Fenerbahce's manager will not abandon his attacking principles in pursuit of success. Photograph: Ibrahim Usta/AP
Big interview
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Zico still a man of style
The Brazilian legend who masterminded Fenerbahce's taming of Chelsea in the Champions League is preaching the same ideals he followed as a player; and his commitment to attacking football will not be compromised
Julio Gomes Filho
Sunday April 6, 2008
The Observer
'As time goes by, his life as a football manager will be much better. Not only due to experience, but because younger players will regard him as a normal person, not a superhero.' Alex, Fenerbahce captain, April 2008
For Fenerbahce's most important player, as well as so many others of his generation, Zico was simply greater than Pelé. After one of the truly stellar careers as a footballer, tarnished solely by his failure to lift the World Cup for Brazil, Zico is now living a special moment. For the first time in his short career as a coach, the European spotlight is upon him. For the first time in their history, Turkey's most popular club are in a Champions League quarter-final. And it seems the story will not end here.
Zico argues that Fenerbahce's plan to become 'as big as any European big club' in 10 years' time is no fantasy. There is the money and the structure for it and he may stay to see it through. The path more travelled, however, is in western Europe. Sooner rather than later Zico could bring his attacking style to a major club in one of the traditional centres. If he does, there will be no compromise in style. 'I will never give up on football that is played well,' says Zico. 'There are too many defensive teams around, with players passing the ball sideways instead of going for it. I like my players to have fun and attack.'
And, if he does, there will be no compromise in command, either. Zico vows he will never take orders from above on who to play and which system to use. 'We obviously owe explanations to the president or the owner of the club,' he says. 'After all, he is your boss. One knows what kind of things are acceptable to keep the job, but I would never allow my autonomy to be threatened. I line up my team, and only me.'
Asked if he could be Chelsea's manager and cope with this kind of pressure, Zico reverts to the pat answer: 'In football, everything is possible.' For now, the analysis of his current European opponents tends to the negative. 'Chelsea became a more defensive team after José Mourinho left. They used to know exactly what they wanted. They used to mark in the opponents' half of the pitch, apply pressure and show high levels of confidence. Now I see Chelsea more restricted to defence, waiting for the moment to counter-attack. They are obviously still very dangerous, because of the quality of their players.'
After Wednesday's 2-1 first-leg victory, Fenerbahce are just one draw away from ousting one of the giants from the competition. Within the club, the conclusion is that Chelsea's first-half dominance occurred only because Fenerbahce had 'more respect than necessary' for them. At half time Zico reminded his men that they were international players, that they were good enough to peg Chelsea back. The message was clear: go out and play as you know, don't be afraid. The players listened to the commander. Chelsea, just as the Turks expected, fell apart under the pressure.
For Zico, coaching consists of two unconventional axes: number one, dialogue; number two, teaching through repetitions. 'I will never do as a coach the things I hated people doing to me when I was a player. For me dialogue is as essential in football as in life. I like to talk to my players and I never impose anything, I always give them the chance to make their own choices.
'Obviously football also consists of tactical work, but for me the main thing is to show my players their potential and show them they are important for the team. I don't want them to listen to me and follow strictly what I say. I want them to have absolute freedom, take decisions and sort things out inside the four lines. That is my philosophy.'
Talking is so important to him that translators have gained a vital role in his two jobs as a coach. Kunihiro Suzuki, during his time with Japan's national team, and Samet Guzel, at Fenerbahce, have been Zico's voice for non-Portuguese speakers.
'Samet is almost being raised by me,' he says. 'He was a young supporter who spoke perfect Portuguese but was turning cartwheels after victories instead of having a professional attitude. He's learnt that and you can see the difference now. He is so important, because I don't have much to teach the experienced Brazilian players I work with. I do have, though, a lot to say to my other players. The Turks weren't used to dialogue, they were trained simply to follow orders. I've changed this culture here, I've given them examples and the chance to take decisions, and this is one of the reasons why things have been working well.'
Alex, his captain, says he sometimes misses a more conventional approach to team problems. 'It is his style and he is the boss. He avoids confrontation and never raises the level of his voice,' says the playmaker. 'You can often see he is irritated, but he keeps calm and doesn't stress out situations. The man is excessively calm, almost a monk. Actually, with all the problems we are watching with the Tibetan monks, I'd say Zico is calmer than a monk.'
Calmness and tranquillity, which he transmits to his players. Two recent episodes show the power of Zico's word.
In the round of 16, against Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium, goalkeeper Volkan Demirel is preparing for the penalty shootout after two big mistakes that resulted in two goals. Zico ambles over and tells his keeper: 'Football is a great sport. It gives you the possibility of redemption in a matter of minutes. Forget what happened. You've got the chance to be the hero.' Demirel saves three penalties and Sevilla are defeated.
Episode two, Wednesday, versus Chelsea in Istanbul. Deivid makes a mistake attempting to help the defence and ends up poking the ball into his own net. The striker enters the dressing room at half time emotionally damaged. Zico reminds Deivid that he scored twice against Sevilla, goals without which Fenerbahce would not even be here. 'The own goal doesn't erase your history, boy. Head up, let's play.' Deivid redeems himself with a stunning 30-metre strike to seal victory.
If dialogue is Zico's number-one priority, training is second. He is not a studied tactician like Brazil's better-known coaches, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Vanderlei Luxemburgo and Carlos Alberto Parreira. Zico emphasises the basics.
'For me, playing football is a mechanical thing, like cleaning your teeth,' Zico explains. 'You need to learn the movements and have them in your head: controlling, passing, shooting, heading, crossing... it is all about training.
'If there is one thing I am good at, my gift, it is observing the movements of a player and correcting his mistakes. During my career, I did it right much more than I did it wrong. So, when I see someone is doing something wrong, I teach him and fix it. I would be selfish if I didn't share this gift.'
Centre-back Edu Dracena reports that the players do not even argue when the boss has a word. 'He approaches you and calmly shows you how it has to be done. You won't discuss with a man like Zico, one of the all-time greatest. You do it the way he says and it always pays off.'
After one training session, though, someone did raise question marks. Zico was trying free-kicks against the empty net and goalkeeper Demirel, up to a challenge, asked captain Alex: 'I am too young and I haven't seen Zico playing. Was he really that good?' The coach listens and prepares to show some old-school stuff. He needs to warm up and says the challenge will be on after his eighth ball. He does not need that many. After the fourth free-kick taken, his knee is already responding and he tells Demirel to be ready. What comes next is a fantastic demonstration of talent. Five perfectly curled balls into the net and the players have to ask him to stop in order not to dent the goalkeeper's morale for forthcoming games. Demirel has never challenged Zico again.
Fenerbahce's most experienced player, Roberto Carlos, explains that Zico's style contrasts with the other, far more tactical coaches he has worked with in Europe. 'Fabio Capello, for example, worried about the tiniest tactical details. Zico's training sessions are more focused on the basics of football. He is a coach who gives us the freedom to do what we know on the pitch; the only thing he demands is good football.'
The veteran defender's arrival is one of the keys to Fenerbahce's success this season. Before signing him, Zico sought to ensure Roberto Carlos would come and work, rather than beginning an early retirement in Istanbul. 'He is setting patterns and pulling the younger guys along,' Zico says. 'The players look at his professionalism and follow his example. I'm glad because I knew Roberto personally and I called him to warn him that he could not live off his name here, he would have to work properly along with the others, with no privileges.'
Zico was aware that names and medals mean next to nothing in Turkish football. Currently treated as a king - he is called 'Kral [King] Arthur' as his full name is Arthur Antunes Coimbra - Zico had been heavily criticised ahead of his Champions League campaign. 'I accept criticism,' he says. 'What I don't accept is precipitate criticism made without any analysis. I feel disgust when people who don't know your everyday work hit you below the belt. I have been called a trainee here! It seems that in Turkey everybody knows everything about football. What I suffered here made the Japan times seem easy.'
Zico was central to the startling rise in popularity of football when he moved to Japan in 1991, in the final stages of his playing career. Labelled 'Kami-sama' (God) by the Japanese press, he accepted the job of national-team coach in 2002, upsetting, he says, much of the English-language press there who had been used to a stream of privileged information from his French predecessor, Philippe Troussier. Despite a media campaign against him, Zico won the Asian Cup two years later. The 2006 World Cup, though, ended in first-round elimination and further criticism. 'I think I made a mistake there,' he says. 'I set expectations simply too high. Maybe I believed in our team more than the players did. This is experience and I won't repeat the same mistake here in Turkey.'
High expectations and a reluctance to forget the past are the walls that separate Zico from rejoining his old club, Flamengo. His first grandson was born two weeks ago and has been already photographed sucking a dummy decorated with the symbol of the club. 'I don't want to ruin it,' he says. 'I love Flamengo, but in football you go from genius to idiot in a matter of minutes.'
He joined Flamengo in 1967 when only 14. Seven years later he was a first-team regular. At a time when Liverpool were dominant in England and Europe, Zico scripted the golden years of Brazil's most popular club. He won the national league four times (1980, '82, '83 and '87), the Copa Libertadores in 1981 and defeated Liverpool 3-0 at the end of that year to take the Intercontinental Cup. Zico was man of the match and Flamengo the first Brazilian world champions since Pelé's Santos.
Zico remains the all-time top scorer at the sacred Maracanã, with the impressive mark of 333 goals in 435 games. His big disappointments came at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups - the '82 team regarded as the best Brazil side never to win the title and better than several that did. Four years later, he missed a penalty in a classic quarter-final against France and became the villain.
In 1998, Zico was Mário Zagallo's first assistant in a World Cup campaign that led to a loss to France in the final as people in Brazil began talking of how Zico brought bad luck to the country in World Cups. If the accusations demonstrate how quickly football turns its back on heroes, they are refuted by those who saw him play.
'For me Zico is a bigger name than Pelé,' says Alex. 'It is because I watched him playing, I watched the marvellous things he did. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Zico. That relationship of idol and fan made things difficult for me. I couldn't help looking at him and thinking, "Man, this is Zico in front of me, my hero." As time goes by, you end up getting used to it and differentiating things. Now we have a relationship of coach and player. And he is such a pleasant person to be with that I hope that after our Fenerbahce story ends we will be friends for a long time.'
Source:http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,2271349,00.html
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