Tostão (right) was a legendary figure on Brazil’s 1970 World Cup team, but needed an eye operation in Houston to play in the tournament after being injured in Brazilian league play.
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Every list of the greatest national soccer teams in history includes the Brazilian team that won the 1970 FIFA World Cup.
“Brazil’s World Cup victory in 1970 still has a mythic quality, their performance still is used as a shorthand for the best that soccer can be,” writes acclaimed soccer journalist Jonathan Wilson in “The Power and the Glory,” his recent book on the history of the World Cup.
At the center of the 1970 Brazilian team was Pelé, the legendary Brazilian attacker unanimously considered among the greatest soccer players of all time.
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But he wasn’t the only star on the squad. Jairzinho, who led that Brazil team in goals at the World Cup, and Rivellino excelled in attack. Gérson thrived as a deep-lying playmaker. Carlos Alberto captained the team from right back.
Born Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade, Tostão — which means “little coin” in Portuguese — started as the Brazilian center forward in the team’s 4-2-3-1 formation, forming a fluid partnership with Pelé. He wasn’t asked to be a goal scorer like a typical striker. Instead he was tasked to play in a way that let his teammates shine even brighter.
“Pelé’s left-footed attacking partner in the Seleção was priceless to the team,” writes Sam Kunti in “Brazil 1970: How the Greatest Team of All Time Won the World Cup.”
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But if not for a Houston doctor, Tostão might never have gotten a chance to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy in Mexico City.
Brazil’s 1970 World Cup team frequently comes up on the list of soccer’s best squads of all time. The team is pictured before its first-round match against England in Guadalajara, Mexico. Team members are back row, from left: Captain Carlos Alberto, Brito, Wilson Piazza, goalkeeper Felix, Clodoaldo, Everaldo and trainer Admildo Chirol. Front row: Jairzinho, Rivelino, Tostão, Pele and Paulo Cézar Lima.
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A Houston doctor and thousands of postcards
Tostão was already among the top soccer players in Brazil by the fall of 1969. He made the 1966 FIFA World Cup squad at just 19, and ended up as Brazil’s top goal scorer during World Cup qualifying for the 1970 tournament.
But then came a freak incident during a Brazilian league game. An opposing defender tried to clear the ball during a September 1969 match but the ball smashed right into Tostão’s left eye from close range, detaching his retina.
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The injury was serious, threatening not just his World Cup but his career and his eyesight.
Tostão consulted doctors in Brazil, according to his 1997 autobiography “Tostão: Lembranças, Opiniões, Reflexões sobre Futebol,” and they recommended he travel to Houston Methodist for surgery under Dr. Roberto Abdalla Moura.
“Roberto Moura, even though he practiced here, was an extremely famous doctor in Brazil,” said Dr. Art Willis, who worked with Moura for many years after his treatment of Tostão. “It wasn’t unusual for Brazilians to come up here to see him.”
Tostão underwent eye surgery to repair his detached retina on Oct. 6, 1969, at Houston Methodist.
The surgery lasted three hours, and one unnamed surgeon told the Houston Post there was no damage to Tostão’s optic nerve.
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“I had been involved in countless retinal detachment surgeries,” said Dr. Alice R. McPherson, who worked with Moura at the hospital, according to FIFA.com. “The first question was always, ‘Will I get my sight back? ’ This gentleman’s was, ‘Will I be able to play in the World Cup? ’”
Tostão stayed in Houston for a few weeks after the surgery. Postcards completely covered two walls of his hospital room. He received 200 postcards a day, according to the Post.
A third wall in the room featured Brazilian newspapers. Six reporters came to Houston to provide updates on Tostão to millions closely following in Brazil.
“Brazil is watching Tostao’s progress as closely as the world watched Apollo 11’s lunar success,” reads an Oct. 19, 1969 Houston Post article.
The on-field connection between the legendary Pelé and Tostão was critical for Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning team.
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Disneyland and the Promised Land
Returning to the field was not guaranteed.
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“There were so, so many hurdles to overcome,” Tostão told FIFA in an article published in 2023. “There was a risk I wouldn’t get my sight back. Then I had to convince the (ophthalmologists) to clear me to play. Then I had to convince the Seleção doctors. I hadn’t done anything except read books — my other eye worked — for six months. I had to get my fitness and rhythm back.”
Tostão returned to Houston for an important follow-up exam in Feb. 1970, meeting Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong while in town, according to the Post.
In his autobiography, Tostão wrote that he visited Disneyland in Southern California before his final exam to put his eye under a true stress test by riding a roller coaster.
Moura said Tostão had a slight hemorrhage in his eye at the final exam but good to go.
“Medically he can go back any time,” Moura told the Post in a Feb. 7, 1970 article. “As far as I know he’s only got a bloodshot eye together with allergic skin and some skin problems. There is no relationship to the retina status.”
Even as he continued his fitness recovery in the leadup to the tournament, a World Cup starting spot wasn’t guaranteed. Brazil made a coaching change shortly before the 1970 World Cup, and new coach Mário Zagallo preferred a more traditional striker.
But what Tostão provided to the team, especially his brilliant on-field connection with Pelé, couldn’t be replicated by anyone.
“I thought quickly — and this is what Pelé needed,” Tostão told The Blizzard, a quarterly soccer magazine. “When he glanced at me, I already knew what he wanted; when he was going to give it first time, when he was going to change position. You had to follow his thinking. Pelé liked to play with a partner; he depended on this. He created the moves, but he needed a partner to help.”
His eye wasn’t done causing problems, however. Tostão soon suffered another hemorrhage.
“My eye was all red. Gerson was terrified!” Tostão told the magazine.
The Brazilian team brought Moura down to examine Tostão. Moura said Tostão was all good to play. Then the doctor stayed thanks to an initiation from the Brazilian soccer federation, Tostão told The Blizzard.
Tostão started every match of the World Cup.
“He often played with his back to goal, flicking passes to Pelé and Jairzinho,” Kunti wrote. “Everything sped up around him whenever he got possession, his little feet whirring, pinging around his short-range first-time passes. Tostão manipulated the space around him. His intelligence was a menace to opposing defenders. He calculated angles at warp speed and shifted players around him like chess pieces.”
Brazil didn’t lose at all at the World Cup, sweeping the group stage and then dispatching Peru in the quarterfinals and Uruguay in the semifinals before facing Italy in the final.
The Seleção outclassed Italy at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to win 4-1, its final dagger still remembered as one of the sport’s all-time great goals. It was Brazil’s third World Cup title in four tournaments.
Tostão would later recognize Moura’s importance with the ultimate gift.
“At the end when we had won the World Cup, I presented him with my medal,” Tostão told The Blizzard.
A short career and a long legacy
Tostão wouldn’t play in the World Cup again.
He returned to Houston in February 1973 for surgery when the “sutures in the eye became inflamed,” according to the Post. He checked out of the hospital in the middle of March, per the Chronicle’s reporting at the time, but returned for another surgery in April after the retina came loose.
“The people have been so good to me here but it is still good to be leaving the hospital,” Tostão said a few weeks after the April surgery. “I can’t say anymore about playing again. Only that I will have to be 100 per cent well before I play.”
Moura said in the aftermath of the April surgery that it would be two to three months before it could be determined if Tostão could resume playing.
Then on Aug. 5, 1973, Tostão’s wife Vania announced that her husband’s career was over.
“He was prepared for this,” she said, according to Houston media reports from the time. “He just wanted to confirm it with doctors here.”
Moura stayed in Houston, working in the city for many decades before moving back to Brazil, Willis said. He died a couple of years ago, his former colleague added.
Tostão was just 26 years old when he retired. He went back to school and became a doctor himself. Later on, he returned to the soccer world as an analyst and writer.
Despite a short career, Tostão is remembered as an all-time great player. The Athletic ranked him at No. 90 in its list of the 100 best soccer players.
“Tostão was, by any reasonable metric, a sensational footballer,” writes The Athletic’s Jack Lang in “The Soccer 100.” “He was lithe, skillful, and subtle, a ballet dancer in the middle of a riot. He created countless goals and scored plenty, too, despite not being an out-and-out forward.”
Brazil could have won the World Cup without Tostão as the squad was that talented and skilled.
But the 1970 Brazil team isn’t recognized by many as the sport’s greatest just because of its collection of talent. It’s because of the magic that happened when those 11 players all stepped on the field together. That includes Tostão.
“Our team was the best,” Gérson said, according to “Inverting the Pyramid.” “Those who saw it, saw it. Those who didn’t will never see it again.”
Thanks to Moura and a few trips to Houston, Tostão was able to see and the world was able to see him.