Brazilian football superstar Zico is by far considered by many to be the greatest star of Brazilian football after Pele. Yes, his nickname "White Bailey" is not a waste of time.
Although Zico has never won a World Cup in his career, his artistic style of play and super technical ability have always allowed him to harvest some very loyal fans.
Many people may know that Zico had a journey in the five major leagues, and he joined the unknown Udinese in Serie A, so in Udinese, did Zico show the strength of a superstar?
Let's turn back the hourglass of time and look at Zico in the time of Udinese!
Plug and play, show superstar style
In the 1980s, Italy set off a frenzy of Serie A revival with its performance in the World Cup in 1982, and Serie A at that time was later known as the "Little World Cup". And there were a lot of crazy things happening at this stage, and Zico joined Udinese, who had never been in the European war at that time, which was one thing.
In fact, Udinese introduced not only Zico alone, they also packed the absolute main centre-back Edinho of the 1982 World Cup in Brazil, and the introduction of these two big stars also made the small city the focus of the world in an instant.
No one was not crazy about Zico's arrival, which was greeted by 30,000 fans, and the main city of Udine at that time was only 80,000 people. It's no wonder the fans are so fanatical, after all, Zico has been Brazil's top star for many years before joining Udinese, and has scored more than 400 goals in all competitions for Flamengo, and he has won almost every glory except the World Cup.
Although Zico was 30 years old when he joined Udinese in 1983, there is no doubt that he was still at the peak of his career, scoring more than 30 goals (including the state league) for Flamengo that year and being brazil's absolute top player in the 1982 World Cup.
Zico has just joined Udinese, and he has demonstrated the power of dimensionality reduction strikes, in this country where defense is supreme, Zico can actually tear apart the opponent's defense line by himself. In his debut, he scored 2 goals to help Udinese sweep Genoa 5-0, and then he scored twice to help Udinese beat Catania 3-1, scoring 6 goals in the first 4 games of the season to help Udinese achieve a fantastic start of 3 wins and 1 loss!
In this season, Zico's performance is fantastic, and he has also fully demonstrated his super ability in matches with other strong teams, such as against ac Milan, his goal twice helped the team to a 3-3 draw, and in the match against Juventus (league champions), Roma (cup champions), Lazio, Napoli, Inter Milan and other strong teams he scored.
In the end, Zico scored 19 goals in the league, just one goal behind Platini, and won the Serie A Silver Boot. And he only played 24 league games because of injuries, and almost everyone believed that if Zico remained healthy, Udinese, who was only 4 points away from the European zone that season, should be able to complete the feat of reaching the European game for the first time in history that season!
Retired due to injury and ended a short Serie A trip
Just when it was thought that Zico would be playing out in Udinese's second season, injuries hampered the Brazilian superstar's progress.
In his second season, Zico played well in the first two rounds, especially the first goal of the season in the second round, helping Udinese to sweep Lazio 5-0.
However, Ziko was injured in training and was in a much worse state when he returned, failing to score in three consecutive rounds. On 28 October 1984, Udinese suffered a 4-1 defeat to Avellino, when Zico was seriously injured, this time missing for about four months, and Udinese had been struggling in the relegation zone.
However, Zico eventually contributed to the team this season, scoring a crucial goal against Inter Milan to help the team win, and finally allowing Udinese to score a key 2 points and finally escape the relegation with a 3-point difference.
This season, Zico has only played 16 games and scored 3 goals due to his long absence, and his form is not the same as last season. At the end of the season, Udinese signed a contract extension with Edinho, but the attitude of the team's top brass wavered on the issue of renewing Tungziko's contract, which made Zico lose the belief in continuing to play in Udinese.
In the end, Zico chose to return to flamenco in 1985, but due to a serious injury in Serie A, Zico had difficulty recovering to his peak form, and in the end he scored only 23 goals in five years, and finally ended his football career in the J-League in Japan.
Conclusion
Many people know that Zico played two seasons at Udinese, but few people realize that this journey at Udinese fundamentally changed the trend at the end of Zico's career.
Yes, Zico's serious injury in 1984 directly transformed him from one of the top superstars in international football into a player whose competitive strength declined rapidly due to injury, and quickly fell to the top altar.
But even so, Zico's one-year heroic performance in Udinese is enough to become one of the greatest stars in Udinese's history, and his selection as one of the greatest Udinese players in history in various activities in recent years is enough to show the super charisma of "White Pele" itself! (Back-up sports / Chen Chuan)