The Tormented Soul of Moacyr Barbosa

As the international break drags on, here's a piece on tragic Brazil goalkeeper Moacyr Barbosa labelled the 'Man Who Cost Brazil a World Cup'

Hello,

Happy Monday,

Well, maybe it’s not for Riccardo Calafiori, who suffered a freak accident while on international duty with Italy and is now a major doubt for the North London derby this coming weekend.

Calafiori left the Italy camp to return to London on Sunday, following the unexpected injury he suffered during the match against France on Friday night.

The 22-year old was substituted during the second half after taking a blow to his ankle with the visitors leading 3-1.

The painful indignity came when Ousmane Dembele tumbled into the Arsenal defender during the match at the Parc de Princes, with his studs lamentably connecting with Calafiori's leg as he fell.

Thanks very much, international break.

Rice and Merino will also miss the North London derby

Sadly, as we all know, Mikel Arteta’s side will already be without Declan Rice, who misses out through suspension following his controversial red card last weekend against Brighton, following Chris Kavanagh’s shocking decision to hand the £105m midfielder a ludicrously soft yellow card.

The news comes hot on the heels of Mikel Merino also missing the match, which frustratingly, was due to the freak injury the former Real Sociedad midfielder picked up at the end of his first training session at London Colney, following his move from La Liga.

Let’s hope there are no further injuries during the second tranche of international matches over the coming days…

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Congratulations Sri Lanka

Well done - and well batted - to Pathan Nissanka for guiding Sri Lanka to victory over England in the third Test by reaching his second Test hundred for Sri Lanka.

Nissanka’s superb effort with an unbeaten 127 helped the visitors to only their fourth Test match triumph in England across 21 matches, when beating the home side by eight wickets in a battling effort worthy of praise.

Despite wining the series 2-1, on the back of the 3-0 clean sweep of the West Indies earlier this summer, a careless display at the Oval against Sri Lanka ensured the defeat was the worst under England boss Brendan McCullum.

While the relentless positively under this regime is always a good thing, if the cricketing basics aren’t met, in terms of tactics, slapdash batting and errant bowling - in particular the fact that inexperienced stand-in captain Ollie Pope continued to play his spinners in the gloom on Saturday evening, thereby allowing Sri Lanka batters to add a crucial 70 odd runs - such underwhelming play ensured England’s aim of winning all six Tests for the first time in 20 years would fail.

That said, the fact that McCullum and injured captain Ben Stokes - who backed his team from the balcony and was present throughout - opted to pick younger, inexperienced fast bowlers who were bristling with pace, is a good thing, something Australia and others have been doing for a long time now.

However back to back Tests are tough on everyone involved, not least spectators who are expected to fork out extortionate sums - even on day four (the reason I wasn’t there at the Oval on Sunday and Monday, nor Day Four at Lord’s).

Such ridiculously high prices bordering on sheer greed simply have to be addressed by the relevant authorities.

Food for thought as the cricket schedule becomes even more crowded.

A gloomy Oval this week. CREDIT: BBC

…….

PS:

While we’re on the subject of cricket, the outstanding cricket discussion on Sky Cricket before Monday’s play was absolutely superb.

Insightful, articulate, intelligent conversation and debate from Stuart Broad, Mark Butcher and Athers hosted by Ian Ward.

This is the high bar that football should be aspiring to emulate.

Whether football does - or will even want to - replicate such superb punditry is another matter entirely.

……..

FROM THE ARCHIVE:

The Tormented Soul of Moacyr Barbosa

Seeing as it’s the international break, here’s a feature piece I penned very a long time ago that appeared in World Soccer.

I hope you enjoy it.

………..

The Tormented Soul of Moacyr Barbosa

By Layth Yousif

In the final game of the 1950 World Cup, an honest mistake by a man called Moacyr Barbosa condemned him to spend the rest of his life being vilified by millions.

Yet did his suffering have more to do with the Uruguayan national team forging their identity around ‘garra charrua’?

Taken from their nickname, ‘Los Charruas’, referring to a mysterious and long-lost indigenous Uruguayan people, the description also refers to a gritty, brave victory in the face of certain defeat.

A heroic act for all eternity that the 1950 ‘Celeste’ (or Sky Blues) achieved. Appropriately, given their second-half performance in that ‘fateful final’, the term celeste also refers to a divine act. Mention 1950 to Brazilians and they reference that ‘fateful final’. (The word in Portuguese, fatidico, is indelibly associated with Brazil’s defeat).

Europe was rebuilding after WWII. The tournament was held in South America as no-one else wanted it. Only 13 countries turned up.  But the Brazilians embraced it: the Maracana was built for Brazil to parade the Jules Rimet Trophy.

The tournament’s last game saw Brazil and Uruguay engaged for the right to call themselves World Champions. But many in the host country had already decided the matter. The evening before, the headline in São Paulo’s Gazeta Esportiva was: “Tomorrow we will beat Uruguay!” Rio’s  O Mundo, printed a shot of the players, saying: “These are the world champions.”

Before the match began the selecao were given solid gold watches stating: ‘For the World Champions’. The carnival float that would transport the Brazilian winners around Rio was ready, as was the pre-planned victory parade. Millions of t-shirts proclaiming victory slogans had been printed. Even the Frenchman Jules Rimet – waiting to hand over his delicate golden namesake – had written his victory speech lauding Brazilian winners. 

Politicians predictably joined in, with Rio’s Mayor glorifying the Brazilian team: ‘in less than a few hours you will be hailed as champions…I already salute as victors’. But he neglected to mention fate, Moacyr Barbosa, and Celeste grit: crucially he underestimated ‘garra charrua’. Their determination was epitomised by the captain, Obdulio Varela, a tough, uncompromising sort who evoked the spirit of ‘garra’.

Reading the same edition of O Mundo he was so livid he bought every copy he could find. Furious at being written-off and their character questioned, he carried the papers proclaiming Brazil’s premature victory to his room, placed them across his bathroom floor and urinated all over them. It may have been an extreme example of garra. But the unyielding Varelia was also saying to all underdogs, to those dismissed or written-off: never give in.

It was a warning Brazil failed to heed.

Only one player has achieved the dream of all Brazilians – scoring in a World Cup Final for the selecao in the Maracana. A minute into the second-half Friaca realised that fantasy. It was his only goal for Brazil. It was to be the only goal Brazil scored that fatidico day. The jet-heeled right winger, Ghiggia from Montevideo, surged down the line crossing the ball for Schiaffino to equalise past Barbosa. Thirteen minutes later, Ghiggia surged down the line again. This time he was to ruin Moacyr Barbosa’s life forever.

Footage exists of 433pm, 16th July 1950: the worst moment of all Barbosa’s days on earth. What is a second in a lifetime of existence? For Moacyr this instant would shape the rest of his 50 years.

The moment lingers on in a melancholic afterlife on YouTube.

The grainy black and white footage is shot from behind the goal to the side. Ghiggia storms in from the left – a puff of chalk fires up as he runs over the white line of the 18-yard-box – and he quickly fires the ball at a blur. The blur is Barbosa. Anticipating a cross in a sudden cloudburst of misjudgement the ball bobbles up off him at speed and disappears out of shot; the action momentarily confusing the cameraman.

What is instructive is that you can follow the Brazilian camera operative’s thought process as clearly as if you were reading his mind. His first act is to assume the ball is with Barbosa. There is a fraction of a delay in which you can feel he is confused, before the truth guides him. Senses returning, he quickly switches the camera’s view to the net. In it, he and us find the ball, nestling sadly in the far corner.

You feel the man filming simply cannot believe what has happened. The picture remains on the ball channelling his disbelief. Slowly, unhappily, he returns to Barbosa. Moacyr is on one knee. His team mates have turned their back on him. No-one consoles him. Gradually and gently, he rises. The mesmerising recording I view is in slow motion, clearly detailing and heightening their anguish.

Distraught, Barbosa looks like a man who has cost Brazil the World Cup in a dumbstruck Maracana. Barbosa is a man who has cost Brazil the World Cup in a dumbstruck Maracana.

Did those sad eyes already realise he was about to spend the rest of his life vilified by millions?

Charismatic Brazilian radio commentator Luis Mendes described the action. ‘Goool do Uruguay’, he intoned mechanically before using the same words, this time in a question. ‘Gol du Uruguay?’ He continued in a litany of different, unhappy styles, nine times in a row, from astonishment – ‘Gol du Uruguay!’- to disbelief – ‘Gol du Uruguay, and finally to acceptance – ‘Gol du Uruguay…’

The official attendance was 173,850 – some say 200,000 – making it the largest football crowd ever.  Yet they all fell quiet at Barbosa’s error. As Ghiggia said years after his goal that won Uruguay a World Cup: “Only three people have silenced the Maracana…Sinatra, Pope John-Paul II and me”. It was said without any fear of contradiction.

Uruguay and garra churra won the World Cup. Modest Obdulio said: ‘it was one of those things’.  The Uruguayan FA presented themselves with gold medals. After a public outcry they struck silver medals for the celeste and disbursed a little money. Obdulio Varelia had just enough to buy a 1931 Ford. A week later it was stolen.

Post-match, a preposterous Jules Rimet looked for someone to give his trophy to. ‘I finally found Obdulio. I gave it to him…without letting anyone else see’. He didn’t mention his pre-written speech praising Brazil’s victory.

Brazilians – never opting for stoicism when flamboyant exhortations suffice, variously described the defeat as ‘our Hiroshima’, ‘the greatest tragedy in Brazilian history’; ‘a Waterloo of the tropics’. 

For Moacyr Barbosa, 16th July 1950 wasn’t an exercise in extravagant self-flagellation: it started a living nightmare. He was never forgiven. Life treated him harshly. He never played for Brazil again. People spat at him or abused him. He was denied coaching jobs after he retired. Having black skin didn’t help in a racially-divided country.

Once he visited the selecao to wish them well. He was denied, fearing bad luck. He was even refused a commentator’s job.

Later, Barbosa invited the few friends who had stuck by him for a BBQ. They noticed the fire in the grill’s pit – crammed with strange white logs – was raging far more than usual. The air smelt of paint burning. The week before Moacyr Barbosa had been presented with the Maracana goalposts. He could think of nothing more satisfying than to destroy them.

‘The steak I cooked that day was the best steak I ever tasted’, he recollected with a rare smile.

Yet the expected catharsis failed to materialise. After his wife died a friend revealed “he even cried on my shoulder – until the end he used to always say: ‘I’m not guilty. There were 11 of us.'”

An elderly Barbosa lamented, ‘In Brazil, the most you get for any crime is 30 years. For 50 years I’ve been paying for a crime I did not commit. Even a criminal when he has paid his debt is forgiven. But I have never been forgiven.”

In 2000, penniless and close to death, he recalled his memory of 1970 – in the year when the greatest-ever Brazil team won the World Cup, a mother pointed him out to her child in a market saying: ‘Look at him. He was the man who made all of Brazil cry’.

Heart failure caused Moacyr Barbosa to die in 2000, aged 79. Some say it was a broken heart that killed him.

By Layth Yousif

World Soccer