Garrincha was born Manuel dos Santos in a factory town nestled in a mountainous region. He had crooked legs, one shorter than the other, and the world came to know him by his childhood nickname. Surgeons who carried out corrective surgery, thought he would do well merely to walk, let alone turn out to be perhaps the quickest and most dangerous right winger of all time. His famous nickname ‘Garrincha’ emerged when his older brother (one of 12) named him after one of the ugliest birds that inhabited the Mato Grosso. “A scrawny, bandy-legged cripple with a contorted spinal column,” was how he was described as a child.

He played for the factory team before Botafogo spotted him. He left behind his wife and young family, but took a girlfriend with him to Rio. Barely literate, he signed a blank contract. The fans adored him from the start as he waltzed past defenders with his dribbles down the right wing.

Garrincha was always true to his roots often going back to his hometown on Saturday night to play football with his mates. He made his international debut in 1955, but his greatest triumphs were in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and the 1962 tournament in Chile. He was a great practical joker, a fun loving trait which nearly cost him his place in Brazil's team. It took a players' deputation to persuade manager Vicente Feola to include him in the 1958 World Cup side. At the World Cup in 1958, the Brazilians played the Soviet Union in the group stage. In what some writers have called the greatest three minutes of soccer ever, Brazil attacked from the start, with Garrincha leading the charge.

They scored after three minutes, won 2-0, and went on to beat Sweden in the final to become world champions. Four years later, with Pele sidelined by injury, Garrincha was called upon and was again the star of the show as Brazil won a second World Cup.

This was also the time when a Brazilian nightclub singer named Elza Soares began a stormy affair with Garrincha that lasted for more than 15 years. While the couple lived in Rio, Garrincha's wife and growing family were back in Pau Grande. It turned many Brazilians against him and over the next few years, things got worse for the 'Little Bird'.

He signed off from the World Cup with a remarkable free-kick against Bulgaria in England in 1966. He played his last game for Brazil in Liverpool; they collapsed 3-1 to Hungary. It was his 50th game for Brazil, and the first defeat with him in the team.

Botafogo insisted on playing him even as injuries began to take a toll. knee trouble finally curtailing his career.

His consumption of cachaca -- a sugarcane liquor -- became constant. Money troubles also began to take their toll. He drank heavily throughout his adult life and was involved in several serious road accidents, notably a crash into a lorry in April 1969 which killed his mother-in-law.

Following some unrest Garrincha and Elza moved to Rome after a vigilante squad visited their house.  Garrincha vainly tried to find work as a player or a coach and played his last game only three weeks before his death at the age of 49. He died in 1983 attached to a drip in the alcoholics ward of a Rio hospital.

The grave is in a country cemetery about an hour's drive from Rio de Janeiro, a simple slab of grimy concrete squeezed between fancier tombs. The epitaph says only: "Here rests in peace the one who was the Joy of the People - Mane Garrincha". It is a humble resting place for one of the great soccer players of all time but then Garrincha was always true to his roots. He was also one of soccer's original bad boys and his life is a cautionary tale for today's footballing celebrities.