Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

Moacir Barbosa

Moacir Barbosa
Barbosa in 1945
Personal information
Full name Moacir Barbosa do Nascimento
Date of birth (1921-03-27)27 March 1921
Place of birth Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Date of death 7 April 2000(2000-04-07) (aged 79)
Place of death Praia Grande, Brazil
Height 1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1940–1941 ADCI-SP
1942–1944 Ypiranga-SP
1945–1955 Vasco da Gama 532 (0)
1956Bonsucesso (loan)
1957 Santa Cruz 34 (0)
1958–1960 Vasco da Gama 151 (0)
1962 Campo Grande
International career
1945–1959 Brazil 20 (0)
Medal record
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Moacir Barbosa do Nascimento (27 March 1921 – 7 April 2000) was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His career spanned 22 years. He was regarded as one of the world's best goalkeepers in the 1940s and 1950s, and was known for not wearing gloves, as would be typical. Barbosa is mainly associated with Brazil's defeat against underdogs Uruguay in the decisive match of the 1950 FIFA World Cup, an upset dubbed the Maracanazo. Barbosa is also known for his achievements at Vasco da Gama, especially the first South American Championship, and the club's domination in the Campeonato Carioca in 1940s and 1950s.

Club career

Success with Vasco da Gama

At club level, Barbosa had his greatest successes with Rio de Janeiro side CR Vasco da Gama. He won several trophies at Vasco, including the 1948 South American Championship of Champions, the original precursor to the Copa Libertadores.

International career

1949 Copa América

With the Brazilian national side, Barbosa won the 1949 Copa América. The 7–0 final victory over Paraguay remains to date the highest victory in a final of the competition.

The Maracanazo and its aftermath

At the 1950 FIFA World Cup held on home soil, Brazil played Uruguay in the decisive match of the World Cup finals at the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil was heavily favoured to win and needed only a draw to win the round-robin tournament, but despite scoring first, they lost 2–1 when Alcides Ghiggia scored the winning goal for Uruguay in the 79th minute after skilfully dribbling past defender Bigode and then drilling the ball into the net while Barbosa was out of position, expecting a cross into the middle. The loss stunned Brazilians and plunged the country into mourning over what became known as the Maracanazo, or "the Maracanã blow". Barbosa was blamed for the defeat, for which he suffered for the rest of his life as the match became part of Brazilian folklore.

In 1963, Barbosa was presented with the old square wooden goalposts from the Maracanã as a present, which he took home and burned.[2] Thirty years later, the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Ricardo Teixeira, did not allow him to be a commentator for the broadcast of an international match.[3]

In 2000, Barbosa said in an interview: "The maximum punishment in Brazil is 30 years' imprisonment, but I have been paying, for something I am not even responsible for, by now, for 50 years."[4] On 7 April of the same year, he died of a heart attack at the age of 79.[5]

Barbosa plays a large role in Ian McDonald's science fiction novel Brasyl. He is the subject of the biography The Last Save of Moacyr Barbosa, by Darwin Pastorin.

A Brazilian short film named Barbosa, premiered in 1988, in which a 49-year-old man (played by Antônio Fagundes) travels back in time trying to prevent Ghiggia's goal.[6]

Honours

Official

Vasco da Gama

Brazil

Individual

Unofficial

¹) irregular friendly tournament between Brazil and Argentina
²) irregular friendly tournament between Brazil and Uruguay

Club

  • Torneio Quadrangular do Rio (inoff.)¹: 1953
  • Torneio Internacional de Santiago de Chile (inoff.)²: 1953

¹) with CR Vasco da Gama, CR Flamengo (both R.d Janeiro), CA Boca Juniors and. Racing Club (both Argentina)
²) with CR Vasco da Gama, Millonarios (Bogotá) and CSD Colo-Colo (Santiago)

References

  1. ^ "Brazil - Moacir Barbosa Nascimento - Profile with news, career statistics and history". Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Unforgiven". Soccer Tactics (via Google Knol). 21 November 2008. Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  3. ^ Maracanã, the largest stadium of the world – Sambafoot.com
  4. ^ Top 10 World Cup Goalkeeping Blunders
  5. ^ Bellos, Alex (13 April 2000). "Moacir Barbosa". The Guardian. London.
  6. ^ Casa do Cinema de Porto Alegre - Barbosa
  7. ^ IFFHS' Century Elections
  8. ^ IFFHS' Century Elections

Books