Izuchukwu OkosiFollowing the death of former Brazil football icon, Mario Zagallo, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has declared seven days of mourning for the man they described as the “greatest world champion of all time” and “idol of several generations.”
Zagallo died in the early hours of Saturday at the age of 92 as announced by the official website of the Brazil Football Federation (CBF).
“The CBF and Brazilian football mourn the death of one of its legends, Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo,” CBF President Ednaldo Rodriguez noted.
“The CBF expresses its solidarity with his family and fans in this moment of grief for the departure of this idol of our football,” the website of the four-time world champions further quoted the Federation boss.
Zagallo was the first Brazilian to win two World Cup tournaments as a player, in 1958 and 1962, and later as a coach, in 1970.
The class of ’70 is widely regarded as perhaps the best football national team in world football as they had some of the best and biggest names in the history of the game like Pele, Jairzinho, Tostão, Gerson and Rivellino.
Zagallo is the only one to have participated in five World Cup finals, losing only one, against France in 1998, as a coach.
In 1994, he was assistant coach to Carlos Alberto Pereirra as the Samba men defeated Italy via penalty shootouts to win the FIFA World Cup.
They were also adjudged the ‘most entertaining team of the World Cup’ by virtue of their brand of football, edging debutants, Nigeria, to second place.
“The CBF declares seven days of mourning in tribute to the memory of its eternal champion and commits to honoring his legacy”, Ednaldo Rodriguez informed.
The Brazilian Football governing body also announced that a minute of silence will be observed in all matches of the first round of the Northeast Cup qualifiers.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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