Manuel Francisco dos Santos is one of the greatest players to have ever put on the yellow shirt of Brazil, and yet he should never have been a footballer. He was born in 1933 with a deformed spine and one leg a full 6cm shorter than the other. He had crooked knees, with one bending inward and the other out. And, at a time when football was much more physical, he was small, leading his sister to give him the nickname that would stick for the rest of his life; Garrincha, or Little Bird. Despite his disadvantages, he showed immense talent at an early age, but worryingly for Brazilian football, little inclination to enter the sport professionally.
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