Ziquita, the People’s Hero | Profile

I’ve already looked through football history books a lot looking for a feat comparable to that which Ziquita perpetrated in Baixada on November 5, 1978. There is none.

The story is known around the world: in a qualifying match for the Paranaense finals, CAP lost 4-0 with one player less until 30 minutes into the second half.

In the goal on Buenos Aires Street, Ziquita made a great goal and in the next 13 minutes he not only tied the game but, in the 44th minute, he headed the ball against the crossbar and almost scored the fifth.

Bought at the beginning of the year from Comercial de Ribeirão Preto (we always bring good players from there) for around R$800,000 today, the Minas Gerais native from Caratinga arrived at Furacão at the age of 25 in the splendor of his disruptive strength.

It was a good season until that Sunday. From then on, his unprecedented feat changed football, as no one had ever managed to score four goals in that time (very rare) to equalize a game lost 4-0 (statistically impossible).

I imagine the game in this age of betting: “What will happen in the next 10 minutes?” Ziquita scores three more goals. By playing 10 reais, the guy could retire.

Because football is loved all over the world, from Siberia to Sete Lagoas (MG), where Ziquita lives, at 71 years old, because the goal is a rare item. Statistics show that, on average, a goal is scored every 70 minutes and the magic of the game is precisely the logic of the delayed reward.

But Ziquita did what he did because, Cruyff would say, some coincidences are illogical and, at Athletico, the improbable is within a standard of epic tragedy and insanity.

That day is also historic as the 8,276 paying guests witnessed the aesthetic peak of the old Athletico. Magically immortalized in the lens of Lucimar do Carmo, the popular Socó, in the Tribuna.

The photo of Ziquita standing in the air after jumping from the depths with a “bloody” white shirt, just like the apron of the butcher who cut up an animal, faced with the mute astonishment of the black mouths and the grandeur of the red and black stained glass windows in the gymnasium windows, It is among the three best images from Athletico’s 100 years.

Who witnessed on site, speaks of the greatest collective catharsis ever seen in a stadium. I’m sure it was.

The feat was told to Brazil in a chronicle by Nelson Rodrigues and made Ziquita a legend in world football. However, when he came to Curitiba in 2004 he had no idea the size of the idolatry of generations of athletes. Before the era of selfiehe had to invent an autograph to sign the shirts and photos.

In 2009, on another visit to Baixada, Jefferson de Almeida, the beast who had the trick of invading the field and taking Ziquita’s historic shirt, returned it to the scorer. Today, it is the club’s asset.

On that Monday of 1978, one day after the game, Revista Placar appeared on the country’s newsstands with an article with a beautiful title: “Ziquita, Hero of the People”. 45 years later, I dare to add that, luckily, these people are the red-black.