Carlos Alberto Torres, the greatest right-back of all time | OneFootball

Guilherme Guarche, Memory CenterCarlos Alberto Torres was born on a Monday, July 17, 1944, in an alley on Sabino Vieira Street, 23, house 12, in the São Cristóvão neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, and from an early age was raised in another Rio neighborhood, Vila da Penha.

“Capita,” the nickname he earned for being the great captain of the National Team at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, began at age 13 playing for Fluminense’s youth teams. His biggest supporter was his older brother, Zé Luís, who played in the youth sides of the Laranjeiras Tricolor.It was defensive midfielder Clodoaldo who started the move, with a series of dribbles, that ended in Brazil’s fourth goal. Then came the subtle touch from King Pelé, who passed the ball toward Carlos Alberto Torres. The ball took a slight hop before the number four unleashed an unstoppable rocket, bulging the net behind Italian goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi.

It was the last goal of the rout over Italy in the final match of the 1970 World Cup. That legendary goal is considered one of the most beautiful ever scored in a World Cup. The author of that masterpiece, if he were still alive, would have turned 82 today.

In 1963, Carlos Alberto was called up to play for the Brazilian Olympic Team and won the gold medal at the 4th Pan American Games in São Paulo.

He arrived at Santos very young, at age 20, signed for 200 million cruzeiros, in the biggest transfer in Brazilian football up to that date. He arrived at Vila Belmiro carrying the title of Rio state champion from the previous year.

He played his first match on Thursday, April 29, 1965, in a friendly against Clube do Remo at a packed Baenão stadium. In the 9–4 rout, King Pelé scored five goals; the others were by Coutinho, Toninho Guerreiro, Peixinho, and the debuting full-back, who also got on the scoresheet.That match, which set a gate receipt record in Pará with 50 million cruzeiros, also marked the debut of left winger Abel Verônico, who had come from América Carioca.

It did not take long for Carlos Alberto to establish himself at right-back for Peixe. Tall (1.82m), with personality and great technique, he liked to support the attack and score goals. He was a pioneer of the modern full-backs who join the attack and score goals (the previous starter in the position, Ismael, went to Fluminense).

A star of the National Team at the 1970 World Cup, the elegant full-back was one of Santos’s biggest attractions on the club’s long annual tours around the world, along with Edu, Clodoaldo and, of course, Pelé.

After winning more than one official title per year with Santos, in 1971 he was loaned to Botafogo of Rio, which in return sent players Moreira, Rogério and Ferreti. He stayed with the Lone Star club for only one year.

He returned to Peixe and in 1973 changed positions, moving into central defense, alongside Marinho Peres and Vicente.

Alongside Pelé, who was playing his penultimate year at Santos, he won the 1973 Campeonato Paulista, Santos’s thirteenth state title. Capita wore the Alvinegro Praiano shirt 443 times, scoring 39 goals, several of them from penalties.

He won ten official titles with Santos: five Paulistas, in 1965/67/68/69/73, the Brazilian Championships of 1965 and 1968, the Rio-São Paulo Tournament of 1966, as well as the South American and World Recopa titles in 1968.For the Brazilian National Team, while he was with Alvinegro, he played 61 matches and scored nine goals. After King Pelé, Carlos Alberto is the Alvinegro player who wore the National Team shirt the second-most times; he is also the second Santos player to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy, the first being Mauro Ramos de Oliveira, captain of the Canarinho in 1962 in Chile.

When he left Vila Belmiro in 1975, he went to Rio de Janeiro, where he played for Flamengo and Fluminense. After that, he headed to the United States at the request of the eternal King Pelé. In North America he played for the newly formed New York Cosmos, a team that became known for assembling a true all-star squad. There he played four seasons alongside the King, Franz Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia and Johan Neeskens, retiring from the game in 1982.Beginning a new role, always connected to football, he became a coach, managing 16 teams in Brazil and abroad, some of them more than once.

He was chosen for the all-time South American team in the center-back position and is considered by FIFA to be one of the greatest and best right-backs in the entire history of world football.

Carlos Alberto entered party politics and was elected city councilman in Rio de Janeiro for the Democratic Labour Party (PDT), serving from 1989 to 1993. He also held the post of vice president of the city council.

In 2008 he ran for vice mayor of the Marvelous City, but was not elected. In his final years, he had been serving competently as a sports commentator for the Sportv channel.

Sports commentator Galvão Bueno of Rede Globo defined Carlos Alberto Torres’s importance to Brazilian football this way: “We have no one who comes close, who can come near to exercising that leadership as naturally as he did, in a generation the likes of which we have never had again in Brazilian football. Finding another Carlos Alberto Torres is impossible, but people must look to him as an example.”On Tuesday, October 25, 2016, Carlos Alberto was doing crossword puzzles at his home in Barra da Tijuca when he suffered a massive heart attack. He was taken to Rio Mar Hospital, but the procedures were not enough to revive him, and he died at the age of 72.

His body lay in state at the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Barra da Tijuca and he was buried at Irajá Cemetery. He was survived by his children Alexandre and Andrea, from his marriage to his first wife, Sueli. He was also married to the well-known actress Terezinha Sodré, and at the time of his death his wife was Graça Garbaccio.His eldest son, Carlos Alexandre Torres, who looked very much like him physically, was also a professional player, representing Fluminense, Vasco and Nagoya Grampus of Japan.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.