Friedenreich withBrazil | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | (1892-07-18)18 July 1892 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | São Paulo, Brazil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 6 September 1969(1969-09-06) (aged 77) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | São Paulo, Brazil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Forward | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1910 | Ypiranga | 1 | (0) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1911 | Germânia | 9 | (4) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1912 | Mackenzie College | 10 | (15) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1913–1917 | Ypiranga | 32 | (37) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1917–1929 | Paulistano | 185 | (230) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1930–1935 | São Paulo | 79 | (69) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 317 | (355[1]) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1914–1925 | Brazil | 17 | (8) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arthur Friedenreich (18 July 1892 – 6 September 1969) was a Brazilian professionalfootballer who played as aforward. He was nicknamedThe Tiger orGolden Foot.[2] He played for theBrazil national team and was a record nine timestop scorer of the state championship of São Paulo.[3][4] He is occasionally cited as one of theall-time top scorers in football history, although this is highly disputed.[2]

Friedenreich was born inSão Paulo to Oscar Friedenreich, aGerman businessman whose fatherimmigrated to Brazil, and Mathilde, aBlack Brazilian teacher who has been described in various sources as both a former slave and a teacher.[4][5][2] Due to hisAfro-Brazilian origin, Friedenreich faced racial discrimination, though he was able to mitigate some of its effects thanks to his father's reputation and social standing.[2][5]
Friedenreich began playing football in early childhood, with strong support from his father, who helped shape his path to greatness.[2][5] Having started to play as a child, Friedenreich's talent was soon noticed by his father, who sent him to play forSC Germânia, a Brazilian football team composed of German immigrants.[2] During his youth, he improved his skills by watchingCharles Miller, who Friedenreich later described as "sort of my primary teacher in football", but it was withHermann Friese, a former German football champion, who taught him a "higher level of football".[6] At some point, Friedenreich married his wife, Jonas, and they had a son named Oscar, after Friedenreich’s father. Both outlived him, being left in financial hardship.[2]

In his early career, Friedenreich played with several clubs, such asGermânia,Mackenzie, andYpiranga, until he found a long-lasting home withCA Paulistano, a top Brazilian club, with whom he played for 12 years, from 1917 until 1929, when the club was disbanded.[2] He was the top scorer in theCampeonato Paulista in 1912, 1914, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1921, 1927 and 1929.[7][8][3] In total, he scored 102 goals in 124 official matches, which results in a ratio of 0,82 goals per game, the second-highest among players with at least 50 matches for the club, only behindWaldemar de Brito's ratio of 1,09.[9] Notably, on 16 September 1928, he scored a 7-goal haul in a 9–0 trashing ofUnião Lapa, breaking the record for the most goals in a single Campeonato Paulista match at the time.[6]
Following the collapse of the amateur football system in São Paulo in 1929, Friedenreich and several former teammates from CA Paulistano founded the clubSão Paulo da Floresta (SPF) in 1930 to continue their careers in the changing football landscape.[2] In the mid-time, in early 1930, he briefly played forSantos, appearing in a total of 5 matches, making his debut on 9 February, in a friendly againstAtlético Tucumán, which ended in a 4–1 win.[10] On 27 December 1931, he scored a four-goal haul to help São Paulo to a 4–2 win overSão Bento in the1931 Campeonato Paulista, becoming, at the age of 39 years and 162 days, the oldest player ever to score a poker-trick, a record that has since been broken byJosef Bican in 1955, aged 41.[11] Like so many other natives of São Paulo, he enlisted in the São Paulo Army to fight in thePaulista War in 1932, where he rose from sergeant to lieutenant, commanding a division with several athletes.[12]
On 12 March 1933, the 40-year-old Friedenreich started for SPF in the first professional football match in São Paulo, where Friedenreich scored the opening goal in a 4–1 win over his former club Santos.[2][13] As he grew older, he began to play less and less, only when São Paulo required his assistance, so he beganrefereeing matches, doing so with a shirt that the Paulista club had offered him, which was a white uniform with a "P" embroidered on the chest, right above the years "1918-1928", a reference to the time he spent at the club.[14] Likewise, on 5 November 1933, he visitedBelo Horizonte to referee a friendly match betweenAtlético Mineiro and Retiro-MG (Nova Lima); his performance was praised by the local press, with theEstado de Minas stating that "Fried stopped calling penalties", while theCorreio Mineiro described him as a "correct referee characterized by the strictest discipline".[14] Taking advantage of his visit, Atlético invented him to play one match for them, a friendly againstSiderúrgica three days later, which he accepted because he was friends with the team's coach; Atlético won 3–0.[14]Correio Mineiro stated that he "led his players excellently with mathematical passes".[14]
The adjectives that you see in the newspapers, such as "the consecrated champion", "El Tigre", "the greatest "crack" of all time", and many others, still do not say everything that can be said about Friedenreich.
On 5 July 1934, theBrazilian Football Federation (CBF) helped sponsor and organize the commemorative program of Friedenreich's sporting jubilee (25-year career) inBrasília, which consisted, among other things, of two matches between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.[15] On the eve of this occasion, his former teammateSylvio Lagreca stated that he was "the greatest center forward we ever had", describing him as a footballer who "played more with his intelligence than with his feet, and therefore adapted to all the positions in which he was placed without saying a word".[15] Friedenreich played his last match for SPF on 24 March 1935, aged 42.[16] In that same year, he returned to Flamengo, for whom he had already played in 1917, and where he retired after refusing a contract renewal.[6]
According to theIFFHS, Friedenreich scored a total of 357 goals in Brazil's three strongest leagues (National,Carioca,Paulista), which makes him the fifth highest goalscorer in that criteria, only behindZico (374),Romário (387),Roberto Dinamite (474), andPelé (567).[17] All of those 357 goals were scored at Campeonato Paulista, where he still is the second-highest goalscorer, only behind Pelé, who surpassed by more over a century of goals (466).[18]
Friedenreich made his debut for theBrazilian national team in theirfirst-ever official match in 1914, beatingExeter City 2–0.[2][4] In the game, Friedenreich lost two of his front teeth due to a heavy slide tackle.[4] He went to play 17 matches with Brazil, scoring 8 goals and winning theSouth American Championship in1919 and1922.[5][19] In the opening match of the former tournament, he netted a hat-trick to help his side to a 6–0 win overChile, becoming the first-ever footballer to score a hat-trick in a major international tournament.[20] A few days later, on 29 May, he started in thedecisive match of the tournament againstUruguay, scoring the match-winning goal that allowed Brazil to win its first international title in the 122nd minute, the latest goal in Copa América history, a record that will likely stand forever due to the current rules.[21]
Friedenreich was a member of the Brazil team that competed in the1925 South American Championship, scoring once against in a 5–2 win overParaguay on 6 December, and another one in a 2–2 draw against the eventual championsArgentina onChristmas Day.[22] In doing so at the age of 33 years and 160 days, he became the oldest-ever goalscorer in the then short history of Copa America.[23] Friedenreich was not picked by Brazil for the1930 FIFA World Cup because of a clash between the Rio and São Paulo state football federations that saw only players from Rio travelling to the competition.[5] According to official statistics from the CBF, he scored ten goals in 23 official matches for Brazil.[6]
During the 1910s and 1920s, Friedenreich also played several matches for theSão Paulo state team; for instance, in 1912 and 1913, he started in four matches againstan unofficial Argentine national side, scoring once.[24] The following year, in August 1914, Friedenreich started for both aYpiranga/AA São Bento XI and aAPEA League XI in two matches against Italian clubPro Vercelli, scoring in both.[25] During a Paulistano tour of Europe in 1925, Friedenreich scored 12 goals to help his side win 9 out of 10 matches, notably scoring a hat-trick in a 7–2 trashing of France on 15 March, after which he began being calledLe roi du football ("The King of Football").[13][16][26] He is widely regarded as the greatest Brazilian football player of the amateur era, as well as the biggest name in Brazilian football until the emergence ofLeônidas da Silva.[6][10][16]
Friedenreich was often described as a pioneer ofjogo bonito, or "the beautiful game," a style that emphasized rapid play with short passes, quick touches, and fluid combinations. It also involved frequent long-range shots and attacks led by two or three fast-paced forwards to disorient the defense. Despite his relatively short stature (5 ft 7 in), Friedenreich was known for his speed, strength, and exceptional technical dribbling.[27]
Despite his status as one of Brazil’s most renowned early footballers, Friedenreich did not transition into coaching or other roles within the football world after retiring.[5] Instead, his post-football life was marked by financial hardship, and he received little support from the football institutions he had once represented.[4][5] Both his wife and son, who outlived him, were also left in poverty.[4] His decline into obscurity reflected a broader pattern in which former amateur-era players were forgotten in Brazil’s new, professional football era.[2][5]
Friedenreich has been the subject of posthumous tributes in his hometown ofSão Paulo, which named several places and buildings after him, such as a street and a park on the east side of the city, as well as a school located within the sports complex of theMaracanã Stadium.[10][28] In 1999,IFFHS named him the fifth greatest Brazilian Player of the 20th Century, only behindZizinho, Zico,Garrincha, and Pelé.[29]
Friedenreich was subject to the racial prejudices of his era.[2][4] Although his upbringing in a middle-class German family allowed him access to elite football clubs and shielded him from certain forms of social exclusion, his identity as a man of colour still marked him, in the eyes of many, as emblematic of poverty.[2] As a result, he encountered racial bias even within the same elite spaces.[2] To counter this, he felt compelled to constantly assert his belonging to the upper class, adopting "whitening" practices like using hot towels or gel to straighten his hair.[2][4]
Due to a lack of documentation, the exact number of goals that Friedenreich scored is unknown. His former teammate Mario de Andrade compiled his goalscoring record, reaching the number of 1,239 goals, which he showed to journalistDe Vaney [pt], in hopes that he would register this tally in FIFA and the CBD;[30] however, Andrade kept the papers for one last revision, so when he died a few days later, De Vaney attempted to recover them, but the papers were never found again because Andrade's family, uninterested in football, thought they were useless and threw them in the trash.[30] His goalscoring record thus mysteriously vanished in the mid-1960s during a time when Friedenreich himself hadAlzheimer's disease.[4] Despite having no proof, De Vaney published Friedenreich's goalscoring record (1,239) in the newspaperTribuna de Santos.[30]
When writingOs Gigantes do Futebol Brasileiro ("The Giants of Brazilian Football"), published in Rio de Janeiro in 1965,João Maximo based Friedenreich's numbers on De Vaney's research, but erroneously recorded 1,329, instead of 1,239.[30][31] This tally is 48 goals higher thanPelé'sGuinness World Record of 1,281 goals, which caused him to be occasionally cited as one of the all-time top scorers in football history.[30][31] For instance,Richard Henshaw wrote in theEncyclopedia of World Soccer that Friedenreich was "the greatest goalscorer in the history of football, with 1,329 goals",[30] and even Guinness itself acknowledged this number by stating that he "scored an undocumented 1,329 goals".[32][33] The media also said for years that he had never missed a singlepenalty in over 500 attempts, which is certain to be untrue, given that some records indicate that he wasted at least 12 penalties.[6] Below are the reported numbers of goals scored between 1909 and 1935 according to different sources:
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 July 1916 | Estadio GEBA, Buenos Aires | 1–0 | 1–2 | 1916 South American Championship | ||
| 2 | 11 May 1919 | Estádio de Laranjeiras,Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 1–0 | 6–0 | 1919 South American Championship | ||
| 3 | 3–0 | ||||||
| 4 | 6–0 | ||||||
| 5 | 29 May 1919 | Estádio de Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1919 South American Championship play-off | ||
| 6 | 6 December 1925 | Estadio Sportivo Barracas,Buenos Aires, Argentina | 2–0 | 5–2 | 1925 South American Championship | ||
| 7 | 25 December 1925 | Estadio Sportivo Barracas, Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1–0 | 2–2 | 1925 South American Championship | ||
| 8 | 1 August 1930 | Estádio de Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2–2 | 3–2 | Friendly |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 September 1912 | Velódromo Paulistano,São Paulo, Brazil | 1–1 | 3–6 | Friendly | ||
| 2 | 13 August 1914 | Parque Antártica, São Paulo, Brazil | 2–1 | Friendly | |||
| 3 | 7 November 1915 | Velódromo Paulistano, São Paulo, Brazil | 8–0 | Taça Rio-São Paulo de Seleções | |||
| 4 | |||||||
| 5 | 13 August 1916 | Velódromo Paulistano, São Paulo, Brazil | 5–0 | Taça Rio-São Paulo de Seleções | |||
| 6 | |||||||
| 7 | |||||||
| 8 | 14 January 1917 | Velódromo Paulistano, São Paulo, Brazil | 1–4 | 1–5 | Friendly | ||
| 9 | 15 November 1917 | Parque Antártica, São Paulo, Brazil | 7–0 | Friendly | |||
| 10 | |||||||
| 11 | 25 December 1917 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 9–1 | Friendly | |||
| 12 | |||||||
| 13 | |||||||
| 14 | |||||||
| 15 | |||||||
| 16 | 2 June 1918 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 4–2 | Friendly | |||
| 17 | |||||||
| 18 | 4 August 1918 | Estádio de Laranjeiras,Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2–3 | Friendly | |||
| 19 | 1 September 1918 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 8–1 | Friendly | |||
| 20 | |||||||
| 21 | |||||||
| 22 | 12 October 1918 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 1–0 | 5–0 | Friendly | ||
| 23 | 15 June 1919 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 1–1 | 3–1 | Taça Füchs | ||
| 24 | 3–1 | ||||||
| 25 | 3 June 1920 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 1–2 | Friendly | |||
| 26 | 6 June 1920 | Estádio de Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 1–1 | 7–1 | Taça Rodrigues Alves | ||
| 27 | 3–1 | ||||||
| 28 | 5–1 | ||||||
| 29 | 13 June 1920 | Arena da Baixada,Curitiba, Brazil | 2–0 | 8–1 | Taça Afonso Camargo | ||
| 30 | 3–0 | ||||||
| 31 | 4–0 | ||||||
| 32 | 6–1 | ||||||
| 33 | 14 June 1920 | Arena da Baixada, Curitiba, Brazil | 10–0 | Friendly | |||
| 34 | |||||||
| 35 | |||||||
| 36 | |||||||
| 37 | 7 September 1920 | Parque Antártica, São Paulo, Brazil | 6–1 | Taça Afonso Camargo | |||
| 38 | |||||||
| 39 | 14 August 1921 | Parque da Graciosa, Curitiba, Brazil | 2–0 | 2–1 | Taça Afonso Camargo | ||
| 40 | 14 July 1922 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 8–3 | Taça Afonso Camargo | |||
| 41 | 23 July 1922 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 13–0 | Brasileiro de Seleções | |||
| 42 | |||||||
| 43 | |||||||
| 44 | 2 August 1922 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 4–2 | Brasileiro de Seleções | |||
| 45 | |||||||
| 46 | 6 August 1922 | Parque Antártica, São Paulo, Brazil | 3–0 | Brasileiro de Seleções | |||
| 47 | 13 August 1922 | Estádio General Severiano, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2–0 | 4–1 | Brasileiro de Seleções | ||
| 48 | 4–1 | ||||||
| 49 | 27 August 1922 | Estádio General Severiano, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2–1 | 2–1 | Friendly | ||
| 50 | 4 October 1923 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 5–2 | Friendly | |||
| 51 | |||||||
| 52 | |||||||
| 53 | |||||||
| 54 | 7 October 1923 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 5–1 | Brasileiro de Seleções | |||
| 55 | |||||||
| 56 | 2 August 1925 | Parque Antártica, São Paulo, Brazil | 4–0 | Brasileiro de Seleções | |||
| 57 | 6 September 1925 | Estádio de Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2–0 | 3–0 | Brasileiro de Seleções | ||
| 58 | 3–0 | ||||||
| 59 | 31 October 1926 | Vila Belmiro Stadium,Santos, Brazil | 7–1 | Friendly | |||
| 60 | 14 November 1926 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 1–2 | Friendly | |||
| 61 | 25 March 1928 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 9–1 | Taça Castelões | |||
| 62 | |||||||
| 63 | |||||||
| 64 | 20 January 1929 | Campo do Independência, São Paulo, Brazil | 6–2 | Friendly | |||
| 65 | 3 May 1929 | Estádio da Ponte Grande, São Paulo, Brazil | 1–1 | 4–1 | Friendly | ||
| 66 | 2–1 | ||||||
| 67 | 4–1 | ||||||
| 68 | 23 June 1929 | Rua José do Patrocínio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 3–4 | Friendly | |||
| 69 | 13 October 1929 | Estádio da Ponte Grande, São Paulo, Brazil | 5–3 | Taça Júlio Prestes | |||
| 70 | 26 March 1930 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 4–2 | Friendly | |||
| 71 | 28 March 1930 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 7–0 | 8–1 | Friendly | ||
| 72 | 19 June 1930 | Parque Antártica, São Paulo, Brazil | 1–0 | 3–1 | Friendly | ||
| 73 | 16 July 1931 | Estádio da Ponte Grande, São Paulo, Brazil | 3–2 | Friendly | |||
| 74 | 2 August 1931 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 3–1 | 9–1 | Friendly | ||
| 75 | 6–1 | ||||||
| 76 | 7–1 | ||||||
| 77 | 8–1 | ||||||
| 78 | 16 August 1931 | Chácara da Floresta, São Paulo, Brazil | 11–3 | Brasileiro de Seleções | |||
| 79 | |||||||
| 80 | 30 August 1931 | Parque São Jorge, São Paulo, Brazil | 2–0 | 3–0 | Brasileiro de Seleções | ||
| 81 | 3–0 |
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