Jair (footballer, born 1921)

**Jair da Rosa Pinto** (21 March 1921 – 28 July 2005) is a former Brazilian football player. He played for Brazil national team. Considered as one of the best football players of all time.  Usually playing as an inside-forward, Jair was noted for his free-role style of play and he was most known for his pace and technical ability to beat the opponents and a extremely fast left-winger. He was also renowned for having his strong left foot and he was regarded as one of the leading Brazilian footballers of the 1940s and 1950s.

## Early days
Jair was born on March 21, 1921 in Quatis, Rio de Janeiro.

## Club career
Jair started his career with Madureira club in 1938 where at that time he was playing on the left wing position. His agile play and ability to kick hard towards the goal made him more and more known. In 1943, Jair moved to the Vasco da Gama club. He helped the Vasco club and managed to secure second place in the Brazilian League in 1944, Expresso da Vitória, considered one of the greatest squads in the club's history. In 1947 before the Brazilian League began, he moved to the Flamengo club. In the 1947 season, he did not succeed in helping Flamengo win the league instead his old club Vasco won the league. In 1949, he joined the Palmeiras club until 1955. In 1955, the Palmeiras club only needed a draw with its rival club São Paulo to win the league. When his club trailed 1-0, Jair scored 1 goal to help his club win the league. His move to Santos club in 1956 gave him a lot of success with the football club where his club won the league by a gap of 7 points in Jair’s first season with the Santos club. During his time with Santos, his club was never outside the top two of the league, winning the league in 1958 and 1960 during which time he played with Pelé at a young age.

He left Santos in 1961, by which time he was 40 years old. He moved to São Paulo for one season before moving to Ponte Preta the following season. He retired at the age of 42.

## International career
He made his debut in the Brazilian national team on March 5, 1940, in a match against Argentina. Brazil lost the game 6-1. the only goal for Brazil was scored by Jair, which was the first of his 22 goals he scored for the national team.

He played one of the best games during the 1940s for the national team against Uruguay in 1944. He scored a hattrick in that friendly match. During the 1940s, he played for the Brazilian national team at three South American championships, in 1945, 1946 and 1949, when the Brazilian national team won the championship and he was the top scorer with 9 goals, while in 1945 and 1946 he finished second. He was left out for the South American Championship in 1942 due to his injury. 

The 1950s were the most mature years of Jair. Together with Friaça, Chico, Zizinho and Ademir, he led the Brazilian team. With such positive energy, they welcomed the 1950 World Cup, which was held in Brazil. It was considered as one of Brazil's best squads. Brazil played well throughout the tournament and led by the trio of Jair, Zizinho and Ademir scored 22 goals in six games before falling to Uruguay in a match that was, in fact, the World Cup final - a match in which Jair hit the post during the early domination of Brazil, but could do nothing to prevent Uruguay from recovering from Friaça's early goal and triumphing 2-1 and 200,000 fans from the Maracana Stadium, which was built for the World Cup, sent home disappointed and he was included in the Team of the Tournament and after that he did not play for the national team for 6 years. In 1956 returned to the Brazil national team to play for Copa América.

## Managerial career
After retirement of his playing career, Jair worked as a coach, heading the clubs Sao Paulo, Juventus, Ponte Preta, Vitoria, Olaria, Santos, Madureira, Palmeiras, Fluminense and Guarani.

## Death
He died on July 28, 2005 at the age of 84 from a lung infection. His ashes were buried in the Cajou cemetery, near the port in Rio de Janeiro.

## International career statistics 
|-
|1940||5||1
|-
|1941||0||0
|-
|1942||0||0
|-
|1943||0||0
|-
|1944||2||3
|-
|1945||6||2
|-
|1946||6||4
|-
|1947||2||1
|-
|1948||1||0
|-
|1949||7||9
|-
|1950||8||2
|-
|1951||0||0
|-
|1952||0||0
|-
|1953||0||0
|-
|1954||0||0
|-
|1955||0||0
|-
|1956||2||0
|-
!Total||39||22
|}

## Honours
### Clubs
*Rio State Championship: 1945
*São Paulo State Championship: 1950, 1956, 1958, 1960
*Rio-São Paulo Tournament: 1951, 1959
*Copa Rio: 1951

### International
* 1950 FIFA World Cup: Runner-up
* 1949 Copa América: Winner
* 1946 Copa América: Runner-up
* 1945 Copa América: Runner-up
* 1956 Copa América: Fourth place
* Taça Oswaldo Cruz: 1950
* Copa Rio Branco: 1947, 1950
* Roca Cup: 1945
* Roca Cup Runner-up: 1940
* Copa Rio Branco Runner-up: 1940, 1946, 1948

### Individual
*Copa América Top Scorer: 1949
*FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1950
*IFFHS Brazilian Player of the 20th Century (20th place)
*IFFHS South American Player of the 20th Century (28th place)
*Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame

## References