Mané Garrincha
The 1962 World Cup quarter-final between Brazil and England was the subject of an unlikely pitch invasion which began and ended with a scruffy wee dog. Play was stopped while unsuccessful efforts were made to bring the canine interloper to heel.
After a lengthy delay, Jimmy Greaves got down on all fours and started barking at the wee foreign beastie - in English, of course. This impressive display of language skills brought the dog to his arms and the applause of the crowd.
Greaves was used to performing in the spotlight, but the same thing could not be said about the other half of this impromptu double act. In a nasty case of stage fright, the dog emptied its bladder over the striker.
Far from provoking an outpouring of professional sympathy, the Brazilian players were unashamedly amused, none more so than winger Garrincha, who adopted the dog. Or so the story goes…
Although this tale has been the subject of many column inches, I’m not entirely sure that it’s true. The winger was attacked by a dog as child; it seems unlikely that he would want offer shelter to a stray - even one with a well-developed sense of humour.
Whether the story is true or not, this site is all about the unusual and the extraordinary, and Garrincha was nothing if not that.
He fathered fourteen children and lost his virginity to a goat; his legs were terribly deformed, the right pointing inwards and the left outwards; he lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy twice, virtually winning the 1962 competition on his own; he made several attempts to take his own life, eventually dying of alcoholism when he was only 49-years-old. Garrincha was also the greatest dribbler of the ball that the world has ever seen.
Pelé said: “Without Garrincha, I would never have been a three-time world champion.”