Gérson de Oliveira Nunes (; born 11 January 1941), generally known as Gérson, is a Brazilian former association footballer who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He won numerous national trophies with the club sides of

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

and Fluminense. He is widely known as "the brain" behind the Brazil Football Team that won the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

in Mexico.Kraba, Millie (2002), The Story Has Been Told. p.85. Xlibris Publishers. Retrieved 27 July 2012

Career

Gérson was born and spent his childhood in the city of

Niterói Niterói () is a List of municipalities in Rio de Janeiro, municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro, in the Southeast Region, Brazil, southeast region of Brazil. It lies across Guanabara Bay, facing the city of Rio de ...

, just to the eastern side of

Guanabara Bay Guanabara Bay (, , ) is an oceanic bay in Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro. On its western shore lie the cities of Rio de Janeiro (city), Rio de Janeiro and Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Duque de Caxias, a ...

from

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, then the capital of the former Rio de Janeiro State. In school he was nicknamed ''papagaio'' (parrot), a nickname he kept throughout his life and which many of his fellow footballers used when addressing him. Both his father and uncle were professional footballers in Rio. His father was a close friend of the legendary Zizinho, widely held as the best Brazilian footballer before

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

, a superstar with

and a forward in the 1950 national team, along with

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

's Ademir Menezes and

Jair da Rosa Pinto Jair da Rosa Pinto (21 March 1921 – 28 July 2005), or simply Jair, was an association footballer who played offensive midfielder – one of the leading Brazilian men's footballers of the 1940s and 1950s, who is best remembered for his per ...

. So when Gérson announced he intended to become a footballer himself, he found little opposition at home.The Beautiful Team, In Search of Pele and the 1970 Brazilians by Garry Jenkins, Simon & Schuster, London, 1998. As a boy his heroes had been the aforementioned midfielders Zizinho and

Jair In the Hebrew Bible, Biblical Book of Judges, Jair or Yair ( ''Yā’īr'', "he enlightens") was a man from Gilead. He was of the Tribe of Manasseh and also descended from the Tribe of Judah (Numbers 32:39-41, 1 Chronicles 2:21-23). Jair Hebrew ...

and

Danilo Alvim Danilo Alvim Faria (3 December 1920 – 16 May 1996) was a Brazilian footballer. He was a member of the ill-fated Brazilian 1950 World Cup team. One of the greatest center-halves in the World during his prime, he was renowned as a very s ...

. However, in his first club,

, he was eventually cast in the same mold as the most influential midfield player of that era, Didi. The young Gérson combined technique and an extremely potent left foot shot with intelligence and an uncanny ability to control the game from the midfield. One of his greatest assets was his ability to switch defence into attack with one long, laser-like pass from deep inside his own half. Soon he was being talked of as a successor to Didi. Within a year of making his professional debut for

in 1959, he was called to the Brazilian 'amateur' team in the

Pan-American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. A year later he was a lynchpin of the side at the Rome Olympics where he scored four goals, but Brazil did not make it beyond the group phase. By 1961, he was the playmaker in

. He had also been recruited into the full national squad to defend the World Cup in Chile by the new national coach Aymore Moreira. Yet his dreams of combining with the bandy-legged 'Little Bird'

Garrincha Manuel Francisco dos Santos (28 October 1933 – 20 January 1983), nicknamed Mané Garrincha, best known as simply Garrincha (, "little bird"), was a Brazilian professional association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Winger, righ ...

, along with

and Didi in Chile were dashed when he suffered a serious knee injury. Forced to undergo surgery, he couldn't get himself back into Moreira's squad. It would be one of many injuries to blight his career. In 1963 he chose not to sign another contract with

after being assigned the impossible task of man-marking

in the 1962 Rio de Janeiro Championship final, which

won 3–0. He packed his bags and moved to

, which by then had the most celebrated squad in Rio and arguably in Brazil, alongside

's Santos, featuring superstars

, Didi, Nilton Santos, Zagallo and Quarentinha. In Botafogo he became one of the most celebrated Brazilian players of his generation, winning the Torneio Rio-São Paulo in 1964 and 1965, the Rio de Janeiro Championship in 1967 and 1968 and with the Brazilian Cup in 1968 in two finals against

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

the first national honour in the history of Botafogo. Later on, he also played for

and Fluminense, his favourite team. Gérson is considered one of the best passers in World Cup history. Although he didn't play well in 1966, he was the mastermind behind the whole Brazil national team in the 1970 tournament. He is regarded as the best passer and midfielder in that edition of that World Cup, in that Brazilian squad, and the second best player in the 4–1 victory against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in the final, after Pelé himself. Overall, he played 70 times for Brazil, scoring 14 goals for his country, including one in that 1970 World Cup final. Outside the soccer pitch, Gérson's name became nationally infamous after he starred in a Vila Rica cigarettes' advertising campaign for television in 1976, which had him read the tagline "''I like to take advantage of everything, right? You too take advantage!''". The line became instantly associated with the traditional Brazilian disregard for laws and social rules as well as

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

and

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

maneuvers, informally named "''jeitinho brasileiro''" ("the Brazilian way") or "'' Lei de Gérson''" ("Gérson's Law"), and the expression is largely used to these days. He later publicly regretted having starred in the ad, claiming his association with such acts did not reflect his true personality.

Style of play

Although Gérson played as a holding midfielder, Jonathan Wilson noted in a 2013 article for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' that he was an early example of a more creative interpreter of this role, who focussed more on ball retention and passing rather than solely looking to win back possession. A tactically intelligent, efficient, and technically gifted midfield

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a footballer who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing Passing (association football), passing moves which lead to Goal (sport), goals, through ...

, he was considered the "brain" behind the Brazilian squad that won the 1970 World Cup. He was known for his ability to retain possession and dictate the tempo of his team's play in midfield with his precise passing, and was also capable of switching from defence to attack by playing sudden, accurate long balls to meet his teammates' runs; he is regarded as one of the best passers in the history of the sport, and as one of Brazil's greatest ever players. He also possessed an excellent positional sense, and a powerful shot with his left foot, which earned him the nickname ''Canhotinha de Ouro'' ("Golden left foot," in Portuguese).

Controversy

Gérson displayed anger towards Pelé's list of the 125 greatest living footballer. He was adamant with the ruling and thought that he and a few of his teammates deserved a spot on the list. He symbolically ripped up a piece of paper, a clear representation of Pelé's list, on a local broadcasting station saying that "''I respect his opinion, but I don't agree. Apart from Zidane, Platini, and Fontaine, I'm behind 11 Frenchmen? It's a joke to hear this.''"

Career statistics

* Brazil national team (87 matches / 19 goals) *

(153 matches / 80 goals) *

(248 matches / 96 goals) *

(75 matches / 12 goals) * Fluminense (57 matches / 5 goals)

Honours

Club

Flamengo * Torneio Rio-São Paulo: 1961 * Rio de Janeiro State Championship: 1963 Botafogo * Torneio Rio-São Paulo: 1964, 1966 *

Taça Brasil The Taça Brasil () was the Brazilian national football championship contested from 1959 to 1968. Bahia, Cruzeiro and Botafogo were the only champions to have played all phases of the tournament, because until the 1968 edition teams from Rio de ...

: 1968 * Rio de Janeiro State Championship: 1967, 1968 São Paulo * São Paulo State Championship: 1970, 1971 Fluminense * Rio de Janeiro State Championship: 1973

International

Brazil *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

Individual

* FIFA World Cup Silver Ball: 1970 * FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1970 * World XI: 1971 * World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All TimeWorld Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time
Retrieved 20 November 2015 * Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame

References and notes

External links

*
Sambafoot
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gerson 1941 births Footballers from Niterói Footballers at the 1960 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Brazil 1966 FIFA World Cup players 1970 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup–winning players Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas players Brazil men's international footballers Brazilian men's footballers CR Flamengo footballers Fluminense FC players Men's association football midfielders Living people São Paulo state football team players São Paulo FC players Canto do Rio Foot-Ball Club players Pan American Games silver medalists in football Pan American Games silver medalists for Brazil Footballers at the 1959 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1959 Pan American Games 20th-century Brazilian sportsmen