By Raising the Cup, the Captain Began a Common Practice

03/21/2014 - 09h31

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RUY CASTRO

FOLHA COLUMNIST

When Bellini, captain of the Brazilian team, lifted the Jules Rimet - the trophy for winning the 1958 World Cup in Sweden for Brazil - he couldn't have imagined that the gesture would have such a long life.

First, it has become a common practice for winners in any sport, the raising of the trophy above one's head. Second, Bellini himself has been characterized by it. For all who admired him, he unintentionally became a statue of himself.

Four years later, businessman Abraham Medina planted a statue of a man lifting a trophy at the entrance to Maracanã Stadium.

The body was that of an athlete, but the face was that of the late singer Francisco Alves, greatly admired by Medina.

Because he didn't want Rio residents to know-he called it "the statue of Bellini". And this is how, up to now, people meet up "in the Bellini', fans argue "in the Bellini", lovers kiss "in the Bellini".

If, before, Bellini was a statue, the statue later became Bellini.

Bellini, captain of 1958 Brazilian team

For years, he was captain of a Brazilian team that included Pelé, Didi, Garrincha, Nilton Santos, Zagalo, Zito, Dino Sani, Orlando, Gilmar, Djalma Santos and his own backup, Mauro.

They were men with big personalities. Many could have captained the team, and all-without exception-were more player than he. So why was Bellini the undisputed starter for Brazil's central defense and donned jersey number 3 and the captain's armband?

For the aura that emanated from his figure. Bellini was a leader, a natural commander.

His 5 foot 9 frame and 176 pounds of muscle could make him hover above most, but what mattered was the authority that flowed from within him. He was intelligent, strong and articulate, and well mannered, conscientious and fair.

As an older brother, he scolded blunders by Pelé, Garrincha and Mazzola. Now with Didi, Nilton Santos and Zito, he was the adult figure. In the games themselves, he was brave - rewarding the little coach with strong play. But don't think it wasn't violent. It's well known that his legs were a map of scars, a result of weekly battles with centers heavier than he was.

By all accounts, he was a handsome man. Women knew this, and film producers - who wanted to take him to Hollywood - did, too. But Bellini, who, still fresh from Sweden and the gesture of the statue, refused an offer from the Real Madrid of Di Stéfano and Puskás, as well as turning down Hollywood.

He was a São Paulo native from Itapira, but made his career with Rio's Vasco da Gama. It's odd that, before going to Vasco at 22 years-old in 1952, he played for Sanjoanense, the minor team in Sao João da Boa Vista (SP), where four years earlier he had replaced another tall defender who had gone there to play in São Paulo- Mauro.

Over the following years, the two had parallel and glorious careers, and clashed often in the Rio-São Paulo State Tournaments, until Mauro was his backup on the 1958 Brazilian national team.

In 1961, Mauro traded São Paulo for Santos, and Bellini succeeded for the second time, because São Paulo, knowing his issue with Vasco, took him to the Morumbi. And the riddle was completed when, in 1962, at the World Cup in Chile, Mauro rebelled against his condition as an eternal backup and threatened to quit the national team.

Were it anyone else, it would have been seen as insubordination. But Mauro was so respected that the choach's committee pondered his words.

And it was Bellini who hit the hammer: "It's fair. Now it's Mauro", (What other player would do that?)

With Mauro captain and wearing number 3, Brazil won its second championship. And Bellini and Mauro, who until then had never been close, became the best of friends for the next 50 years - right up to the death of Mauro in 2002.

Bellini's love of football remained active until 1969 when, at age 39, he ended his career at Atlético Paranaense.

In the years that followed, he was the owner of a supermarket and a candy store, had a soccer school and organized tournaments for large companies. But Giselda, the beautiful teacher whom he had married in 1963 and had given him his children Carla and Junior, she thought, with almost 50 years, he could do better.

She got Bellini to recieve his equivalency diploma, fulfilling a year in high school, and take the entrance exam for law. Bellini was accepted, took a course at FIG (International College of Guarulhos) and graduated at age 54.

Afterwards, he took the OAB (Order of Lawyers of Brazil) exam, which he also passed and received his license to practice law.

He never practiced law - not because he didn't want to -but, for him, it should be equivalent to the World Cup that he lifted.

Just before he turned 70, Bellini began to suffer from the slow erosion of Alzheimer's. As the situation worsened and the treatments were shown to be ineffective, Giselda began to protect him from the public eye.

Those who saw them strolling hand in hand through the neighborhood of Higienópolis did not know that this tall and handsome gentleman-who retained his weight, height and grandeur of his time as an athlete- was the man who lifted the World Cup.

Translated by STEVE HUGHES

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