“He had a gypsy aspect, but his face resembled Rudolph Valentino. He had the temperament of a mad dog, but when it came to the football field he was a real star..."
60 years ago today... The World Cup final of 1958...
Sweden, which hosts the cup at Sweden's Rotunda Stadium with a capacity of 36,600, takes the field against Brazil. Having lost the cup to Uruguay at home, at the Maracana Stadium, eight years ago in that final, the Samba players intend not to repeat the same mistake this time. But the match started badly for them, and Sweden took the lead in the 4th minute with the goal of their captain Nils Liedholm. But their joy did not last long, Brazil equalized with Vava's goal five minutes after that goal and took the lead again with his goal in the 32nd minute.
The circuit was completed with Brazil's superiority. Seconds before the end of the match, a country far away is waiting excitedly on the radio for the final whistle of the match. While Brazil was leading 4-2 in the final minutes, Pele's stunning header increased the difference to three in the 90th minute. Brazil won the World Cup…
Heleno de Freitas (12 February 1920 – 8 November 1959) was a Brazilian footballer who played as a forward. A biography of de Freitas, Nunca houve um homem como Heleno (There was never a man like Heleno), by Marcos Eduardo Neves, was first published in 2006. The title is a reference to his mocking nickname "Gilda".
At the same time, patients and staff in a mental hospital in the country's Barbacena City are celebrating the victory. Except for one... Locked in his room, living in the solitary ward of the sanatorium where he met in 1953, looking at the newspaper clippings hanging on the walls of his room for six years, describing the best times of his brilliant career, who knows, the former football player, who maybe waited for death dreaming of the old days, is trying to end his life...
He was born in 1920 in Sao Joao Nepomuceno, Brazil, and lost his father when he was only 12 years old. When I was 17, on shining green fields, in lands where football was a part of life. The skills he demonstrated using an orange instead of a ball on the Copacabana beach attracted the attention of one of the scouts of the Botafogo club. By the age of 22, he was the star of the team, and by the age of 27, he was the greatest ball player in South America. He played for Botafogo in 235 matches between 1939 and 1948 and scored 209 goals, mostly with his head. In his exquisite book, Eduardo Galeano describes him as follows: “He had a gypsy-like aspect, but his face resembled Rudolph Valentino. He had the temperament of a mad dog, but when it came to the football field he was a real star..."
His football style resembled a graceful dancer; His feet dominated the field and his ball technique fascinated the audience. A football master, a genius, with a body like rubber, who could easily pass his opponents, who sent the ball to the goal with his feet, his head, and even his chest... He became legendary in Botafogo, where he spent most of his career, but the love was mutual. One day, a journalist said to him, "He forgets that he is just a football player," and his answer reflects that love: "I am not a football player, I am a Botafogo player."
He showed off his skills on the field during the matches he played accompanied by carnival music, and after every goal he scored, he would run to the stands of the General Severiano Stadium and throw the invisible bananas he was carrying in his arms at the fans, greeting his fans with his unique style. While he was playing football, he attended university and received a law degree. At the height of his career, after giving money to a little boy playing football on Copacabana Beach, he said: “Spend it all on ice cream and movies. Don't spend all day playing football. “There are better things in life.”
Women were always around this handsome, intelligent, charismatic football star, who resembled the movie star of that period, Rudolph Valentino. He showed off his skills on green fields on match days, in nightclubs, on dance floors, and in bedrooms. He became known as the "Prince of Rio" in those years...
However, despite all his talent, he was quite short-tempered, sometimes fighting with rival football players, sometimes with referees, and sometimes with rival team fans. Even his own teammates sometimes got their share of his out-of-control anger. To annoy her, rival fans nicknamed her "Gilda", inspired by the 1946 film "Gilda, the Devil's Daughter", about a prostitute played by then-beautiful American actress Rita Hayworth. "Gilda!" rising from the opposing stands. The cheering would drive the football player crazy. So much so that when he heard that chant during a match, he went crazy enough to run to the stands, pull down his shorts, and expose the team's tactic...
The year 1948 was the time when the career of the striker, who went to Argentina with Boca Juniors club, was in rapid decline. When he learned that he was not in the team squad for a match that season, he put a gun to the head of the team's coach, Flavio Costa, and pulled the trigger, but luckily for the coach, the gun was not loaded. His addiction to women, alcohol, and gambling led to the tragic end not only of his football career but also of his own. During his short adventure in Junior Barranquilla in 1949, he met Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who had just started journalism. Marquez describes his Colombia adventure as "one of the most beautiful stories of the year." But their friendship was short-lived. He left football in Rio's Americas team in 1951. In 2012, Brazilian filmmaker José Henrique Fonseca introduced the once-star to new generations with his movie "Heleno", which was adapted from the book of Marcos Eduardo Neves and tells the life of the football player.
Heleno de Freitas, who passed away at the age of 39 as the calendar shows November 8, 1959, is the legend of Botafogo. The cause of death was recorded as syphilis, which he contracted a long time ago but refused to receive treatment for. Galeano ends his article by describing him with the following sentence: “One night, he lost all his money in a casino. Another night, who knows where he lost his joy of life? On his last night, he died in a poorhouse, delirious..."