Background

Ethnicity: Zico's parents, as his grandparents, came from Portugal.

Zico, by birth Arthur Antunes Coimbra, was born on March 3, 1953 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is the youngest child among six kids in a family of José Antunes Coimbra and Matilde Ferreira da Costa Silva. Zico's siblings' names are Maria José (Zezé), Antunes, Nando, Edu and Antônio (Tonico).

Education

Born into a lower-middle class family of Portuguese origin, Zico revealed his abilities for football from the tender age. He often preferred playing with the older children and teenagers of the area instead of classes. He began his way to a professional sport, competing for a local Juventude futsal street team, managed by his elder siblings and friends, where he excelled. On weekends, the football star-to-be honed his skills within futsal club River Futebol Clube.

Zico's performance in one match was noted by a radio journalist Celso Garcia who invited the boy for a trial in Flamengo, the sports club of Rio de Janeiro, in 1960. Zico accepted the offer after his father's permission. Being not physically strong, he strictly followed a special diet and hard training program of the gym teacher José Roberto Francalacci that helped him to firm his muscles and body.

In the early 1970s, Flamengo's coaches constantly transferred Zico from youth to professional squad of the team and vice versa. Zico was finally approved to professionals by Joubert, a coach, after he scored 81 goals in 116 matches on a youth level.

Career

The start of Zico's career in adult sport can be counted from 1972 when he joined the professional squad of Flamengo football club. It was while playing for Flamengo that Zico tried himself on an international level for the first time. In 1972, he joined the national team of Brazil to participate in a qualifying series for the Summer Olympics Games in Munich. The good performance that he demonstrated in five matches and a qualifying goal against Argentina didn't help him to be chosen for the Olympics. Deeply frustrated, he even had an intention to drop out of the sport.

Though, Zico got a grip and showcased all his potential within Flamengo. During the first period in the team, which lasted eleven years, he helped the squad to win the 1981 Copa Libertadores, the 1981 Intercontinental Cup, and to earn four national titles. His achievements were marked by a Player of the Year title in 1981.

In his second World Cup, in 1982, Zico competed for his national team alongside such football stars as Falcão, Sócrates, Éder, Cerezo and Júnior. Although the Brazilian team lost to Italy 3–2 in the final match of the second round group stage, this squad at the Cup has been regarded since then as the greatest in the national history. A year after the Cup, Zico signed a four-million dollar contract with an Italian football club Udinese.

The first season that Zico played for Udinese ended up with a ninth final place for the team which achieved only 32 points. Zico's personal results turned to be much better as in scored goals at the end of the season he was the second only to a French football star Michel Platini. Playing in 4 matches less than Platini, Zico had 19 goals. Such a great performance was honored by a second Player of the Year title. After the season of 1984-1985, marked by a series of injuries and suspensions from referees, as well as by some tax evasion problems, Zico made his way back to Flamengo. His last game for Udinese was against Italian Napoli captained by another football legend Diego Maradona at the time.

Right after the return, he was withdrawn from the game for several months by a serious knee injury caused by Bangu's defender Marcio Nunes. The injury had a bad impact on Zico's performance at his third World Cup in 1986 as well. The following year, however, he helped Flamengo to grab the Copa União title.

Zico played his final matches for the team in 1989. In a Brazilian National Championship, Flamengo defeated another Brazilian team, Fluminense, 5–0. Two months later, Zico played against such football stars as Eric Gerets, Claudio Gentile, Franco Causio, Alberto Tarantini, Jorge Valdano, Mario Kempes, Paul Breitner, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Falcão, at Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

In 1990, the newly elected President of Brazil, Fernando Collor de Mello, assigned Zico as his Minister of Sports. During almost one year of his tenure in politics, the Brazilian football star drafted a law that touched the business side of sports teams.

Zico resumed his athletic career in 1991 when he joined the squad of the Japanese football club Sumitomo Metals (present-day Kashima Antlers), based in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture. His mission was to promote the team into Japan's first fully professional football league. He succeeded in the task. After the launch of the league in 1993, Zico led the Antlers to a victory at the J.League Suntory Series, that booked the team a second place at the end of the league's debut season. He became a hero in Japan. Zico announced his retirement from professional football in 1994.

The sports ambitions were still strong, and the retired star accepted the invitation into the beach soccer team. He led it to the victory of the World Cup at the end of the 1995 season and was named the best player of the competition. Then, Zico's past triumph in Japanese Antlers provided him with a post of the team's technical adviser which he successfully combined with playing beach soccer.

In the middle of the 1990s, Zico established Zico Football Centre (CFZ) in Rio de Janeiro and then launched his career in team management by founding the football club CFZ de Brasília in 1999. Since then, the football legend has served as the manager and coach for both sports clubs (Fenerbahçe S.K., Bunyodkor, CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos, Al-Gharafa and FC Goa) and national teams, including those of Japan and Iraq. In August 2018, Zico resumed the position of technical director in the Kashima Antlers, previously serving as its director between 1996 and 2002.

Achievements

• 

  Zico, sometimes dubbed White Pelé, when compared to another football legend for his eye for a goal and brilliant technical skills, is certainly one of the eminent players of all time.
  
  He scored 508 goals in 731 matches that he played for Flamengo, that made him the top scorer in the history of the team. As to the number of appearances for the club, it is the 2nd result ever. He is also the fifth goalscorer for the national football team of Brazil, having 48 goals in 71 official appearances for the squad to his credit.
  
  A two-time Player of the Year, Zico was placed 8th in the FIFA Player of the Century grand jury vote in 1999. He is also the IFFHS 3rd Best Brazilian Player of the 20th century and the IFFHS 7th Best South American Player of the 20th century. He has been featured in the 2004 FIFA list of 100 world's greatest living players and in the IFFHS Legends. In 2010, Zico was inducted into the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame.

Works

More photos

• book

  • El Gorrión de Magé

    (A volume in Spanish with a foreword by Zico.)

    2020

Views

Quotations: "This debate about the player of the century is absurd. There's only one possible answer: Pele. He's the greatest player of all time, and by some distance I might add."

"There is no reason for me to be compared to Pele. He was the greatest […] I am Zico, only Zico."

"The best of the lot, no question. In my generation, my era, he was simply the best. I saw Maradona do things that God himself would doubt were possible. He always had someone marking him, he always had someone hanging on to him, and yet he could still always conjure up wonderful pieces of magic. A genius."

"Messi is close to Maradona. That means, in my opinion, he can't be compared to Pele. I still consider Maradona in front of Messi. With Pele, no. Pele has all the qualities and characteristic that a football player has to have. When God created him [Pele], he put every quality a footballer needs; speed, strength, impulse, technique, kicking ability, heading, dribbling – all of it, everything that a player might have. Messi has almost everything, but he doesn't have the World Cup titles that Pele has. This means a lot."

"I really like Ney [Neymar], his way of playing is incredible. But he has to be more professional like Ronaldo and Messi, who live for football. Ney has too many thoughts that distract him."

Personality

Zico's pen name under which he achieved international fame is a result of shortenings of his family nickname 'Arthurzinho' (literally 'Little Arthur'). First, it turned to Arthurzico, then Tuzico, and eventually best-known Zico. He received another nickname while playing for the Japanese football club Kashima Antlers in the early 1990s. The Japanese fans dubbed him "God of Football" for his discipline and perseverance.

Physical Characteristics: Zico is 1.72 meters tall.

Quotes from others about the person

• Pelé: "Throughout the years, the one player that came closest to me was Zico."

Interests

• Athletes

  Diego Maradona, Pelé

Connections

Zico met his wife-to-be, Sandra Carvalho de Sá, in 1969. They went public with their engagement a year later and entered the wedlock in 1975. The family produced three children, Arthur Jr., Bruno, and Thiago.

Father:

José Antunes Coimbra

(born June 10, 1901 – died November 12, 1986)

Mother:

Matilde Ferreira da Costa Silva

(born January 19, 1919 – died November 17, 2002)

Spouse:

Sandra Carvalho de Sá

coach:

Manuel Fleitas Solich

(born December 30, 1900 – died March 24, 1984)

Brother:

Antunes Coimbra

Brother:

Edu Coimbra

(born February 5, 1947)

Born Eduardo Antunes Coimbra, Edu is a former attacking midfielder. He then shifted to management.

Sister:

Maria José Coimbra

Brother:

Nando Coimbra

Brother:

Antônio Coimbra

Son:

Arthur Antunes Coimbra Junior

(born October 15, 1977)

Arthur Antunes Coimbra Jr. followed in his father's footsteps and became a footballer. He played as a midfielder. He is 1.79 meters tall.

Son:

Bruno Coimbra

Son:

Thiago Coimbra

References

• Zico: A Lesson in Living The story of a man who could surpass his childhood's physical limitations and through determination and willpower became one of the greatest soccer stars of the whole world.
  1990
• A to Zico: An Alphabet of Brazilian Football A book by journalists Mauricio Savarese and Euan Marshall.
  2014
• Official Facebook of Zico