Garrincha, the Joy of the People now 'taken for granted'

"On what planet was Garrincha born? On a small planet called Pau Grande", it says at the tiny memorial to the great former Brazilian international beside the pitch where he started his career.
The sleepy neighbourhood, in the municipality of Mage, lies halfway between Rio de Janeiro and the Brazil team's training base in Teresopolis.
Turning off the motorway, the road goes through town towards steeply rising mountains covered in lush rainforest until you come to Pau Grande.
It is a modest community and, coming from affluent Teresopolis, the relative poverty is striking, but it is where Garrincha was born and where he was laid to rest.

Born in 1933, Garrincha was a senior colleague of Pele's in the first Brazil team to win the World Cup, in Sweden in 1958, and with Pele injured, he was the undisputed star of the 1962 side that retained the title.
A great dribbler, Garrincha also featured at the 1966 finals in England and is a legend at Rio club Botafogo. And the National Stadium in Brasilia, where Brazil face Cameroon on Monday, is named after him, not Pele.

Because he was born with a left leg that bent out and a right leg that bent inwards, he was known as The Angel with Bent Legs.

But his barely noticeable tombstone in the rundown cemetery in Raiz da Serra, along the road from Pau Grande, describes him as The Joy of the People.
While Pele is still fighting fit in his 70s, Garrincha died aged 49 in 1983 after being plagued by alcohol and money problems in later life.
Now, the members of his family who remain in Pau Grande feel he is taken for granted.
"In Brazil people who were important in the past are quickly forgotten," his granddaughter Alexsandra dos Santos, 41, tells AFP.
"Pele is the King but there doesn't have to be only one. You can have two. My grandfather was not attracted by money. He didn't place much importance on it. He was a man of the people."

The house where Garrincha lived as a boy stands out from all those around it. Its walls are painted yellow and inside is a small bar called Garrinchinha dedicated to the player's memory.