Legendary Football Players: Carlos Alberto
92. Carlos Alberto
Spending a lot of his career at club and international level alongside Pelé, Brazilian right-back Carlos Alberto Torres was one of the finest defensive players in the world in the 1960s and 1970s and won many honours at club level, as well as leading perhaps the finest national team of all time. He has also gone on to a varied coaching career which has taken him to five different continents.
Carlos Alberto started his career at Fluminense, and helped the club to a suprise success in the Rio State Championship in 1964. After breaking into the national team that same year, he signed for Santos in 1965 where he would line up for many years alongside Pelé. In his first year the club won the São Paulo State Championship, a title they won again for three years in a row from 1967 to 1969, also winning the Torneo Roberto Gomes Pedrosa in 1968.
By the time of the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico, Carlos Alberto was the captain of the Brazilian national team and he led his country in all six matches as they swept to a magnificent victory. He became the last captain to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy having scored the last goal in the final against Italy. After a short spell with Botafogo, he won his fifth São Paulo title with Santos in 1973.
Returning briefly to Fluminense and winning another Rio State Championship in 1976, he had a short spell with Flamengo before moving to the U.S.A. to finish his career. Spending four years with the New York Cosmos, Carlos Alberto won three North American Soccer League titles before moving to the California Surf, although he returned to New York in 1982 to win another N.A.S.L. title before retiring in 1982.
Moving into coaching, he won the Brazilian National Championship with Flamengo in 1983 and the Rio State title with Fluminense the following year. Never staying in one coaching job for very long, Carlos Alberto has taken jobs in the U.S.A. and in Egypt as well as with several Brazilian clubs, winning the Copa Conmebol with Botafogo in 1993 and a Rio State title in 2001 having returned to Flamengo. He has also coached the national teams of Oman and Azerbaijan and been an assistant coach for Nigeria.
Carlos Alberto died of a heart attack on 25th October 2016 a month after his twin brother passed away.
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