MANE GARRINCHA: THE RISE OF A LEGEND - PART 2

  Brazil as a football nation belongs to the group who believe that football is an art and should be played as such. This belief resulted in the school of thought which is termed as football d’arte by the Brazilians. In the world of football, Pele is regarded as the King of the game. But to some of the football fans who got to witness both Pele and Garrincha, there is this belief that Garrincha embodies the spirit of football d’arte. To these fans who experienced Garrincha, they believe that no one comes close to the level of the one dubbed “The Angel with bent legs”. The field was his canvas, the ball his paint and, his bent legs his brushes which he used to paint beautiful smiles on the faces of spectators as he dazzled and created magic with the ball at his feet. Garrincha as a man had his demons. He lived a life full of controversies and his life choices and decisions if compared to the exploits Paul Gascoigne, Antonio Cassano or Diego Armando Maradona makes them look like amateurs.

Brazil as a football nation belongs to the group who believe that football is an art and should be played as such. This belief resulted in the school of thought which is termed as football d’arte by the Brazilians. In the world of football, Pele is regarded as the King of the game. But to some of the football fans who got to witness both Pele and Garrincha, there is this belief that Garrincha embodies the spirit of football d’arte. To these fans who experienced Garrincha, they believe that no one comes close to the level of the one dubbed “The Angel with bent legs”. The field was his canvas, the ball his paint and, his bent legs his brushes which he used to paint beautiful smiles on the faces of spectators as he dazzled and created magic with the ball at his feet. Garrincha as a man had his demons. He lived a life full of controversies and his life choices and decisions if compared to the exploits Paul Gascoigne, Antonio Cassano or Diego Armando Maradona makes them look like amateurs.     This is the first part of a three-part series about the life of Mané Garrincha which looks at the origin story of a man so beloved in Brazil because of the fact that when he set his foot on the pitch, he brought joy and smiles on the faces of everybody.

   Pau Grande, a small town in the capital of Brazil – Rio – came to be in the late nineteenth century, the golden age of the British empire. A British company in an attempt to reduce the cost of production and maximize profit by taking advantage of the abundant resource in Brazil and the cheap labour that came with it decided to move their factory to an area 45 miles away from the capital, Rio. Here they cleared the land, built roads and finally built their factory. In no time the town came to life as a factory town with the inhabitants basically all factory workers. In this town, a man named Amario Dos Santos whose roots can be traced back to the tribe of Fulnio met his wife Maria Carolina.
   This holy union was blessed with nine children and out of these nine children, one stood out. On October 28th 1933, the fifth child of the nine children was born. The child turned out to be a son but this little boy had birth defects which were immediately realised by the midwife. The boy had a curved spine, his left leg bent outwards and was 6 centimetres shorter than the right leg which was also bent inwards. Although a few orthopaedic treatments would have cured the boy of this birth defect, the circumstances surrounding his birth will inhibit his chances as his family was poor and his hometown being a little village, they were short on both essential workers and the facilities that they need and so this little boy has technically declared a cripple.

   The little boy was named Manoel Francisco Dos Santos. Growing up in Pau Grande, little Manoel had little supervision from his parents because the pressure exerted on the parents due to the large family size coupled with other societal issues that came along with living in factory towns and in times when every aspect of their life was governed by the British was enough to break his father who resorted to the heavy drinking of Cachaça, a local distilled Brazilian rum made from sugarcane. Due to this, Manoel runs wild and free and explored every inch of the town. The boy became indiscipline and a free spirit. He had pizzazz and that made him uncontrollable. His big sister called Rosa nicknamed him after a little bird called the wren -Garrincha- due to his smallish physique and his free spirit nature. The name stuck and in no time, people knew little Manoel Fransisco Dos Santos as Mané Garrincha. The Mané was short for Manoel.
  Garrincha just like every boy growing up in Brazil played football and it was a miracle he could because theoretically, he wasn’t supposed to even walk not alone run with a ball. His birth defect which was supposed to be his Achilles’ heel rather became his greatest weapon on the field of play coupled with his free spirit nature. Garrincha had immense talent hidden in him and it wasn’t hard to spot because whenever he had the ball at his feet, he was unpredictable which meant he could dribble basically anybody and everybody on the pitch. Even with this immense talent, Garrincha wasn’t huge of the game and didn’t really bother going to watch matches in big stadiums in Rio.

   Garrincha stopped schooling at a young age because his grades were terrible and as a result, he didn’t see any reason in continuing. His father, Mario Dos Santos, wasn’t a fan of the idea because he believed “idiots didn’t achieve anything”. A month after celebrating his 14th birthday, Garrincha started work as a factory worker in a textile factory. He was stationed at the cotton section of the work process where a machine removed the seeds from the cotton. The place was quite dangerous because there were literally so many different ways of experiencing a workplace hazard. This wasn’t a problem for Garrincha because he was literally the worst employee at the factory. He filled his day with napping and goofing off during his work hours. He got away with it initially because it was believed that no one could sleep in such an environment on account of the noise and all but Garrincha didn’t really care. He got fired for his poor work ethic but only got his job back because he played for the local football club which also happened to be owned by the owner of the factory and his immense talent meant they couldn’t afford to lose him.

   In his formative years, Garrincha had a carefree outlook on life. Looking at the conditions he grew up in, one would understand that Garrincha’s attitude was developed as a way to cope. Pau Grande wasn’t a place where dreams lived so Garrincha figured why dream at all and instead he took to running around flirting with girls, pulling pranks and getting involved in so many forms of shenanigans and drinking with his two best friends Pincel and Swing. This outlook was transferred to the pitch as he only played because it was fun. The pitch became the canvas where Garrincha being the artist made magic happen and at the same time as a form of escape to the terrible living conditions. To Garrincha, it was silly to take football so seriously. It is believed he went fishing during the 1950 world cup final when Brazil lost to Uruguay in the match that was dubbed the “Miracle of Maracana”. When he returned, he saw the dejected disposition of the town folk as a result of the loss, and he believed the people were being idiots for being too emotional about something as frivolous as a game of soccer.
     At the core, he had the flair and life of an artist. In his exploits as a free spirit at the age of 15, he met a young lady called Nair who was 3 years younger, 12. Nair and Garrincha’s relationship intensified as time went on and since they all worked in the factory. A year later, Garrincha lost his mother. A young Garrincha was devasted and things even became worst when his father decided to bring in another woman.
As a young player, he started to play as a left midfielder which was somehow ironical given that he wasn’t really comfortable using his left leg. He got an opportunity to play for Cruzeiro in Petropolis and later at Serrano where he got to sign his first contract as a player which earned him considerably more than he was making at the textile factory. The only downside to this deal was that Garrincha had to travel to Petropolis on matchdays and training which he felt was too much of sacrifice just to play a game he had no intension of making a career out of. He quit Serrano and returned to feature for Esporte Clube Pau Grande which was the name of the local textile team for free. You can say he enjoyed playing the game and had no interest in the other things that came with it. But at Serrano, he switched to the right side of midfield which turned out to be the best position for him.

At the age of 19, Garrincha became a father after his childhood sweetheart Nair got pregnant. Garrincha took on responsibilities and they got married. Garrincha’s fortune changed with the birth of his daughter. He got an invite to try out for Botafogo in Rio from the right-back of Botafogo, Araty Vianna, in 1952 after Vianna was invited to come and watch some games in the little town of Pau Grande. Vianna was mesmerised by the skills and flair of Garrincha that after the game, he went straight to the young man and said: “Your future is at Botafogo”.

In a country where football is the number sport, talents are unearthed every day and they are spotted at an early age so it is quite a surprise as to why Garrincha got recognised in his late teens. Actually, he got discovered way earlier but due to the fact that he didn’t really have any dream of playing football professionally, he blew all his chances just so he could remain in Pau Grande and enjoy life. Vasco Da Gama was the first club to offer Garrincha an opportunity to showcase his talent and possible turn the lump of coal into a diamond. Garrincha with his unambitious nature and carefree attitude showed up at the trials without football boots. It was kind of strange for a young player to turn out for trials at one of the big clubs in Rio for trials without his boots but that was the “Little Bird”. He got kicked away since he wasn’t serious enough to prepare for such an important event. Then Fluminense came knocking with an opportunity. This time Garrincha went prepared and took part in the trials but left before the whole exercise came to an end to catch a last-minute train back to his beloved hometown.

   After the encounter with Araty Vianna, Garrincha went ahead for the trials at Botafogo. He was set against Nilton Santos, then an established defender and a regular for the Brazillian national team. It didn’t take long for Garrincha to dispose of Nilton with his dribbling ability. For such an experienced defender, the players thought Nilton will be mad but that wasn’t the case. After the trials, he went to the technical bench and told them “It is better to play with him than against him. Sign him”. That was the seal of approval. Garrincha signed his first professional contract in 1953 with Botafogo for $27. That was a meagre sum even at that time because Zizinho was signed for $33,000 in 1950. In his contract, Garrincha was set to earn 1500 cruzeiro which was like $81 per month with 500 cruzeiros set as a sign on bonus. He was offered the club’s dorm as a place of residence but he declined and insisted he had to go back home to his wife and kid.
That was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between Garrincha and Botafogo and a career full of praise and success and a life full of scandals and controversies.

@BonneyMcdona_1 and @abdullah_salif