Mario Coluna

Mario Coluna
Mario Coluna (1969)
Personnel
Surname	Mário Esteves Coluna
birthday	August 6, 1935
place of birth	Inhaca ( Maputo ),  Mozambique
date of death	February 25, 2014
Place of death	Maputo ,  Mozambique
size	172 cm
position	Attacking midfielder
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1951-1954	Desportivo Lourenço Marques
1954-1970	Benfica Lisbon	677 (150)
1970-1971	Olympique Lyon	19 00(2)
1971-1972	SC Estrela (Portalegre)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1955-1968	Portugal	57 00(8)
1 Only league games are given.

Mário Esteves Coluna (born August 6, 1935 in Inhaca ( Maputo ), Mozambique ; † February 25, 2014 ibid) was a Portuguese soccer player who won ten national championships with Benfica Lisbon and the European Cup in 1961 and 1962 . In 1966 he finished third with the national team at the 1966 World Cup in England. In Lisbon he was known as o Monstro Sagrado , "the sacred monster". Brazilian journalists respectfully called him the Portuguese Didi .

career

Associations, 1945 to 1970

Mário Culuna, son of a Portuguese father and a Mozambican mother, was born in poor conditions on the island of Inhaca off the city of Lourenço Marques (now Maputo , capital of the independent Mozambique) and grew up in the Alto-Maé district. Sports enthusiast Coluna hoped to become a car mechanic. In 1951 he joined Desportivo Lourenço Marques , a top club in the city that was co-founded by his father and where he also worked as a goalkeeper. There he also tried his hand at basketball, but did not get beyond the reserve team. He was more successful as an athlete, where he set a national record in the high jump with 1.82 meters. In 1952 Desportivo won the championship of the district of Maputo, which in the absence of a provincial championship was the highest achievable title. Mário Culuna developed into an outstanding footballer in the following years and aroused the interest of FC Porto . Sporting Lisbon doubled the offer, but Culuna finally moved to SL Benfica in 1954 , which is probably also due to the father's wishes and the fact that Desportivo was associated with the club.

At the same time, goalkeeper Alberto da Costa Pereira from Ferroviário Lourenço Marques came another player from Mozambique to Benfica and from Brazil came coach Otto Glória from Atlético Mineiro . This not only introduced the 4-2-4 system, but also professionalized the structure of the club. With Mário Coluna, the new coach found an ideal man for the connection between defense and attack and Pereira immediately prevailed and was in Benfica's goal until 1967. Together with goal scorer José Águas , the first championship after a four-year break and victory in the cup was achieved in 1954/55 . The recognition of the personal achievement of the young 19-year-old midfielder was also documented with his first appointment on May 4, 1955 to the Portuguese national football team at the international match in Glasgow against Scotland. The second double success with Benfica followed in 1957 and the third cup success in 1959. The first appearance in the European Cup of National Champions 1957/58 ended in the first round against the Spanish runner-up FC Sevilla . Coluna, like center forward Águas and left winger Cavém, played both games against the Andalusians, lost 3-1 in Seville and the 0-0 defeat on September 26, 1957 in Lisbon could not make up for the first leg defeat.

When Béla Guttmann replaced coach Glória for the 1959/60 season and two more above-average players came to Benfica with right-winger José Augusto and central defender Germano , Mário Coluna celebrated his third championship in Portugal in 1960. The success in the European Cup 1960/61 by Benfica was still a surprise. Overall, the linchpin of Benfica's build-up game, the handlebars in midfield, won ten championships and seven trophies in Portugal between 1955 and 1969. In 1964 Coluna was voted Portugal's Footballer of the Year and the Mozambique man is second among Portugal's footballers of the century.

At the end of his playing career Mário Coluna spent the 1970/71 season at Olympique Lyon , where he played 19 games in the French Division 1 , in which he scored two goals. The now 35-year-old Coluna still impressed with his inherent brilliance, but was no longer physically up to date. The music lover also spent too many long nights at the Hot Club Jazz on Place Carnot for the taste of a few too many . Against players like Fleury Di Nallo and the up-and-coming Serge Chiesa , he was visibly less able to prevail. So he was not in the line-up of the cup final of 1971 which was lost 1-0 to Stade Rennais UC .

It was planned that he would spend another season in Lyon, but they soon split up. So he replaced coach Narciso in the course of the 1971/72 season at the Portuguese third division club SC Estrela in Portalegre near the Spanish border and worked as a player- coach until the end of the season . He brought his long-time teammate Humberto Fernandes and five youth players from Benfica to the club. In the end, Estrela was 13th of 16 teams and relegated to the district leagues.

Five finals in the European Masters Cup, 1961 to 1968

In the European Cup of the rounds 1958/59 and 1959/60, the Portuguese representatives Sporting Lisbon and FC Porto were eliminated in the first round and in the qualification. Therefore, the two successes against the Scottish champion Heart of Midlothian in the national championship competition 1960/61 by Benfica came about in the first round in the role of outsider. Internationally, Portuguese football was not of great importance in this phase. The experts had definitely not expected the 6-2 home win against the Hungarian champions Újpest Budapest in the second round with such clarity. At that time, Benfica was still a team of the "nameless", that also applied to Mário Coluna in midfield and the attack by José Augusto and José Águas . Against Aarhus GF , the team with midfielders Fernando Cruz , Mário Coluna and Joaquim Santana was the favorite for the first time and implemented this with two successes. After the success in the semifinals against Rapid Vienna , FC Barcelona were the clear favorites before the final on May 31, 1961 in Bern . "Barça" had eliminated the five-time series winner Real Madrid in the second round , won the championship title in Spain in 1959 and 1960, triumphed in the Exhibition Cup in 1958 and 1960 and had, with Luis Suárez, Europe's 1960s Footballer of the Year in the team. Since the Catalan attack was completed by László Kubala , Sándor Kocsis , Zoltán Czibor and the Brazilian striker Evaristo - all internationally recognized greats - Coluna and colleagues were clearly in the outsider role.

When Coluna broke his nose in the eighth minute of the game, Barcelona dominated the game and took the lead 1-0 through Kocsis in the 21st minute, the negative predictions seemed to come true that only Barcelona would succeed Real could. But Coluna, who returned to the game, and Fernando Cruz took control of midfield, Coluna even scored the 3-1 lead and the red-whites from Benfica won the European Cup in 1960 with a 3-2 win / 61. Mário Coluna had played nine games and scored two goals in the competition. Also when he defended his title on May 2, 1962 in Amsterdam with 5: 3 goals against Real Madrid - now Eusébio and Simões were still attacking - Coluna entered the goalscorer list with a 3: 3 equalizer. From winning the Cup in 1962, the Benfica attack with Augusto, Eusébio, Águas (later José Augusto Torres ), Coluna and Simões was part of the international parade storm series.

The first lost European Cup final was experienced by Coluna, who is now the successor to Águas as captain, in 1963 against AC Milan . Without Germano and Águas, Benfica lost 2-1 in London. The collaboration with the Chilean national coach of the 1962 World Cup, Fernando Riera , did not turn out to be the desired success in the successor to Guttmann. By winning the championship in 1963 Coluna and his teammates from Benfica took part in the European Cup again in 1963/64. In the round of 16, however, a 5-0 defeat at Borussia Dortmund on December 4, 1963 resulted in an early end. With coach Elek Schwartz , Coluna moved into his fourth European championship final in the 1964/65 season. On May 27, 1965 Benfica lost the final in Milan with 0-1 goals against Inter Milan , the team of coach Helenio Herrera .

Two lean years followed in the European Cup: in the 1965/66 series, Coluna and Benfica were eliminated in the quarter-finals against Manchester United and in 1966/67 they were not qualified for the Champions Cup. On May 29, 1968, Mário Coluna was with Benfica in his fifth final in the European Cup . In London he lost his third final game with 1: 4 goals in extra time against Manchester United.

From 1957 to 1969, Mario Coluna played 58 games in the European Champions Cup - like Alfredo Di Stéfano - and led the Benfica team onto the field as captain in 37 matches. Overall, his presence in the national champions' cup lasted 12 years and two months. In the European Cup era from 1955 to 1970, the Benfica playmaker was one of the outstanding players and is placed on a par with Eusébio , Ferenc Puskás and Luis Suárez .

National team, 1955 to 1968

Mário Coluna made his debut in the Seleção at the age of 19 on May 4, 1955 in the international match in Glasgow against Scotland. In contrast to the years of success with his club team Benfica Lisbon, only the successful World Cup qualification in 1965 against Turkey, Romania and the vice world champion of 1962, Czechoslovakia, and the football World Cup 1966 in England, stand with the national team of Portugal . as a success. At the World Cup, Coluna played all six games together with Jaime Graça in midfield of Portugal. In the group games, Portugal prevailed against the reigning soccer world champion Brazil and in the end decided the game for third place against the Soviet Union with 2-1 goals. Coluna was the director and Eusébio the outstanding goalscorer. The Portuguese captain was also chosen to midfield of the 1966 World Cup All-Star Team. With the World Cup qualifier on December 11, 1968 in Athens against Greece, Mário Coluna ended his career at the age of 33 after 57 appearances and eight goals in the national team of Portugal.

End of playing career

On September 27, 1967, Mário Coluna was still the captain of the world selection at the game in Madrid against Spain. Together with Mario Corso and Gianni Rivera , he formed the midfield of the world selection, which won the game with 3-0 goals. For Coluna’s farewell game, Benfica received a selection from Europe on December 8, 1970 at the Estádio da Luz . In front of 55,000 spectators, Eusébio & Co prevailed with 3-2 goals against the European selection led by captain Bobby Moore and coach László Kubala (including Cruijff, Džajić, Hurst, Osgood, Seeler, Suárez).

Trainer and functionary

With the beginning of the independence of Mozambique in 1975 Coluna became national coach in his home country . As a club coach he won the championship with Textáfrica do Chimoio in 1976 and with Ferroviário Maputo in 1982. With Ferroviário 1984 also the cup. Later he also held the office of Minister of Culture and Sports. He was a member of the FIFA Goal Office in Mozambique and from 1998 to 2007 President of the Mozambique Football Association, which has also been linked to the Bavarian Football Association through a partnership project since the 2006 World Cup.

Web links / literature

Commons : Mário Coluna  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mário Coluna , zerozero.pt (as of October 20, 2012).
• Coluna, Benfica's midfield colossus , FIFA.com (as of October 20, 2012).
• Matthias Weinrich: The European Cup. Volume 1: 1955 to 1974. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2007, ISBN 978-3-89784-252-6 .
• Michael Horn: Lexicon of international soccer stars. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89533-466-9 .
• Hardy Greens : Encyclopedia of European Football Clubs. The first division teams in Europe since 1885. 2., completely revised. Edition. AGON Sportverlag, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-89784-163-0 .
• Uwe Nuttelmann: The great European football book , Volume 2, Sportverlag Nuttelmann, 1999, ISBN 3-930814-02-1
• European Champion Clubs' Cup (1955–1960) , IFFHS.
• LIBERO International , No. 21, 1996, IFFHS

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Football legend Mario Coluna passed away , accessed on February 25, 2014
2. ^ ^{A b} Mário Coluna , The Delagoa Bay Company (as of October 20, 2012).
3. ↑ Alex Bourouf: Mario COLUNA un héros lisboète à l'OL , Old School Panini (as of October 20, 2012).
4. ^ O Fracasso de Mario Coluna eo Regresso aos Nacionais , Futebol Anos 70 Portalegre, April 14, 2007.
5. ↑ Época 1971/72: Segunda Divisão , Arquivos da Bola (as of October 20, 2012).
6. ↑ Historial ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Federação Moçambicana de Futebol, March 31, 2011.