Jairzinho

Jairzinho (born 25 December, 1944) is a former Brazilian football player. He has played for Brazil national team. A quick, skillful, and powerful right winger known for his finishing ability and eye for goal, he was a key member and top scorer of the legendary Brazil national team that won the 1970 FIFA World Cup. He is nicknamed The Hurricane () in reference to the way his jersey would shake as he ran down the wing during his playing days. A versatile forward, he was also capable of playing in a variety of other attacking positions, as a main striker, second striker, or even as an attacking midfielder. Jairzinho was known for his large afro towards the later stages of his career, as well as his burst of pace, dribbling, ball skills, finishing ability, shot power and devastating strength due to his large muscular build. Regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian football players of all time.
Club career
He was a member of one of the best Brazilian forwards of all time. He succeeded Garrincha at both Botafogo and the Brazil national football team. During his sports career, he played for Botafogo (with which he won three championships in the youth category and seven titles in the Rio de Janeiro Championship), he also won two Roberto Gomes Pedrosa tournaments (the Brazilian league at the time) and was part of the great team from Botafogo that achieved 3 consecutive editions of the Little World Cup in 1967, 1968 and 1970, where they beat teams like Barcelona, Benfica and Spartak Trnav. In addition, he played for Olympique de Marseille, Cruzeiro (club with which he was proclaimed champion of the Minas Gerais League and won the 1976 Copa Libertadores), Portuguesa Futbol Club de Acarigua (he joined in his last active years and in which he won two Venezuelan Leagues) and Jorge Wilstermann (where he won two national titles and qualified for the semifinals for the first time for a Bolivian team in the Copa Libertadores de America).
International career
Jairzinho made his international debut aged 19 in 1964 against Portugal, again when Garrincha was injured. He played in the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England, however, with Garrincha back in the team, he played as a left winger. Jairzinho struggled to be effective in this position, especially at his young age, and was unable to prevent Brazil from crashing out of the competition in the first round. When, after the tournament, Garrincha announced his retirement from international football, Jairzinho finally assumed the role of Brazil's idol on the right wing. Jairzinho scored 2 goals in the 6 qualifying games for the 1970 FIFA World Cup.
Now in his favorite position he became a much more effective and consistent player for his country. At the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, Jairzinho was recognised one of the stars of the tournament. He made history by scoring in all the matches the Brazil National Team played, for which he received the epithet "Furacao da Copa" (Hurricane World Cup). His second goal against Czechoslovakia was one of the best goals of the tournament, completing an incredible solo run, getting past 3-4 players to unleash a powerful low shot to undulate the bottom left corner, which goes down as one of the most memorable goals in history of the World Cup.
He scored his seventh goal of the tournament in Brazil's 4-1 World Cup win over Italy in the final. However, his impressive goals tally in the finals were not enough to win him the Golden Boot, which went to Germany's and Gerd Muller, who scored ten goals. Jairzinho has claimed that FIFA gave him an award for the "best body on the planet" for his athleticism; however, FIFA has no record of this award.
Jairzinho scored two goals in the 1974 FIFA World Cup, which would be his last World Cup for Brazil. The 3rd place final was his last game for Brazil until he was given a one-time farewell cap against Czechoslovakia on March 3, 1982 in a game that Brazil drew 1-1. He scored 33 goals in 81 games during his international career.
Club career statistics
|-
|1971||rowspan="4"|Botafogo||rowspan="4"|Serie A||10||5
|-
|1972||19||9
|-
|1973||13||5
|-
|1974||0||0
|-
|1974-75||Olympique Marseille||Division 1||18||9
|-
|1975||rowspan="3"|Cruzeiro||rowspan="3"|Serie A||0||0
|-
|1976||8||3
|-
|1977||0||0
|-
|1977-78||Portuguesa||Primera Division||0||0
|-
|1978||Noroeste||Serie A||0||0
|-
|1979||Nacional Fast||Serie A||2||0
|-
|1980||Jorge Wilstermann||Liga de Futbol Profesional||0||0
|-
|1981||Botafogo||Serie A||0||0
|-
|1982||9 Octubre||Serie A||0||0
52||22
18||9
0||0
0||0
0||0
70||31
|}
International career statistics
|-
|1964||1||1
|-
|1965||6||0
|-
|1966||10||0
|-
|1967||0||0
|-
|1968||13||7
|-
|1969||9||5
|-
|1970||14||11
|-
|1971||0||0
|-
|1972||5||3
|-
|1973||6||2
|-
|1974||16||4
|-
|1975||0||0
|-
|1976||0||0
|-
|1977||0||0
|-
|1978||0||0
|-
|1979||0||0
|-
|1980||0||0
|-
|1981||0||0
|-
|1982||1||0
|-
!Total||81||33
|}
Honours
Club
Botafogo
Taca Brasil: 1968
Campeonato Carioca: 1961, 1962, 1967, 1968
Torneio Rio - Sao Paulo: 1964, 1966
Torneio de Caracas: 1967, 1968, 1970
Cruzeiro
Copa Libertadores: 1976
International
Brazil
Pan American Games champion: 1963
Copa Rio Branco: 1968
FIFA World Cup: 1970
Brazil Independence Cup: 1972
FIFA World Cup fourth place: 1974
Individual
FIFA World Cup Silver Boot: 1970
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1970
South American Player of the Year: Bronze award 1972
World Soccer: 27th Greatest Player of the 20th Century
IFFHS Brazilian Player of the 20th Century (19th place)
Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame
References
1944 births
Living people
Footballers from Rio de Janeiro
Brazilian football managers