Known as the "Son of God", Maradona is one of the two "king of the ball" in the history of world football. But even a great player like Maradona has hit nemesis, opponents he can't beat. There is a player who has played against Maradona many times at the club and national team, but has never lost or lost, and the most classic meeting between them was at the 1982 World Cup.
The team he led at the time met maradona's team, and the match was seen as his pinnacle against Maradona. In the end, his team won 3-1 against Maradona's side, scoring the team's opening goal in the game and participating in all three goals of the team, while Maradona left only a violent flying shovel in that game and a red card that ended his trip to that World Cup early.
I think at this point, some of the more senior fans should be able to think of who this person I am talking about, he is zico who is known as "White Bailey".
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >1, the great legend of flamenco</h1>
Zico was born on March 3, 1953, in a Portuguese football house in Rio de Janeiro, brazil, where his father worked as a goalkeeper and all three of his brothers were professionals. At the age of 13, Zico joined the Flamengo Football School and began an indissoluble relationship with flamenco. Zico gave almost everything to flamenco, spending a total of 23 years at the flamenco club, where he grew from an ignorant teenager to a seasoned veteran who played 734 games for flamengo, scoring 591 goals, the highest in the history of the team. And flamenco has also achieved all of Zico, and it is under the cultivation of flamenco that Zico has changed from an unknown teenager to a world-famous football superstar, from a nameless teenager with nothing to a football king with honors.
In 1971, Zico officially started his career at flamenco. In his debut season, Zico was not as sharp as Pele, nor was he as blockbuster as Garincha, and his 2-goal performance in 17 games in his debut season was not amazing. It wasn't until 1973 that Zico really came to prominence, a year in which he scored 13 goals in 52 appearances for flamengo, and with his stunning performances, Zico also knocked on the door of the Brazilian national team. In the following year, Zico's performance was a daily success, scoring a staggering 49 goals in 64 games for Flamengo. Zico's performances have been out of control since then, scoring 52 goals in 76 games in 1975 and 55 goals in 72 games in 1976. Zico's light and graceful figure, outstanding technique, and superior consciousness have become the most beautiful scenery in South American football, especially his exquisite straight-pass skills and amazing scoring ability.
In 1977, Zico ushered in the peak of his career, in flamenco club, Zico scored 36 goals in 47 games, the performance is still outstanding, in the national team, Zico's performance is also amazing, especially in the World Cup qualifiers with Bolivia, Zico is a single person to score 4 goals, help Brazil 8-0 victory over opponents, sensational throughout South American football, he also won the reputation of "white pele". With a perfect performance, Zico won the South American Footballer of the Year for the first time, at this time, the whole of Brazil has high hopes for Zico, hoping that he can lead Brazilian football to a new glory like Pele.
In 1978, Zico began the most glorious period of his playing career and led Flamengo into a golden period in the history of the team. In 1978, Zico scored 26 goals in 34 games, leading the team to win the league title in the Brazilian state of Rio, and the following year, Zico led Flamengo to defend the title, and his personal performance of 81 goals in 70 games was even more jaw-dropping, including the number of goals scored by the national team, it was a staggering 89 goals, which was also the annual goal record in world football before Messi set the annual record of 91 goals in 2012. In 1980, Zico led the team to the first time in its history that he had won the Brazilian First Division with a performance of 47 goals in 53 games. In 1981, Zico reached the pinnacle of his glory years, winning flamenco the first Copa Libertadores in the club's history and the only Toyota Cup (the predecessor of the Club World Cup) in the club's history with 45 goals in 58 games.
December 13, 1981, was the most glorious day of Zico's years in flamenco. He led flamenco in Tokyo to attack the Toyota Cup, then considered the highest honour of the world club competition, and their rival was Liverpool, england's old powerhouse, The New York's European Champions Cup winner. In this game, Zico became the absolute protagonist, his performance was like no one, Liverpool was simply invincible to him, and his three assists helped Flamengo beat Liverpool 3-0, which is the biggest win difference between South American teams and European teams after the Toyota Cup (excluding the Intercontinental Cup), composing the glory of South American football. After the match, Zico was voted the best player of the game and received a Toyota sedan as a reward. At that time, Japanese cars had not yet been allowed to enter Brazil, so Zico called the brazilian president at the time, and under the president's permission, Zico drove the Toyota back to Brazil.
After the most glorious 1981, Zico became the first star in world football at that time. Zico's glory days with flamenco continued, scoring 48 and 42 goals for flamenco in 56 and 48 matches in 1982 and 1983, respectively, leading the team to consecutive Brazilian First Division titles. In the summer of 1983, Zico temporarily left flamenco to join Serie A side Udinese.
At the time, Zico was the best superstar in world football, while Udinese was just a humble team in Italian football, their all-time best in history was only runners-up in Serie A, and only once 29 years ago. Zico's arrival caused a huge stir in the local area, and thousands of Udinese residents flocked to the streets to greet Ziko's arrival with joy, and the oldest local elder lamented that they had never seen such a lively scene in Udinese. After Zico joined, the name of Udinese's home stadium was also directly changed to "Zico Palace". Moreover, zico's joining almost triggered a political incident, when the Italian Football Association suspected that Udinese's boss Maza was cheating on Zico's transfer fee, and once wanted to declare the transfer invalid, and after learning the news, the angry Udinese fans played the slogan "Either Zico, or Austria", meaning: If we do not get Ziko, we will join the Austrian league (the Friuli region where Udinese is located is close to Austria and historically belonged to Austria).
At Udinese, Zico played only 2 seasons and did not bring any honor to the team, but Zico's performance in Udinese's first season was enough to make Udinese fans unforgettable, when he scored 19 goals for Udinese in 24 games. In 1989, when Zico announced his retirement, Udinese could hold a farewell match for Zico, and every time Zico returned to Udinese, the fans held the greatest enthusiasm for him.
After two years of separation, in 1985 Zico returned to flamenco until the end of his career. In 1993, at the invitation of the Japanese team, Zico made a comeback, and at the age of 40, he played for two years in this country that is very enthusiastic about football.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >2, the tragic hero of the Brazilian national team</h1>
In his club career, Zico can be described as a lifelong scenery, a legend, he won the highest honors, but also received the best courtesy. However, in the national team, he became synonymous with "sadness", he was once placed high hopes by the entire Brazilian nation, but he continued to fold in the World Cup and did not win the championship in his life.
In the 1974 World Cup, the sharp Zico was ruthlessly excluded from the world cup by the then head coach Zagallo; in the 1978 World Cup, Zico represented Brazil for the first time in the World Cup, but unfortunately due to the unfortunate injury in the decisive battle with Argentina, he had to say goodbye early, and finally Brazil also lost the final quota competition with Argentina, and finally lost the World Cup champion.
At the 1982 World Cup, this was Zico's best chance to win the title. At that time, the peak of Zico was still the same, and the Brazilian team also reached an unprecedented strength. At that time, in addition to Zico, the Brazilian team also had two midfield masters, Socrates and Falcao, in addition, Serezzo, Junier, etc. were also the top players in the world football world at that time, under the tutelage of the art master Santana, this team not only showed great strength, but also played very gorgeous, they were highly skilled, cooperative, played as they pleased on the field, and the offensive transmission was like a flowing stream.
In the 1982 World Cup qualifiers, Brazil won all four matches, scoring 11 goals and conceding only 2 goals to easily qualify, and then in the summer of 1981, Santana led the team to visit Europe, and they defeated England (1-0), France (3-1), the Federal Republic of Germany (2-1) and Spain (1-0), winning the future World Cup potential opponents, which can be described as sweeping the entire European continent. Before the start of the 1982 World Cup, Brazil was unanimously optimistic, being the biggest favorite team, and as the core of the team, Zico was also the most watched star.
In the first four matches, Brazil also performed as expected before the game, showing their invincible strength. In the three games of the first stage of the group stage, Brazil won all three games, scored 10 goals, conceded only 2 goals, is the country with the largest number of goals on goal difference; in the second stage of the group stage with Argentina, Brazil won Argentina with a score of 3-1, and Argentina was beaten by Brazil in the whole game without any ability to fight back, only scoring a face-saving goal in the last moment.
And the most watched star of this tournament, Zico's performance was not disappointing, he scored 4 goals in four games, against Scotland, Zico opened the team with a brilliant free kick for the team' first record; against New Zealand, Zico took the lead for the team, and also scored two goals, especially the classic upside-down golden hook. Against Argentina, as mentioned earlier, Zico dominated the game, scoring not only the team's opening goal, but also participating in all three goals of the team.
The fifth game was Italy, which was a contest about who could qualify for the semi-finals, and it seemed that Italy was not as strong as Brazil, and Brazil still had the advantage of goal difference, as long as they remained unbeaten in this game. However, in such a good situation, the Brazilian team overturned in the gutter, the gorgeous Brazil team lost 2-3 to Italy, known for its "concrete" defense and efficient counterattack, and Zico's power weakened a lot under Gentile's strict defense, and he failed to continue his performance of scoring consecutive goals.
With the defeat against Italy, Brazil's World Cup journey also came to an abrupt end, and after the game, Zico held a torn jersey in his hand and left the stadium in a daze, which moved the audience inside and outside the stadium.
After the regrets of 1982, in the 1986 World Cup, the 33-year-old Zico was still full of heart, and went to the World Cup with Brazil for the third time with the old injury that had not yet healed. Unfortunately, God was not touched by his strong spirit, nor did he sympathize with him because he went into battle with his wounds, but instead teased him again. In the quarter-final match against France, Brazil won a penalty in the last minute, when the score was 1-1, as long as the penalty was scored, Brazil could almost lock in the promotion place. At this time, the teammates handed over the opportunity to take a penalty to Zico, but Zico failed to send the penalty into the net, and finally the two sides entered the penalty shootout, in the penalty shootout, Brazil lost 3-4 to France, this time the exit also announced Zico's farewell to the World Cup championship forever, and the penalty also became a shadow that Zico lingered for life.
As the king of an era, it is indeed regrettable that he did not win the World Cup, and some people say that if Zico could win the 1982 World Cup, then his historical status in world football would certainly be higher, even without losing Maradona, but there is no if in real life. Moreover, if everything is so perfect and complete, this is not life, life must always be a little broken, some unsatisfactory places, so that life will appear colorful. Moreover, Zico has already proved himself on the World Cup anyway, and that is enough.