Argentina's shot at back-to-back World Cup titles against Spain echoes Brazil's own triumph in 1962. Garrincha, thrust into the spotlight after Pele's tournament-ending injury, dragged that Brazil side to the final — only to be sent off in the semifinal. A few phone calls, a bribe and a disappearance later, Garrincha avoided suspension and played the final.
Garrincha had had enough.
It was the semifinal of the 1962 World Cup, hosts Chile were up against defending champions Brazil.
Garrincha, who led Brazil’s charge after Pele’s injury in the group-stage, was magnificent in the match, scoring a brace and making an assist as Brazil swept past Chile 4-2.
Out of his two goals, the first stood out as it came off a thunderous strike from the edge of the box with his weaker left foot.
But his most talked about kick of the match came in the 83rd minute off his favoured right foot, and it was not on a football but an opposing player.
Chile, historically one of the weaker teams in South America, had qualified for their maiden semifinal. Their path to the last four was not carved with footballing artistry, but with unforeseen brutality and some questionable refereeing.
The Chile World Cup is now widely recognised as the most brutal edition of the competition, and the hosts were arguably its biggest culprits.
Chile carried on with its brutal ways and made it to the semifinal, where it was up against favourites Brazil.
The home side, unsurprisingly, adopted the same approach against a superior Brazil team, and Garrincha, the heart of the Brazilian attack, had the biggest target on his back.
Garrincha was shoved, kicked, and elbowed throughout his playing minutes, but he endured it all, shaking them off just like he shook off markers with his dribbling, and was the main reason why Brazil were up 4-2 with seven minutes left on the clock.
But then it happened.
Garrincha received the ball near the touchline, passed it with his right foot, took a couple of steps, and, with the referee’s eyes averted, kicked midfielder Eladio Rojas on the backside.
It wasn’t a malicious kick; it was more like a gentle tap with the instep of his right foot, done to embarrass him more than anything. It took Rojas half a second to realise what had happened before he fell to the ground, feigning agony, while his teammates rushed to the referee, demanding action against Garrincha.
The referee Arturo Yamazaki hadn’t seen it, but linesman Esteban Marino had, and under his advice, Yamazaki sent off Garrincha.
After the match, Garrincha was reportedly remorseful for his actions while explaining what had happened.
“OK, I was sent off, but all afternoon I am kicked. There is a limit to the time when a man must be a man. When I was kicked, I struck back. Maybe I was wrong, but I am prepared to face what may come.”
In modern football, a red card means a minimum of one match suspension.
The ongoing 2026 World Cup has witnessed an exception, however. Upon US President Trump's phone call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, US forward Folarin Balogun's one-match suspension got deferred.
This was the first time since the 1962 World Cup that a player escaped suspension following a sending-off.
The last player to get a reprieve like that was, of course, Garrincha.
Garrincha's case, however, was different as back then, there were no automatic one-match suspension rules.
Players who were sent off would be called up for a trial in front of a disciplinary committee, where match officials would present evidence of the player’s offence, and the committee would determine if he was to be suspended or not.
The Brazilian football authorities launched diplomatic efforts, sending communications to FIFA and other stakeholders to allow Garrincha to play in the final.
Maybe as a result of those efforts, or perhaps for the sake of the tournament, Chilean president Jorge Alessandri phoned the Peruvian referee Yamazaki before the trial, asking him to go easy on the player in his testimony.
But Yamazaki had not seen Garrincha kick Rojas; Uruguayan linesman Marino had, and his testimony was likely to determine the Brazilian’s fate.
But thankfully for Garrincha, Marino never turned up at the trial.
The entire episode left the local and foreign media in Santiago flummoxed, who searched for him throughout the city but could not find any trace of him.
“He [Marino] just disappeared. It was like something out of an Agatha Christie novel. It was Agatha Christie football. He just disappeared, and nobody knew where he’d gone,” wrote Brazilian journalist Argeu Affonso, who was covering the World Cup.
In his absence, Garrincha was acquitted and allowed to feature in the final, where he helped Brazil to a 3-1 win over Czechoslovakia and become the first team since Italy in 1938 to win consecutive World Cups.
The mystery surrounding Marino’s sudden disappearance was cleared up several years later by former Brazilian referee Olten Ayres, who was an alternate referee in that World Cup.
He revealed that fellow Brazilian referee Joao Etzel, who was also in Chile as a match official in that World Cup, received $10,000 from the Brazilian confederation to hand over to Marino as a bribe to not show up at the trial and flee.
Ayres also claimed that he met Marino a few years after learning of the bribe. The Uruguayan referee told him that he was actually searching for Etzel, as he had received $10,000 from the Brazilian confederation but delivered only $5,000, pocketing the rest!