla for a few months, which made some consider that he was “done” for football.
In 1942, he went to São Paulo in a transaction that affected Brazilian football. The negotiation was concluded for 200 contos de réis, a fortune at the time.
“Leônidas arrived at Tricolor as a bet. He was almost forgotten when he was welcomed by more than 10 thousand people at a train station in São Paulo. The biggest signing in the history of South American football until then, he was called Bonde de 200 contos after his debut. He didn’t leave it cheap: between 1943 and 1949, he won five Paulistas, raising São Paulo’s level, both in results and number of fans, to the national scene”, highlights Serra.
There is a famous photo of Ademir (Menezes), Leônidas and Friedenreich, these two in ordinary clothes, already retired, on an Olympic tour of Maracanã. There it is as if it were a consecration of their time in football Roberto Assaf
MESTRE ZIZA
Zizinho was nothing less than the idol of Pelé, the King of football. Born in 1921, he arrived at Flamengo in 1939 and was considered Leônidas’ successor. He was voted the best player of the 1950 World Cup.
At the red-black club, Mestre Ziza was a reference in the team that won Carioca’s first tri in the club’s history.
“Zizinho was one of the greatest players that Flamengo has ever revealed and, not for nothing, he is known as ‘master’. He marked a generation and was the idol of Flamengo’s main players who came later. He has a huge representation in history”, he highlighted Tardelli.
The midfielder left Gávea for Bangu. He landed in São Paulo in 1957, where he would stay until 1959.
“The star’s passage, although meteoric, was unforgettable. The team led by the revolutionary Béla Guttmann, in 1957, was good, but there was a missing piece in the system to really kick into gear. As soon as they arrived, they thrashed Palmeiras. In fact, in the first five his games with the tricolor shirt, only victories with more than 4 goals. In fact, with him on the field, the team never lost in the 1957 State Championship and became champion in the famous Tarde das Garrafadas, with an unforgettable victory over Corinthians in the Pacaembu”, recalled Michael Serra.
In 1999, Zizinho was named the fourth greatest Brazilian player of all time by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.
The post Flamengo and São Paulo share stories of ‘Kings’ of pre-Pelé football appeared first in Jornal de Brasília.
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