Brazil’s former captain Carlos Alberto will always be remembered for scoring this perfect goal in the 1970 World Cup final

YEARS before tiki-taka, there was Brazil's legendary 1970 World Cup-winning team.

While the likes of Pele, Tostao and Rivelino tend to get the credit for the famous triumph, they couldn't have done it without captain Carlos Alberto, who passed away today at the age of 72.

He made over 445 appearances for Santos in a distinguished career and was known as one of the greatest defenders of all time.

But he was also pretty good at finding the net, scoring 72 goals for club and country.

And most memorably of all, he slotted home arguably the greatest World Cup goal ever in the 1970 final against Italy.

The former Brazil skipper revealed in 2006 that he could still remember everything about the goal.

He said: "We knew before the game it could happen, because we knew how the Italian team played. They played man-to-man on the central line. They followed our forwards.

"And our coach, Mario Zagallo, said to Jairzinho: 'Always, if it's possible, make a movement to the left side to bring (Italy left-back Giacinto) Facchetti with you to make space for Carlos Alberto to go forward.'

"But towards the end of the game, Jairzinho was on the left side with Facchetti, who left his position to follow him. There was space for me on the right side.

"When Jairzinho received the ball from Rivelino and gave the ball to Pele my stride was totally open, and Pele waited a few seconds for me to be there and then gave a beautiful pass for me to score.

"We only realised how beautiful the goal was after the game."