Nelson Zeglio (21 November 1926 – 25 February 2019) was a Brazilian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Career

Born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Zeglio moved from

to French club

Sochaux Sochaux () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Sochaux lies east of Montbéliard, and southeast of Paris. Population Inhabitants are known as ''Sochaliens''. Economy ...

in 1951. He was one of three South Americans to sign for the club at that time (the others being José Montagnoli and Alberto Muro, who were both Argentine). He was the first Brazilian to play for Sochaux, and the only one until

Francileudo Santos Francileudo Silva dos Santos Lima (; better known as Francileudo Santos or Santos; born 20 March 1979), is a Tunisian retired professional footballer who played as a forward. Born in Brazil, he became a naturalised Tunisian citizen before thei ...

and Alexandre Finazzi signed in 2000. He made his Sochaux debut on 9 September 1951, scoring his club's only goal in a 3–1 defeat against

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

. He moved on loan to

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

in January 1952, and later played for CA Paris and Roubaix-Tourcoing. He finished his career playing back in Brazil.

Later life and death

After retirement, Zeglio worked for

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

for 20 years. In November 2016, on his 90th birthday, Zeglio was Sochaux's eldest living former player. He died on 25 February 2019, aged 92.

References

1926 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Brazilian sportsmen Brazilian men's footballers Footballers from São Paulo Men's association football forwards Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players São Paulo FC players FC Sochaux-Montbéliard players Montpellier HSC players CA Paris-Charenton players CO Roubaix-Tourcoing players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France {{Brazil-footy-forward-1920s-stub