Moacir Barbosa

Moacir Barbosa Nascimento (27 March 1921 - 7 April 2000) was a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team. He was regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world in the 1940s and 1950s. He was known for not wearing gloves because he wanted to feel the ball with his bare hands. He was a confident and elastic goalkeeper, endowed with an excellent sense of placement, who was never afraid to dive into the feet of his opponents. Although he won many trophies, he is most remembered for the Maracanazo, the drama in which host country Brazil lost to neighboring Uruguay in the 1950 FIFA World Cup Final. He died of a heart attack at the age of 79 and was buried in the Praia Grande Municipal Cemetery in Sao Paulo.
Club career
He started his career with the small club ADCI and in 1942 made the move to CA Ypiranga, a mid-sized player from Sao Paulo. There he was noticed by Vasco da Gama and went there for ten years in 1945. With this club he won the Campeonato Carioca six times, once the Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo and in 1948 the Campeonato Sul-Americano de Campeoes, which is considered the first edition of the Copa Libertadores. After his time at Vasco, he played for Bonsucesso and Santa Cruz and then back for Vasco. He ended his career at Campo Grande.
International career
Barbosa made his debut for the Brazilian national team in 1945 during the Copa America where Brazil finished as runners-up, he was selected to play for the Roca Cup and he won the Cup, and he was selected to play for 1947 and 1950 Copa Rio Branco and Brazil won. Barbosa also won the South American Championship in 1949. In the final, Brazil beat Paraguay 7-0, their biggest win in a final of this competition to date. At the World Cup in his own country a year later, the title was decided via a group stage. Coincidentally, the third game between Brazil and Uruguay was decisive, Brazil even needed a draw to become world champions and was a huge favorite. Not only because they were the home country, but also because they scored much faster than the Uruguayans. Friaca gave the Brazilians the lead, but a badly playing Bigode was dribbling past twice by Alcides Ghiggia, who then also passed goalkeeper Barbosa. The loss was a national drama and Barbosa was one of the scapegoats and he was blamed along with Bigode and Juvenal. He would carry this drama with him for the rest of his life. In an interview shortly before his death in 2000, he stated that the maximum prison sentence in Brazil is 30 years, but that he will be sentenced to 50 years for something he was not even responsible for. In 1993 the Brazilian federation banned him from commenting on an international match and he was also once sent off from a training session for the national team because he could bring bad luck.
Honours
Club
Vasco da Gama
Campeonato Sul-Americano de Campeoes: 1948
Torneio Rio-Sao Paulo: 1958
Campeonato Carioca: 1945, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1958
Torneio Intercontinental Octogonal Rivadavia Correa Meyer: 1953
Torneio Quadrangular do Rio: 1953
Torneio Internacional de Santiago de Chile: 1953
International
Brazil
Copa America: 1949
Copa Roca: 1945
Copa Rio Branco: 1947, 1950
FIFA World Cup Runner-up: 1950
Panamerican Championship: 1952
Taca Oswaldo Cruz: 1950, 1955
Copa Rio Branco Runner-up: 1946, 1948
Copa America Runner-up: 1945, 1946, 1953
Copa America Third Place: 1959
Individual
IFFHS Brazilian Keeper of the 20th Century: (3rd place)
IFFHS South American Keeper of the 20th Century: (11th place)
FIFA World Cup: All-Star Team: 1950 (reserve)
References
1921 births
2000 deaths
Brazilian association football goalkeepers