Coutinho, the genius of the six-yard box | OneFootball

Guilherme Guarche, from the Memory Center

Piracicaba, an important municipality in the state of São Paulo, 157 km from the capital, is the birthplace of Antônio Wilson Honório, who came into the world on June 11, 1943, a Friday, and who would become famous by the nickname Coutinho, given to him by his mother, who called him “Little Stump of a Person.”

Coutinho was a man dearly loved by his friends and, above all, by Santos fans, the club for which he played most of his sporting career. He was a center forward of refined technical quality, a star with quick, cool thinking, precise in his finishing, always light and accurate.

He formed, with Pelé, an attacking duo that to this day has not been surpassed not only in Brazilian football but in world football as well. He was the ideal partner for the King, and together they immortalized the famous give-and-go on the pitch. Inside the penalty area, he was all calm and efficiency, a genius at controlling the ball and at the art of scoring goals.

When he began his career with Santos’s first team, the starting center forward was his friend Paulo César de Araújo, Pagão, who, according to Coutinho, was one of the greatest players he ever saw in Brazilian football.

“I played against XV’s reserves, Lula liked me and invited me to train at Santos. When the opportunity came up, I scraped together the money for the ticket and went, if I’m not mistaken, in May 1958. In the first scrimmage, I didn’t know who Pelé, Pepe, or Pagão were, I didn’t know any of the starters. I scored a goal and Hélvio said to Lula: ‘Sign him because he’s going to be a star.’ I didn’t even get to play for the youth team. I played for the reserves, amateur, and professional sides. Sometimes I came on in place of Pagão, until I won his spot.”

Coutinho is the youngest player ever to play for Santos’s first team. His debut came on May 17, 1958, in Goiânia, when Peixe beat Sírio-Libanês 7–1 in a friendly played at Pedro Ludovico Stadium, in Goiânia/GO, with one goal scored by him in that rout. He was 14 years and 11 months old at the time.

In Coutinho’s debut, Santos FC, managed by Luiz Alonso Perez, Lula, lined up as follows: Manga (Laércio), Getúlio (Pinduca) and Dalmo; Feijó, Ramiro and Fioti; Dorval, Álvaro, Guerra (Raimundinho), Jair (Coutinho) and Hélio.

After being injured on the eve of the competition, he missed the chance to be Brazil’s starting striker at the 1962 World Cup in Chile and lost the place to Vavá. For the national team, he played 13 matches and scored six goals.

The last time he wore the glorious coastal club shirt was on November 21, 1970, at Parque Antártica, in a Taça de Prata (Brazilian Championship) match, a scoreless draw against América of Rio de Janeiro, with Peixe lining up as follows: Cejas (Agnaldo), Carlos Alberto, Djalma Dias, Joel Camargo and Turcão; Clodoaldo and Léo Oliveira; Árlem, Edu (Coutinho), Pelé and Abel. The coach was Antônio Fernandes, Antoninho.

After ten years at Santos, Coutinho played for Vitória da Bahia in 1968; Portuguesa de Desportos in 1969; returned to Santos in 1969 and 1970; and ended his career at Saad in 1973.

Wearing the Alvinegro Praiano shirt, he played 450 matches and scored 368 goals. For the Brazilian national team, he played 16 matches and scored seven goals. As manager of Santos’s first team, he led the side in 1984 on 17 occasions, with five wins, seven draws, and five losses.

He worked as a coach in Santos’s youth divisions, then at Valeriodoce, Comercial, and Operário de Campo Grande, Bonsucesso/RJ, Santo André, and Itaquaquecetuba. Coutinho was 75 years old when he passed away, on March 11, 2019.

This is how people spoke of him:

“Coutinho creates opportunities from which goals are born, sometimes his own, but more often goals for his teammates. Because Coutinho, without a penny of selfishness, tries to be useful to his teammates, certain that the whole and unity are the components of the force that generates triumphs.” (De Vaney).

“Coutinho was the most elegant goalscorer, because he would place the ball out of the goalkeeper’s reach, gently, without it even touching the net. He was a phenomenon.” (Zito).

“Coutinho toyed with center backs like no one else, with the skill to give a touch that took the marker out of the play. It was him on one side and the defender on the other, in the tiniest space inside the box. He didn’t need much to dribble. If he didn’t score with his usual class, he would set up Pelé, who returned it with precision. That’s where the famous give-and-gos came from.” (Orlando Duarte).

“We traveled a lot together, played together, and got to know a bit of the world and its different cultures. But what I have to thank him for is that 50% of the goals I scored at Santos came in partnership with him. In the give-and-go and in the fact that he knew me. In this life, no one does anything alone; if you don’t have partners of that caliber, nothing happens, you understand?” (Pelé).

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