so listen to this story when ziko finally walked into his first training session in Italy all of the players and staff were Starstruck struggling to believe that this guy was a real person aside from his 1982 World Cup and 1981 inter Continental Cup final two of the greatest performances by any athlete in history most people in Italy hadn't really gotten to watch many of his matches at all he was literally a living legend so when he took the ball and decided to start practicing free cakes they all stood and watched dumbfounded as Z kept repeatedly
missing smacking the bar precisely in the same place over and over again and getting increasingly frustrated with himself until he turned back and yelled at the STA you got to measure these gold post this goddamn crossbar is crooked to which everyone just kind of quietly left thinking to themselves oh no they just spent all our money on a primadonna let's be real no one believed the cross bar was crooked but regardless thinking they were about to put his ego in check they went over m measur it and to their absolute shock the right post had
sunk into the dirt and was about 6 cm shorter than the left ziko asked him to fix it in the next training session he got there repeated his old routine and this time everyone got to see the Legends were real as one after the other every free kick flew into the top corner but you know what's so funny about that story 40 years later everyone still doubts this guy if you thought bajio story was sad then listen Z played 71 matches for Brazil scored 48 goals provided 22 assists and only ever lost one official match
but no matter what that is the match most will forever remember him for his entire Legacy was tainted that day half of Brazil turned their backs on him every kid in Europe he raised his name from their list of the all-time greatest everyone somehow forgetting that before his 532 goals into 135 assists Flamingo had never even won the league at the biggest Club in the country not just been built by him from the ground up but that to this day they have never managed to reach those same Heights again even though from the start ziku
had the odd stacked against him you see when he was 19 his brother and one of his cousins were persecuted captured and tortured by the military dictatorship for their political activism and out of nowhere just for being related to them ziku who had been one of the stars of Brazil's pre Olympic tournament was blacklisted from the national team and demoted back to flamingo's Academy completely resetting his career for 10 days he barely left the house he Tru farted towards the end but then something in him just refused to quit a year later he had already
forced his way back into the team and the year after that he had total 52 goal contributions in 46 matches taking flamingo's number 10 shirt leading them to the karaka championship title and most incredibly winning the ball of theu for the best player in the Brazilian Championship despite Flamingo not even managing to reach the final stage and still he never got a call up to the national team in fact two more years would go by with 110 more goal contributions added to his name before they finally gave him his debut and things didn't get much
easier then in just that first year with the national team he took part in five minor tournaments and won them all scoring seven goals and assisting another in just nine matches even scoring one of the best goals of his career in a decisive match against Italy but though in 78 he would put down an absurd 31 goal contributions in 22 match matches as Flamingo took another Kaka Championship once the World Cup started everything seemed to be against him in the first match his goal was wrongfully disallowed in a blatant robbery with a referee blowing the
whistle just as the ball was about to hit the net in the second the Federation mysteriously overruled the manager himself and forced him to drop ziku to the bench and in the last one once he had finally been allowed back into the starting 11 Not only was he forced to come out injured with only 7 minutes into the game but with one foot already in the final Argentina wrecked up an unbelievable 6-n win leap frogging Brazil to the top of the table in their very last match leading to some serious accusations of match fixing and
still nothing could stop this guy the next year after he put on 26 goals in 17 matches to take the kak championship a second time the Federation came in his way once more denouncing the tourament organizers and forcing it to be replayed to which he simply went at it again scoring 34 goals in 26 matches taking the trophy for the second time in the same year then going away to Spain to play the hamon kza tournament scoring as they beat a Barcelona Squad with the likes of nkin and balandor winner Alan Simonson to take the
trophy as well getting Real Madrid to approach Flamingo for his signing and being sent Away by Zik's dad who claimed his son would only leave once he had made Flamingo world champions which as per usual had Real Madrid's Representatives laughing in his face though they wouldn't be laughing for long after another International disappointment with z getting two goals and an assist in three matches before being suspended and watching from the stands as Brazil was knocked out of the cop America immediately he went to The Following Season looking more determined than ever scoring 13 goals in
13 matches over the first two rounds of the Brazilian Championship eventually coming up against Santos in a match that would determine which of the two teams would make it to the final stage scoring two goals in that two-nil win then coming up against cretive in the semi finals and scoring another race meaning that out of the last eight goals scored by Flamingo seven had been scored by ziku which was no different in the final where he scored one and assisted the other as Flamingo beat Atletico Mino 3 to2 becoming Brazilian Champions and qualifying to the
libertador for the first time in their history meaning that there was no time to slow down once at the liberador Zeke went in with eight goal contributions in the first six matches somehow still having to play a tiebreaker though that would be over in the blink of an eye with them near every athletic minat player losing their minds after being handed to back-to-back red cards quickly being reduced to just six men and being forced to Forfeit the match no matter what only two matches later flaming were already playing the match that would decide whether or
not he'd make it to the final and of course not only did ziku score to in that match then he scored another to in the finals first leg forcing cob Loa into a tiebreaker to decide who would be the next South American champion and setting off the three greatest weeks in flamingo's history 3 days later even with a match turning into one of the most violent Affairs ever witnessed in the with five players being sent off as one of the carala center backs try to attack the flamingo players with a rock ziko scored two goals
regardless unbelievably making Flamingo South American Champions on their first ever participation in the tournament as he swept every award available and still only 13 days after that he had already LED them to yet another kyaka championship title having somehow managed to be involved in 34 goals in 33 matches in the competition at the same time he was carrying his team in the Liberto dor and yet it was only 7 days after that second match that he truly put down the final brush stroke in his Masterpiece of a season it was time to face Liverpool for
the Intercontinental cup look Liverpool was the best team in the world five League titles they W for Cup in three champions leagues in the space of eight years to everyone's eyes Flamingo simply stood no chance so much so that the reporter set it straight to Zik's face to which he replied I only see them as favorites for one thing and that's the silver metal which they should be honored to bring home after facing a team like ours after hearing those words Paisley was smart enough to get Phil Thompson at the time one of the best
center backs in Europe to men Mark ziku but damn was that effort just completely futile 12 minutes in zik put in the most perfectly waited pass to put nun's one-on-one with the keeper and they were in front 21 minutes after that he smacked in a free kick and on the rebound 2-n and before Li even haded time to regroup in the locker room and ask themselves what the hell was happening as goalkeeper gravar Was Heard yelling at Thompson to get ziko away from me for the love of God just get him away he sliced through
their defense with the outside of his foot and nun put them in front 3- n by the end zek had been elected man of the match without scoring a single goal and Flamingo a team who a few months back did not have a single league title to their name had humiliated one of the most legendary squads in history and were crowned world champions when Bob Paisley was forced to apologize for the loss all he could say was he made us look like a pub team in 20 minutes we were dead while on the other side
the reporters repeatedly told ziku that the word on the streets was that he was now equal to P though that feeling would not last very long after closing out the 1981 season by being named The World Player of the Year by guing sportivo which was pretty much the Italian equivalent of the French base bondor with the exception that even all the way back then they already allowed non-european players to win it there was a sense that ziko couldn't get any better than that but then well he finished his domestic season with 17 goal contributions in
14 matches putting Flamingo through to the Brazilian championship's final stage and again the sighting every single round scoring two out of their three goals in the round of 16 then the decisive away goal in the quarter scoring four in the semis then going into the final with a volley for the opener and assisting the decisive goal in the tiebreaker to lead mingled to a second league title and be named the best player in the country for a second time which no one has been able to outdo to this very day I can't stress this enough
when the season was interrupted so that the World Cup could take place ziko was seen without a shadow of a doubt as the best player in the world to a lot of people as the greatest in spal and that Brazilian national team is maybe the greatest in history even guial himself called them the most wonderful team that ever existed and once the tournament started they seemed determined to prove everyone right in the first match even with zik having a bit of an off day Socrates and ether smacked in two absolute stunners to take the win
against the Soviets in a second ziku started their comeback with an inch perfect free kick as they went onto Dem molish Scotland four to one then in the final match of the first group stage he opened the scoring with a bicycle kick then a second goal just 3 minutes later in two assists to complete one of the most Flawless World Cup performances of all time which meant one one thing when ziko got Throne against maradona's Argentina for the first of the two matches in the second group stage it was Maradona who was trembling with anxiety
and so when by the 86 minutes zik had already scored his own played in a pass that led to the second and assisted a third Maradona lost his head kicked the player into stomach and was sent off look at this point Zik's World Cup was quite simply legendary he was without a shadow without doubt the player of the tournament and all he needed to go through was a draw against Italy claudo Gentiles Italy in his previous match he had fouled Maradona 26 Times breaking the tournament's alltime record and against ziku it wasn't much different Gentile
brought him down over and over again and though only 12 minutes into the match ziku somehow still managed to get away from him and put in an assist in the very next play gtil two footed him from behind but even with a yellow CWI his name he kept coming for him there was even one moment inside the penalty the area where he grabbed onto him so hard he ripped his shirts but the referee didn't do a thing and once the final whistle was sounded as one newspaper wrote in the balls of the EST the sakya
men were soing uncontrollably while some were just vacantly staring too numb to comprehend what had happened Brazil had lost 3 to2 and all the blame fell on their star player it all fell on ziku would spend the rest of his career trying to escape it after 13 years refusing to leave Brazil shortly after that moment behind the scenes ziko began negotiating and moved to Europe there was Roma AC Milan Juventus but the only ones to match flamingo's asking price Were Real Madrid for about 6 months the negotiations went back and forth as ziko continued to
play for Flamingo leading them to yet another Brazilian Championship final when out of nowhere against everyone's expectations recently promoted to the came in and blew every other offer out of the water securing his signing just before the final second lag where flaming would have to overturn a one gold deficit the only problem being that ziku was injured but he was not going to allow that to ruin his final match for the club of his heart so he went in regardless scored seconds into the match and then assisted the decisive goal lifting his third league title
in four years as he announced his departure once in Italy you cannot even begin to imagine everyone's shock that a player of this Dimension was joining with the NE it wasn't just that the newspapers were mocking the whole thing claiming they were putting a Ferrari engine in a beetle no the Federation itself suspended the transfer so they could investigate it because they simply did not believe they could afford it since after all though very rich their owner lamberto Maza was no billionaire in fact the whole thing only got solved because the people of udina literally
threatened to start a separatist Revolution taking to the streets en chanting either ziku or Austria since after all the city had belonged to the Austrian Empire regardless once things got going it was absurd at 30 years old ziko destroyed the Syria halfway through the season yet Udin in fourth place there wasn't one top team that didn't watch helplessly as he dismantled him and somehow brought points home yet players almost fainting the moment they met him yet three different teams give him a standing ovation and though an injury would have him stuck in the sidelines for
two months watching as with fell to Ninth Place in the table he would still finish the year only one goal short of platini as the League's second highest goal scorer for comparison in maradona's first year with Napoli he didn't miss a single match still scored five fewer goals than ziku and ended up finishing the exact same four points away from the top four though keep in mind Udin was much much weaker than Napoli so much so that the next year with ziko getting injured repeatedly they finished only three points off of relegation leading him to
get into a confrontation with the club's Ward with promised them they make more signings and build a proper team around them which eventually culminated in his departure from the club which of course could only mean one thing is return to Flamingo though that would be no fairy tale either only six matches in in a match against bangu a player named Marc nun did this the result were three surgeries and nearly two years on the sidelines before Zeke was able to make a full recovery keep in mind it was already 32 the day it happened in
his own words I wanted to quit football one day I didn't want football ball to quit me however that isn't the most impressive bit that was affected Midway through those two years regardless of the injury he was still called up for the world cup with Brazil in preparation for it he put in eight hours of gym work a day but played only three games in February he lined up for Flamingo against the rivals fluminense and scored the hatrick to months later he started in Brazil's game against Yugoslavia and not only scored another hattick but scored
one of the best goals of his career but then after one slightly more Anonymous performance a few weeks before the tournament regardless of anything that I've just said he barely left the bench or at least it was so until he came into the quarterfinal match against France and was quickly subed in in order to take the penalty that would have decided the game before he even had time to properly warm up as you may imagine he missed and an hour later even though it's scoring the shootout Brazil had been knocked out yet again in what
would be final match in the yellow shirt only further damaging his legacy four years later with rumors of a possible comeback from retirement in the air he was invited to play in the 1990 World Cup but all he had to say was physically and technically maybe I could but after what happened in ' 86 psychologically I just can't do it still it would indeed come back becoming one of the biggest reasons professional football is even a thing in Japan and then going into Beach soccer where I ironically he won the World Cup twice
