Over a quarter of a century back, when the great Brazilian
footballer magician “Garrincha” died, his coffin draped with Brazilian soccer
Flag was brought to the mighty stadium “Maracana”
where a sea of humanity paid its last respect for their once hero; Hero of
1958, 1962 and 1966 World Cup Tournaments who in all the three World Cup
appearances dazzled the world with his sheer genius in shooting the ball into
the opponents goals from long distance, dribbling the ball like a magician even
in front of his opponents evading past all of them and make joke of the
goalkeepers of his opponents, receive and pass the ball accurately and indicate
his perfectness in the aerial duels. With his bendy legs, he could easily score
goals directly from the corner kicks. Experts in soccer said that he was as
good as Pele but still he remained far behind Pele because Pele’s genius was unmatchable and Pele’s discipline on and off the field was something to be admired.
What Pele could do for the ball with his right foot no other footballer could
do. Pele could make the ball to do anything except talk. Pele had the mastery
of 3 specially perfected foot-ball Tricks, namely “Overhead Kick (Cycle Kick),
Banana Kick, Play the ball off an opponent’s leg and Play the game where there
is no Ball, that is simply run on to the space where there is no ball and
thereby simply pull one or two defenders towards him to mark him and leave the
space empty from where Pele pulled the
defenders after him. Our Andrew of
A+B+C+D fame of Vasco Sports Club used to perform the last type of Trick that
is of simply running opposite side of the ball and pull at least one defender
after him, though sporadically yet he used to put this Trick into practice and
at Duler Ground Mapusa I was victim of him.
Garricha played best of his
soccer along with Pele for many years and this duo created wonders on the
field. Many of his goals came from the feedings Garrincha received from Pele
and vice versa. He would still survive on peak of his form like Pele to play
for Brazil in Mexico as well in 1970 World Cup but he failed because he was
addicted to liquour, night club life and irresponsible sex. Thru these vices he
lost his greatness and died a miserable death as a pauper inspite of having
earned so much. He was the father of number
of children. Garrincha coming from poor family background rose to the level almost
of a king because of soccer but died as a beggar. Very many of our celebrities
suffer this type of powerty because of the improper guidance for them from their
Guides/Managers. Secondly all the celebrities do not think of tomorrow, they
think and live for today only, tomorrow means nothing for them, they think
tomorrow will also fetch them all the best as they got today but poor thing,
they fail to realize that TOMORROW IS THE MOST UNPREDICTABLE DAY.
Coming back to Garrincha, soccer
fraternity in Brazil and his fans never forgot to respect him in his death.
This is the greatness of such once great foot-ballers on the other side of the
Globe. There they adore and respect equally well during their
playing career and also in their retirement period for this reason best of
foot-ballers are produced and created on that side of the World. We in our country we don't do this, once even
an exceptionally talented foot-baller during his top form but during his
difficult days in his retirement time when he suffered so much, nobody cared
for him. India has never produced a player and a goal scorer like Neville D’Souza,
he had the unique distinction to play
for India in the Olympics and score a hat trick, people all over India were
kissing his feet and in Bombay where he developed his foot-ball skill by
playing for Caltex Team and where he was considered the most precious Goan,
regretfully and unfortunately died a sad death sans money even for his medical
treatment. The society and the community
that was calling their hero and taking pride in him even forgot him during his
last poverty stricken days. I feel ashamed
for my Goenkarpon where in Bombay this Goenkarpon was totally forgotten and in
future it will disappear from this planet because of the principle followed,
“APUN APLEAK ANI DEV SOMESTANK”.
In my village IN Candolim, there
was one village Church “Pedho” (Grave digger), his name was Bengalo. He was
till his death in 1977 a football crazy. He was not a football player himself
but was a very good football tournament organizer and a referee at LOCAL level.
During night time he was a number one “Bebdo” but during the soccer match
perfectly o.k. He was very rich in love for soccer but very poor in money.
Hence, he was robbing money from the village Church Pe. Vigar and purchasing
beautiful Trophies and Medals to organize Inter Ward Soccer Tournaments in Candolim.
By doing this he was not only showing his love for soccer but also uniting
people thru the medium of soccer. During those days in my village, Bengalo’s
tournament means something big and locals used to flock the ground to watch and
cheer their favourites. Even spectators from the neighbouring villages used to
watch this tournament.
Once during Portuguese time at
Nerul football ground, after finishing the match, Bengalo ran to the ground and
presented a beautiful Medal to one Portugues Paklo, right outer playing for St.
Inez, this Paklo was playing beautifully. When this Paklo saw a strange person
running to him in torn banyan and torn short, he became alert but Bengalo went
straight to him, hugged the Paklo and said to Paklo in Portuguese “Bom – Bom”
(this was the only word illiterate Bengalo knew in Portuguese). Paklo laughed
and laughed, so too the spectators. Next day while checking his money, Pe.
Vigar noticed 100 Escudos missing from his bag. These Escudos – Portuguese
currency in Goa – were robbed by Bengalo from Pe. Vigar to purchase a beautiful
Medal to present it to that Paklo player of St. Inezn . Bengalo was not a
professional Thief but an amateur whose robberies were limited to the limited
amount only for the limited purpose only otherwise he would rob all the money
of the Pe. Vigar and not just 100 Escudos.
When Bengalo died in 1977, I was
in Goa on vacation. Thru my initiative and thru the support and co-operation of
the locals, Club, Church and Panchayat, we made Bengalo’s funeral very grand even
with Bras Band in attendance and brought his coffin to the football ground to
pay a fitting tribute to his love for soccer. In a small ceremony on football
ground attended by number of people participating in the funeral procession,
the Club president and Sarpanch lauded the efforts of Bengalo to promote soccer
in our village. And after the funeral in the Cemetery, Pe. Chico Monteiro, the
renowned Goan priest from Candolim who attended the funeral, in his brief
speech praised Bengalo for uniting the locals and bringing them together thru
the medium of soccer. Pe. Chico Monteiro concluded his funeral oratory with a
statement saying “a great man and a great peace maker has died in Bengalo”.
An ordinary man with ordinary
background received an extraordinary honour in his death and in his own
locality where he was born and brought up even though Jesus Christ advised his
apostles not to preach in their own localities because of their humble
background locals will not give respect for their preachi8ng, instead of
listening to the preaching of the prophets the listeners will point out to the
low background of the prophets. But such
a pointing of finger was not pointed out to our Football crazy Bengalo when the
whole village bowed down its head in
respect for his Coffin irrespective of
his being a ganvcho Pedho or not and I can rightly say that such an
honour nobody received in Candolim till today. It all happened because of
soccer and because of the few of us who
were present during his funeral and who knew the great work Bengalo did in the
promotion of FOOT-BALL. MAY HIS SOUL
REST IN PEACE.
A. Veronica Fernandes.
