Amarildo

Amarildo was born into the family of football player Amaro da Silveira ^[2] and his wife Aida ^[3] . He had four more sisters, one of whom, Nicaea, in the future became his agent ^[4] . In childhood, he was very thin, to the point that even those who knew him thought that he was sick with something ^[3] . Amarildo began his career at the Goitakaz club in 1956 ^[5] . In 1958, the forward moved to the Flamengo club. This happened thanks to the former Goitacaz player, Paulinho, whose brother Roberto played for Mengo and contributed to the transition of the football player ^[6] . Amarildo made his team debut on June 1 in a match with San Cristovan (1-0). On June 11, he scored his first and only goal for the club, hitting the gates of Olariah (2: 2). In total for “Mengo” Amarildo spent 6 games and scored 1 goal. The reason for leaving the team was smoking. After a lost match with Botafogo , the head coach of the team Manuel Fleitas Solic saw that the attacker was smoking in the locker room and shouted at him: “Amarildo, I do not want you to smoke here!” The footballer snapped at this and called him an old man and a coward ^{[7] [3]} . Then, when the team was in the under-stands, Amarildo went to the Botafogo locker room, where he spoke with Joan Saldanha , the club’s head coach. After that, the forward became a player of Botafogo ^[3] . In the team, Amarildo became part of one of the most famous lines of attack, consisting of Garrinci , Didi , Quarantini , Mario Zagallo and Amarildo himself ^[8] . He won two state championships and a Rio Sao Paulo tournament with the team. In 1961, the sports director of the Bologna club Carlo Montanari, who was watching Gerson , saw him in one of the matches. He immediately contacted the club director Dall'Aroy, to which he said: “And who ever heard of him?” ^[4] . Amarildo stayed in Brazil, where he performed two more seasons. In total for “Botafogo” the attacker spent 238 matches and scored 135 goals ^[5] .

In 1963, Amarildo became interested in the "big" Italian clubs " Milan " and " Juventus ". AC Milan won this dispute by paying 50 million Cruzeiro for a player’s transfer ^[3] . It is curious that the year before that, Milan also wanted to acquire a player, but preferred to him another Brazilian striker, Germano ^[4] . He made his team debut on September 1, 1963 in a friendly match with Inter , in which he immediately scored a goal. On September 15, he played the first official game for the Rossoneri against Mantova (4: 1), where he scored a goal in the 82nd minute of the meeting ^[4] . In his first season, the striker spent the most, among the whole team, games - 39 matches, in which he scored 16 goals, becoming the team's second scorer after Jose Altafini . A year later, the player received a number 9 T-shirt in Milan. He became the team's top scorer with 14 goals, and the club finished second in the national championship . In the 1965/66 season, Amarildo was still the player of the club's foundation, but he began to score less. And the leader of the attack was a new Brazilian who came, Angelo Sormani . In his last season at Milan, the forward won the Italian Cup . The final game with Padova , held on June 14, 1968, was the last held by Amarildo for the club. In this meeting, the footballer scored the only goal and brought the team victory in the tournament ^[9] . In total, Amarildo spent 131 matches for the Rossoneri and scored 38 goals. After coming to the post of head coach of the team Nereo Rocco , the Italian specialist wanted to get rid of the Brazilian striker, who, in his opinion, was too conflicted in communication with the judges, for which he often received yellow and red cards ^[10] .

In the summer of 1967, Amarildo moved to Fiorentina , becoming part of a deal in which Kurt Hamrin joined Milan. ^[4] He made his team debut on September 24 in a match with Varese (3: 1), in which he made a double. On January 7, in a match with SPAL, Amarildo received a fracture of the tibia and a serious sprained ankle, which prevented him from performing for several months ^[4] . In the summer of 1968, the forward went on vacation to Brazil, but did not want to return, demanding a double increase in bonus. But the new head coach of the team, the Argentinean Bruno Pesaola was able, thanks to his friends in Brazil, to persuade him to come back. The only thing he went to was Amarildo’s request to give him the 11th number and the opportunity to play a “free artist” in the attack, not burdened with one position on the field ^[4] . The position of the “trekvartista” was a success: Amarildo helped the club win the first in 12 years and the second title in the history of the country. In total for Fiorentina, the forward spent 85 matches and scored 21 goals. In 1970, Amarildo moved to Roma . On September 13, a player scored the first goal for the club in the Italian Cup match against Palermo . On October 11, the striker scored two goals for the club, hitting the Vicenza goal (4: 2). Amarildo’s first goal in this meeting was Roma’s first goal in the championship . In the second season in the team, Amarildo dropped out of the club. In total for “Roma” he spent 15 matches and scored 3 goals. In the second half of 1972, Amarildo returned to Brazil, to the Vasco da Gama club. He came to the club with an untreated left knee meniscus injury ^[6] , which is why he even had surgery in Rome ^[3] . A little later, he even suffered a stroke , because of which he could not even train for several months ^[3] . In January 1973, Amarildo still made his debut with Vasco in the match against Flamengo (0: 1). He played only a few games a year and at the beginning of 1974 decided to end his career ^[3] .

As part of the Brazilian national team, Amarildo made his debut on April 30, 1961 in the Osvaldo Cruz Cup match with Paraguay (2-0), where he replaced with Quarantigny ^[11] . In the same year he went to the World Cup , where he was considered Pele's understudy:

Pele himself told Amarildo to play as in Botafogo ^[12] . The patronage of the young player was taken by his partner in the "Botafogo" Nilton Santos . He said before the game: “Boy, you will play as you played in“ Botafogo ”... Fix it in your head that this game is the same as any other that you played on Maracana ” ^[3] . At the tournament, the footballer entered the field in the third match of the qualifying round of the competition against the Spanish national team and in this game scored two goals, bringing victory to his team with a score of 2: 1. These goals were the first goals scored by Amarildo in the form of a national team ^[13] . After the match, journalist Nelson Rodriguez called him “Substitute”; this nickname was fixed to him until the end of his career ^[12] . Forward played all the remaining matches of the tournament, and in the final game with Czechoslovakia equalized. Brazil won the match 3: 1 and won gold medals ^[14] . Amarildo scored 3 goals in the tournament, sharing with two other players the second place in the list of top scorers. In 1966, he was on an expanded list of 47 candidates for a trip to his second world championship . But they did not take the forward to the tournament ^[8] , as well as two other players who played in Italy, Dino Sani and Jair ^[4] . On June 25, 1966, he spent his last match for the national team, in which his team tied with Scotland ^[15] . In total, Amarildo spent 25 matches for the national team (22 official) and scored 9 goals (7 in official meetings).

After the completion of his playing career, Amarildo began to work as a coach. He worked in the youth team of Fiorentina. Then he returned to his homeland, where he worked with the youth team of Botafogo. Then he coached the Sorso interregional league club. And then he went to the Tunisian Esperance , which led to victory in the championship and the Tunis Cup . But there he received a two-year suspension for assaulting an arbitrator ^[4] . He later worked with the Rondinella club in the C2 series , the Turris Club. He spent the season as an assistant to the head coach of Fiorentina, Sebastian Lazaroni ^[4] . Then he worked as the head coach of the Pontedera club and Al Ain from the UAE . With Al Ain, the coach won the UAE championship in 1993 ^[16] . In May 2007, Amarildo, after many decades of life in Italy, returned to Brazil ^[8] . January 24, he became the head coach of the club " America " ^[17] , but a week later he was fired ^[18] . The club under his leadership spent one match in which they lost to Volta-Redonde with a score of 2: 4 ^[9] . On April 30, 2011 Amarildo received a memorial plaque at the Goitakaz stadium, where he began his career: “Goitakaz is my blood. I have always been Goitakaz, I have never denied it, and I will never deny it. It was the club that created me ” ^[6] .

As a player

Team

• Champion of the state of Rio de Janeiro 1961, 1962
• O'Higgins Cup Winner: 1961
• Osvaldo Cruz Cup Winner: 1962, 1963
• Rio Sao Paulo Tournament Winner: 1962
• World Champion : 1962
• Doom Cup Winner : 1963
• Italian Cup Winner: 1966/67
• Champion of Italy : 1968/69

Personal

• Top scorer of the Rio de Janeiro State Championship : 1961 (18 goals)
• Top scorer of the tournament Rio Sao Paulo : 1962 (8 goals)

As a trainer

• Champion of Tunisia : 1984/85
• Tunisia Cup Winner: 1986
• UAE Champion : 1993

Amarildo was married to the Italian Fiamme ^[19] , whom he met in Florence and who was 12 years younger than him ^{[4] [20]} . They had three children, the girls Zhennifer (born in Rio de Janeiro) and Katyusha (born in Naples ) ^[19] , as well as the boy Rildo (born in Florence). He named his son in honor of his Italian nickname "Rildo" ^{[21] [8]} . The son himself became a sports doctor, in particular, he worked as part of the Brazilian women's team in the age group up to 17 years. In 2010, Rildo's wife, Ilenia Mancini, accused her husband, with whom they had been married for more than 10 years, of regular beatings and filed for divorce ^[22] .

Amarildo is a deeply religious person: “I really believe in God , because people who do not believe in God are animals. He is an atheist, he is a heartless person, he is an evil person, a person without a heart, if he does not believe in God ” ^[20] .

In September 2011, Amarildo was diagnosed with throat cancer ^[23] . After nine months of chemotherapy ^[19] , he was completely cured of the disease ^[8] .

• Pesteam article
• Profile on brasilnacopa (inaccessible link)
• Profile on bdfa.com.ar
• Article on fifa.com