June 2 – Brazilian police are investigating the possible disappearance of the remains of Mane Garrincha, perhaps the greatest dribbler in football history who died in 1983 aged just 49.
Reports earlier this week said his body had been exhumed from one of the two family plots that carry his name, prompting a national scandal over the whereabouts of legendary winger.
Rio de Janeiro police said they had “have opened an inquiry to investigate whether the crime of violating a grave occurred.”
The alleged disappearance from the Raiz da Serra municipal cemetery in Magé was only discovered when the local mayor decided he wanted to pay tribute to Garrincha on what would have been his 84th birthday later this year, and tried to find out exactly where he was buried.
Priscila Liberio, administrator of the cemetery near Garrincha’s family home some 40 miles from Rio, said: ‘From what we have researched, there is no certainty that he is still buried here. There was some information that the body was exhumed and taken to a niche, but there is no documentation of the exhumation.’
Garrincha, which translates as Little Wren and whose full name was Manuel Francisco dos Santos, played 50 times for Brazil helping his nation to World Cup victory in 1958 and 1962 alongside the likes of Pele.
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