Mané Garrincha was a two-time world champion and certainly was one of the best footballers in the world in his day. He had made a fantastic image for himself, although his lifestyle was nowhere near what you would expect from an athlete.
To put it mildly, he only liked one thing more than women – this, of course, was drinking.
Mané Garrincha: Against All Odds
Garrincha was born on October 28, 1933, but at that time his chances of becoming a professional footballer looked slim. This is because he had so many physical disabilities that today he would only be considered able enough to be a para-athlete.
His left leg was 6.5 centimetres shorter than his right leg not only this, both of his legs were crooked and unevenly so. One curved outwards, the other inward.
He was also afflicted with issues in his spine. His situation was not made any easier by the fact that his father was an alcoholic.
Many tried to dissuade Garrincha from playing football, as some had even said that it was a miracle he was even able to walk. However, he was adamant, and he did so well, as he was later able to take advantage of his crooked legs.
He was a fantastic player and the defenders never knew what to expect from him.
Garrincha spent most of his career at Botafogo. However, he gained worldwide fame at the World Cup, which he won with the Brazilian national football team in both 1958 and 1962.
According to him, the most beautiful experience of his life was the 1958 World Cup. This tournament has two anecdotes about Garrincha, who is considered weak-minded.
Here’s one:
“Tell me, Master, is the final today?” He asked his coach. “Yes, son,” replied Aymeré Moreira. “And who are we playing with? The hosts. Ah, now I understand why there are so many people here…”
The other is that the genius, nicknamed “Little Bird”, didn’t begin to celebrate with his teammates immediately after the match, as he believed that the parties would fight each other back and forth in the World Cup final, following the pattern of the national championships.
As mentioned above, Garrincha loved women and devoured life by the bucket-load. Sex was an integral part of his lifestyle, so much so that he admitted that he’d actually lost his virginity with a goat when he was just 12 years old.
Garrincha had many lovers, reportedly because of what he had to offer. He reportedly had at least 14 children with 5 different women.
These are official figures, but there is a good chance that more than 30 children were fathered by him. One of his two wives was the world-famous singer Elza Soares, with whom he had only one child. The singer left the football player because he continued to drunkenly beat her.
In 1969, he got into a car while intoxicated with his ex-wife and the mother of his child, Elza Soares, who later died in a resulting DUI incident. Garrincha was sentenced to two years in prison, but because he had no criminal record, his sentence was suspended.
He finished his football career in 1973 and his farewell match attracted 131,000 spectators to the Maracanã Stadium to see him off.
Garrincha was, eventually completely ruined by his drinking habits and the bohemian lifestyle that he had undertaken. In January 1983, at the age of 49, he was admitted to the hospital with alcohol poisoning, but was unfortunately he was beyond help at this stage.
Even on his deathbed he was said to of unkept his womanizing reputation and insisted on flirting with the attending nurses.
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