Chris Taylor
THERE was a time when clubs in Rio de Janeiro needed look no further than the nearest side street, car park, beach or backyard for the next crop of football talent. Young players seemed to sprout like the weeds in the wasteground where they would hone their skills until it was too dark to see.
But as the city has grown, concrete has been poured over the grass, bringing offices and apartments where once there were t-shirts as goalposts. Now cars, not kids, rule the streets. Suddenly a country that has given the world so many of its greatest players is worried that the next generation has nowhere to learn.
Primary among those concerned is Zico, for many Brazilians still the best player the country has produced since Pele. Zico, a fit-looking 44-year-old who took his skills to three World Cups, laments that the football pitches and open spaces where he learned his trade have disappeared.
“Over in Quintino [a Rio suburb] where I used to live there were eight grass pitches. Now it’s all buildings, flats and housing. In my day there were many football pitches throughout Rio. I think we have lost the chance to have many great players because of the lack of space to play football in the street, so many people look for another route. If you’re not going to play football, you’re going to go for basketball, for video games, for volleyball, or go to the beach to surf.”
Of course, Rio still has its beaches where young cariocas can hone their football skills, but even there you are as likely to find a game of volleyball, or that typically Brazilian hybrid, fute-volei.
Zico, though, has done more than sit and grumble about it, the proof of which, the Zico Football Centre, boasts some of the best facilities for schoolboy football in Rio. He says the reason he built the centre – in Barra, a new addition to Rio’s beachfront sprawl about 30km down the coast from Copacabana – was that he had a boys’ team with nowhere to play in the area. Zico’s wealth, built up in a career that took him to Italy and Japan, helped turn a frustrated manager’s dream into reality.
The football school takes boys from the age of six up to 17, separated into five age- group categories. The parents pay a fee but there is a sliding scale of bursaries, and some pay nothing. About 700 kids have been signed up for this year’s course. The facilities are impressive. Several pitches of various sizes boast some of the best- looking turf in Rio. There is a gym and an administration block, including the inevitable shop selling Zico merchandise. Zico himself wears his Zico Centre strip to the office, albeit with the addition of a briefcase.
“The first objective is to give these kids the opportunity to play real football, on grass, on a field, because here isn’t just a place for those who want to go on to play professional football. We’ve got many kids who come here, play and don’t have any interest in being professionals. Their parents send the kids here because it’s a nice, pleasant place; they’re safe and the place has a positive attitude. We want to prepare citizens, not just footballers.”
For an example of a responsible citizen, the kids need look no further than Zico himself. In his playing days with Brazil’s most popular club Flamengo, he was a model professional, a clean-living family man devoted to his wife. On his wall is a framed certificate from the Father’s Day Council of something called the Japan Men’s Fashion Unity, praising him as a role model. It is an honour that has eluded bad boys such as Romario, the current hero of the Flamengo faithful, whose lifestyle has prompted some uncomplimentary exchanges with his illustrious predecessor.
“In professional terms, Romario and Maradona are good examples because they are winners, they won titles,” Zico says. “In social terms, without a doubt they are terrible examples because of the life they lead. Maradona is a bad example because of the drugs and Romario is a bad example because he’s a party person, a nightclub man.
“But Romario’s changing, he’s living a different sort of life from the one he used to, because he understands that he needs to look after his body to be able to perform on the field. If not, he’ll never be the player he’s capable of being.” Zico’s image made him an ideal choice to help launch the J-League in Japan, where he enjoyed an Indian summer at the end of his career playing for Kashima Antlers.
He returned to Rio in 1994 to set up his school, but he remains the technical director of Kashima Antlers and divides his time between Brazil and Japan. The Antlers spent last month in Rio doing their pre- season training at Zico’s centre, completing a happy and profitable circle. “Japan was good for me financially,” Zico says. “I built this place thanks to my time in Japan.” He estimates that his project has cost him 1,25-million to 1,85- million.
The son of a Portuguese immigrant father, Zico was born Artur Antunes Coimbra. He spent 22 years at Flamengo, before and after his two-year stint in Italy with Udinese, and is still closely associated with the club. In 1981, a Zico-led Flamengo won the South American championship and then went on to beat Liverpool 3-1 – then at the peak of their powers – in Tokyo to claim the world club title.
Although at the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups much was expected of Brazil’s “white Pele”, Zico’s potential was never quite fulfilled on the biggest stage of all. In part this was because of the under- achievement of the teams of which he was part, particularly the 1982 side, which lost 3-2 to Italy in the quarter-finals.
For those kids with ability who want more out of their time at the Zico centre than just becoming better citizens, Zico has another project bubbling away. “If they’ve got talent, we’re not just going to spend all our time coaching them for someone else. So I created a football team, Rio de Janeiro FC, that’s going to take part in the Rio de Janeiro state championship.
“What I want to do is in three years’ time have a professional team of kids who’ve graduated from here.” The idea is to enter Rio de Janeiro FC in the third division of the state championship and progress up the divisions and break the dominance of the big four Rio clubs – Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco da Gama. Plans are afoot to build a couple of stands around the centre’s main pitch that should provide room for 4 000 spectators.
The fixture between the great Rio rivals Flamengo and Fluminense – the Fla-Flu – is one of the great derbies of the world, but Zico’s ambition is that in 10 years’ time the game between Flamengo and his own Rio de Janeiro FC will enjoy a similar status.
“Right now my team’s supporters are the parents and friends of the players. When they start doing well, they could attract a lot of people, a whole set of youngsters who aren’t committed to a club. So I hope that in 10 years we could have a great match between Rio de Janeiro and Flamengo. It’s hard to say who I’d support.”
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