🇯🇵 The Zico connection

Brazil reaches the knockout stage in Houston on Monday, and its immediate obstacle is partly a problem of its own making. Japan, its opponent in the Round of 32, is a football nation that Brazilians helped build, and the chief architect was one of Brazil's own deities.

Arthur Antunes Coimbra, known everywhere as Zico, left Flamengo in 1989 and, two years later, accepted an improbable offer to play in Japan. He joined Sumitomo Metals — a factory team that would become Kashima Antlers — when the game was amateur and clubs were arms of big corporations. 

He arrived before the professional J.League existed and helped bring it into being…

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