Sign up to get Today’s Best Cartoons in your inbox
Join 350,000+ subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of
The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Carlos Alberto and the best-ever World Cup goal – video
Captain of legendary 1970 Brazil team dies of a heart attack at the age of 72
Brazilian football captain Carlos Alberto, who has died at the age of 72, scored arguably the most famous goal in World Cup history to cap his side's triumph at the 1970 tournament in Mexico.
The stunning strike came in the final minutes of the final to make it 4-1 to Brazil, capping a dominant display from the South American side.
Fittingly it was Alberto, known in Brazil as the "Eternal captain", who finished the sensational move that involved nine outfield players and summed up the laid-back genius of the Brazil '70 team, featuring the likes of Pele, Jairzinho and Rivelino.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
"Their magnificence culminated, and was encapsulated, by the last goal in their 4-1 defeat of Italy in the final," says The Guardian. "Rarely has the phrase 'the beautiful game' been more apt and it earned Carlos Alberto... a lasting place in history."
Part of the goal's mystique is down to the TV coverage. Alberto is out of shot at the moment Pele delivers the ball to him, but as the pass rolls gently into the Italian penalty box Alberto erupts onto the screen to unleash an unstoppable first-time shot past Enrico Albertosi.
It's a brutal almost shocking end to a languid move and is regarded as the "pinnacle" for "a team that was so dominant that it made its yellow shirts into a global brand", says the New York Times.
YouTube/ Alberto Carlos scores against Italy in 1970
Sign up to get Today’s Best Cartoons in your inbox
Funniest, thought-provoking editorial cartoons, delivered each weekday
Talking about the goal to the BBC in 2006, Alberto said: "I realise how beautiful and how important that goal was because everybody is still talking about it.
"Nobody talks about Pele's goal, the first goal, the second goal. It is always about the fourth goal. I think it was the best goal ever scored in a World Cup.... I was lucky, because I scored it."
Teammate Pele led the tributes to his captain after news of his death from a heart attack on Tuesday. He described him as a "friend and brother".
Germany legend Franz Beckenbauer and Ronaldinho, who described him as a "leader and a great friend", were among those who hailed the influence of Alberto.
