Random numbering
Pele was the only one in the Brazilian delegation to use the “correct number” in that editionAccording to the Brazilian Football Confederation website. For example, goalkeeper Gilmar got 3, while Zagallo and Garrincha “exchanged numbers.” The former usually wore a size 11, and stayed in a size seven. The second, instead of the number seven, was given the number 11. The number 9 was taken by reserve defender Zosimo.
There is no definitive explanation for this problem. One account suggests that the official group list was not sent in time to FIFA, which was responsible for numbering the players.
Zagallo risks having a motive. He doesn’t remember exactly, but he has a vague memory that the number was given in the order of bags included in the flight.
I don’t know exactly, but I think they sent the number they put on our travel bags. This can only be an explanation, because I remember very well that my bag had the number seven on it. Zagallo to the Brazilian Federation
Pele himself has already given different accounts of why he got the number. “He got there, in the FIFA draw, the No. 10 shirt fell,” he said in an old interview. Interactive sports. “At the 1958 World Cup, in Sweden, I was the 10th Brazilian athlete to be registered,” he said on Santos TV in 2014. “For this reason, I was number 10 for the team in its first world title.”
