Brazilian World Cup legend Jairzinho takes a shot: Michael Donald’s best photograph

‘Nowadays Jairzinho works with kids in the favelas of Rio where the unwritten rule is that visitors have to leave by 5pm. I asked for 10 more minutes and when I turned round, a guy had pulled a gun on my crew’

I’m not a mad football fan. What I most love about the game is its universal appeal – it’s all about a ball crossing a line, and a goal is a goal whether it involves two jerseys in a park or the one that determines the outcome of a World Cup. But when I realised in 2007 that only 58 people had ever scored a goal in a World Cup final and that only 34 of these men were still alive, I thought it would be a great idea to photograph them.

It quickly became apparent that book sales alone would never finance the project – there were only two English players, the rest were in Europe or South America. But a successful pitch to a film producer won me the opportunity to travel to 13 countries with a documentary crew. Over the course of four years, we interviewed every member of the exclusive World Cup club, and I made portraits of them all.

This is Jair Ventura Filho, better known as Jairzinho, who scored the third goal for Brazil when they took the title in Mexico City in 1970, beating Italy 4-1. Nowadays he works with underprivileged kids in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. This portrait was taken in a favela in the Manguinhos neighbourhood, where he runs a football school.

The favelas are these amazing shantytowns where the police have no jurisdiction. There’s an unwritten rule that anyone who doesn’t live in the favela has to be out by 5pm. We had to hire security from the local drug lords – they were basically just kids, and by mid-afternoon they’d got bored and left. We did the shoot with Jairzinho at a public football ground and it was only as we were leaving that I spotted this beautiful old football table outside a bar. It felt like a gift, and Jairzinho really liked it. I said: “We’ve got to do this, can I have 10 more minutes?”

When I’m doing documentary photography, I don’t like things to look artificially lit, but I had my assistant Stevie holding a small light. I shoot on a Hasselblad with a digital back and always use a tripod. I learned quite early on that if the camera stays in the same place and I’m looking down into the viewfinder and talking to the person I’m photographing, they don’t change their behaviour, which is not the case if you’re moving around and lift the camera to point directly into their face.

As I set up the shot, I became aware of a guy approaching down the street on a bicycle – not the kid you can see in the photograph. He came sneaking through the image and disappeared behind me, where Dan the director, Gretha the producer and a few other members of the crew were standing with our local fixer, waiting for us to finish. I was concentrating on Jairzinho, but could hear an increasingly heated conversation going on. Eventually, Dan said, “Michael, I think we ought to go.”

When you’re photographing someone famous, they never give you enough time – you just keep going until they’ve had enough. Jairzinho seemed fine, so I carried on for a few more minutes, until I was sure I had the frame. Then I turned to see the man on the bike had pulled a gun on Dan and Gretha. Dan said: “Do you get it now?”

It seems this guy had taken exception to our presence in the favela. The rest of the crew and the fixer had cleared off, but Stevie, Jairzinho and I had been too focused on what we were doing to notice. Dan and Gretha could easily have insisted we leave immediately, but I really appreciate them giving me the time to get the shot I wanted. We didn’t hang about.

Apart from the composition and the fact we managed to shoot in a favela, which is so characteristic of Rio, what I love about this picture is the fact that the chaos going on behind the camera isn’t at all apparent in the portrait. That’s often the case with photography.

Michael Donald’s CV

Born: Wakefield. 1966 – although I was born there by mistake, I’m actually from Belfast.
High point: Winning stuff is great and seeing work published internationally is great, but the high points are when you really feel you’re completely immersed in what you’re doing.
Top tip: If you’re going to make a living you are going to have to do what you’re told, but always make sure you’re also doing your own stuff. Work that really excites you, not what you think you should be doing. That’s where you’ll produce your best work and it will make you better at everything else.

• See more images from “I scored a goal in the World Cup final” here