Jairzinho’s place in Brazilian football history is defined by the 1970 World Cup final, when he scored Brazil’s third goal in the 4-1 victory over Italy in Mexico City.
That goal made him one of the players included in a long-term portrait project focused on footballers who had scored in World Cup finals. The report says the project began in 2007, after photographer Michael Donald became interested in the small group of players who had reached that stage of the tournament.
For Jairzinho, Manguinhos was a natural setting. The former forward had reportedly worked with vulnerable children in Rio’s favelas and maintained a football school in the community, connecting his public legacy with a more local form of influence.
The session began on a public pitch before moving outside a bar, where Donald found an old table football game and decided to make one final image.
The report describes a shoot conducted under serious pressure. There was reportedly an informal expectation that outsiders should leave the favela by late afternoon, while security hired for the team departed earlier than planned.
As Donald prepared the frame, tension developed behind the camera. A man on a bicycle allegedly confronted members of the crew with a gun. Jairzinho, Donald and an assistant remained focused on completing the photograph.
That contrast gives the image its force. The finished portrait does not reveal the danger outside the frame; it shows only the calm presence of a football hero.
Jairzinho is remembered for his remarkable scoring run during Brazil’s 1970 campaign, but the Manguinhos project adds another dimension to his story. His influence continued through children, local football and community work rather than only through medals and iconic goals.
The next time that World Cup team is revisited, Jairzinho’s legacy should be viewed through both lenses: the decisive figure in Mexico and the mentor who kept football close to the people.