Greatest World Cup players of all time, no. 10 - Jairzinho

Jair Ventura Filho, aka Jairzinho was born on December 25th 1944 in Brazil's capital, Rio De Janiero where he went through the youth setup at local club Botafogo (making his professional debut with the club at 15). His hero Garrincha, who he would eventually replace for both club and country, also played at Botafago, albeit in Jairzinho's preferred position on the right wing. This resulted in Jairzinho playing most of his early career as a left winger or centre forward though when Garrincha was was injures, he would fill in as a right winger, by far his stongest position.

Jairzinho made his interantional debut as a 19 year old in 1964 against Portugal (again, when Garrincha was injured). He made his World Cup debut at England 66 though with Garrincha back in the side, he was used as a left winger and struggled to be effective in this role (Brazil were eliminated in the group stage after being beat by Hungary and Portugal). After the tournament, Garrincha announced his retirement from international football and Jairzinho was able to take over his idol's role on the right wing for Brazil.

Now playing in his favoured position, Jairzinho bacame a far more effective player for his country. At Mexico 70, with arguably the greatest team that ever played, he was part of the Brazil team that won the World Cup and Jairzinho made history by scoring in every game for Brazil (his seventh goal in the final, against Italy in a 4-1 win, wasn't enough to secure the Golden Boot, that went to West Germany's Gerd Muller who scored 10 goals. Jairzinho later claimed that FIFA awarded him a "best body on the planet" award for his athletecism).

Jairzinho scored two goals at Germany 74 which would prove to be his last World Cup for Brazil, though he did continue playing for Brazil for another 8 years (33 goals in 81 games from 1964-1982).

Following his retirement Jairzinho become a coach and later head coach for the Gabon national team, though perhaps his greatest achievement as a coach was spotting Ronaldo as a 14 year old whilst playing for Sao Cristavao, kick starting the future three-time FIFA World Player of the Year winner by recommending him to Cruziero

World Cup honours:-

1970 FIFA World Cup winner

1970 Best Player World Cup (Hurricane Cup)

In 2000, he was listed at number 27 in World Soccer Magazine's list of 100 greatest players of the 20th Century, one place ahead of Zinedine Zidane