Former goalkeeper Haílton Corrêa de Arruda, the manga, died on Tuesday (8), at the age of 87. Idol of Botafogo, Internacional, Nacional-Uru and Barcelona-EQU, the former player formed by Sport had a remarkable spell for the Brazilian National Team in the 1966 World Cup, and did not hide a desire to return to Brazil’s goal.
In an interview with Sheet In 1975, shortly after being a Brazilian champion for the gaucho club, the archer, then 38 – the report indicates that age was not so certain at that time – spoke without shame about considering the best goalkeeper in the country, evaluated the rivals of the position – entitled to a canelate in Valdir Peres – and let out details of personal life.
Check out the interview in full.
‘I’m the best goalkeeper in Brazil’ (manga)
MARCO ANTONIO RODRIGUES,
special correspondent
A face deformed by scars, mulatto, small teeth, wide mouth, 1.87 meters high, 87 pounds of weight, large hands (the smaller fingers are completely crooked due to several poorly healed fractures), routing and confused voice, a mixture of gaucho and Uruguayan accents, this is the figure of the Brazilian Championship: Haílton Coruda, 38 years. (They say they have more), mango, the goalkeeper of the International, or “mangle”, as he prefers to be called, the most affectionate nickname he received when he played at Nacional, Montevideo.
It ended up hero for the fear. He was afraid to get out of the game with Cruzeiro. If the inter Lose in the second half (the first one was 0-0), the criticism would be fierce, the culprit would be him for not having the courage to continue on the field. They would call him fearless, without forgiving the bruise. He knows the world of football a lot and has been called coward. Failure at the 1966 World Cup in England, the case of bribe when he was a goalkeeper of Botafogo, before a decision with Flamengo. At the break of the match, the day before yesterday, he thought of all this and decided to play.
“I continued playing, despite the doctors”
19 minutes into the first half he left the small area to intercept a cross by Roberto Batata and felt an old bruise: the left leg groin muscle had been distended. In the locker rooms, during the second half, he had to resist doctors, argue, throw his shirt to the floor, threaten to fight to continue on the field and got:
“The first doctor said that I could not continue, the muscle was totally open and I would not have the strength to endure the pain. I said I was not feeling anything and that I could play. Then the second doctor (the International has six) also forbidden to continue, but I could not leave the team. Not that Schneider, not a good goalkeeper. Something if we lost, it would be my fault.
“I even wanted to take an injection”
Manga is lightened on the couch of his apartment near the center of Porto Alegre. It’s 24 hours on Sunday and, despite the pain she feels in her thigh, he insists on reviewing, on television, all throws of the game. Outside, at the entrance of the building, despite the intervention of two radiopatrulhas, the crowd does not give up and continues to scream, euphoric, its name. As happened for five minutes, almost at the end of the game, when everyone in Beira-Rio shouted by encouraging him:
“I was strength not to listen. I was afraid. I could not divert the thought because the cruise kept attacking. I didn’t feel any more pain. The doctors didn’t know how I could play until the end, with a distress as I had in the groin. A very delicate place. And look I didn’t take any injection.
“I see qualities and not good goalkeepers”
Mango, even though he made at least four big defenses. In one of them, which caused delirium among the fans, climbed with a straw and held the ball in the air, using only the left hand:
“It was not exhibitionism. It’s that I couldn’t jump with both legs and grab the ball on top of both hands. I had no boost on my left leg and the only thing left was to hold on with one. I’m a goalkeeper who learned to throw out of the small area, which almost no goalkeeper does today in Brazil. In fact, we don’t have good goalkeepers. I don’t like to reform balls with punches.
He refuses to say the names of the “two other goalkeepers with qualities”. Extremely vain, Manga talks about his qualities, the titles he got, his winner career and attacks the best goalkeeper in Brazil in 76:
“Valdir Peres, who won all the best awards of the year, conceded only in the Brazilian Championship 33 goals. Goalkeeper who concedes 33 goals in 27 games can not be the best. [Na verdade, Valdir sofreu 21, o que Manga desconhece]. I only conceded 12 in 30 games, less than one goal per match, I was the least leaked goalkeeper in the country. In all the clubs I passed, I only accumulated titles. In Uruguay, Nacional, after losing many years in a row to Peñarol, ended up winning 14 titles in 4 years, the time of my permanence there. In Botafogo, I was four times Rio champion and now, in just one year and three months of Internacional, I got three titles: two gauchos and the Brazilian Championship. “
“I graduated my physique carrying bags”
At 17, he started playing in Recife’s sport to help his father, a poor boatman, without resources, who was barely won to dress. He formed his physique helping him to carry and unload bags of food. Then a rapid success in the sport took him to Botafogo from Rio, where he had good times until Brazil lost the 1966 World Cup and its resulting disbelief changed its manga career, which was playing at the Montevideo Nacional. In June last year, after Corinthians’s insistence on hiring him at a low price [a moeda uruguaia ia-se desvalorizando-se]agreed to be acquired by Inter:
“I just didn’t go to Corinthians because the two brothers Matthew fought when it was time to hire me. One wanted to give the money the national and another did not. They made other meetings but ended up giving up, fortunately, I came to Internacional, an excellent club!”
Married 15 years ago, father of two children, mango knows no activity other than football, movies on television in the afternoon (can not sleep in day). Do not drink, nor smoke, and like walks on the streets of Porto Alegre:
“I could only achieve this physical form with dedication. I like football a lot. Those two balls I took in Nelinho’s kicks, it was no coincidence. It’s the result of physical training. I training until I am hurt. They say I’m old, but I played the 81 games this year, the only one who got it, I will still play for a lot of five years, at least. Time. “
Among all Brazilian champion players for Internacional, Manga has a special predilection for “gringo”, the Central Figueroa Beque, leader on and off the pitch, the greatest player he met in his life to which only Nilton Santos could be compared.
“Since Figueroa never saw the same. It’s the best defense player I met. He doesn’t talk about a bad word, he doesn’t scream with anyone. And how he plays … Nilton Santos was also big, he could compare them, but it’s gringo and it’s more complete. It’s perfect in everything: kicks, brand, run, head and have great ball mastery.
Internacional’s victory has erased some hurt career hurts. Returning to Brazil, he says he managed to prove to be a great goalkeeper:
“In 66 I was unfairly sacrificed. I didn’t play well, it’s true. I failed the goals that Brazil conceded against Hungary. I recognize everything. But in that selection no one was well. At the time of the decision for a vacancy, Gérson had pain, the altair had pain, Gilmar too. Everybody felt in a difficult situation. Victory, even if I had to ‘die in the goal’. “
His contract will only win in December next year, he does not like to talk about cash or allow the press to publicize his salaries.
“My wife controls my gains and spending, she needs to know.”
At the moment, the international is the club that best pays in the country. Figueroa, Lula, made a good contract. Mango is already thinking about the team’s participation in the Libertadores Cup, unlike Paulistas and Cariocas, who were left out. He has a lot of experience in this cup, has been world champion interclubes for the national:
“And perhaps Inter can be world champion. We have conditions. In Latin America there is no team as well armed as ours.”
