No one man can boast more success at the World Cup than Brazilian Mario Zagallo, who died at the weekend at the age of 92. Zagallo played alongside a 17-year-old Pele in the 1958 final as Brazil won the title for the first of three times in 12 years in 1958 with a 5-2 victory over hosts Sweden, and repeated the feat four years later in Chile, when they beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final. He was in the dugout by the time arguably the greatest side to have graced the competition completed a treble in 1970 with a 4-1 demolition of Italy in Mexico City, and served as assistant to Carlos Alberta Parreira when they got the better of the Italians on penalties at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl in 1994.
Franz Beckenbauer
West Germany’s Beckenbauer – or ‘Der Kaiser’ as he was known to his adoring fans – suffered the disappointment of losing to England in the 1966 final at Wembley, a game in which he and the late Sir Bobby Charlton famously cancelled each other out only for Geoff Hurst to plunder a hat-trick which later helped to earn him a knighthood too. The Germans, who ended England’s title defence at the quarter-final stage in Mexico four years later, had to wait until 1974 for captain Beckenbauer to get his hands on the trophy on home soil, bouncing back from Johan Neeskens’ early penalty to beat the Netherlands 2-1 in the final. He repeated the feat as a coach in 1990 when, with his side having edged out Sir Bobby Robson’s England on penalties in the semi-finals, Andreas Brehme’s spot-kick saw off Argentina at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.
Didier Deschamps
Disparagingly dismissed by former team-mate Eric Cantona as a “water carrier”, defensive midfielder Deschamps captained host nation France to World Cup glory for the first time in 1998 when they trounced Brazil 3-0 in the final. Twenty years later, he picked up a second winners’ medal, this time as manager when he guided his team to a 4-2 final victory over Croatia in Moscow. Deschamps might have gone one better than both Zagallo and Beckenbauer in 2022 but for the resilience of Lionel Messi’s Argentina, who came out on top in a penalty shoot-out in Qatar after Kylian Mbappe had scored a hat-trick in a thrilling 3-3 draw.
