Luiz Felipe Scolari

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Luiz Felipe Scolari
Personal information
Full name	Luiz Felipe Scolari
Date of birth	November 9, 1948 (age 58)
Place of birth	Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil
Nickname	Felipão ("Big Phil")
Position	Manager (former Defender)
Club information
Current club	Portugal
Youth clubs
1966	Aymoré-RS
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
	SER Caxias do Sul Juventude EC Novo Hamburgo CSA
Teams managed
1982 1982-1983 1983 1984-1985 1986 1986-1987 1987 1988 1988-1990 1990 1991 1991 1992 1993-1996 1997 1997-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2003-Present	CSA Juventude Brasil de Pelotas Al-Shabab Brasil de Pelotas Juventude Grêmio Goiás EC Al Qadisiya Kuwait Kuwait Criciúma EC Al Ahli Al Qadisiya Kuwait Grêmio Júbilo Iwata Palmeiras Cruzeiro Brazil Portugal
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, ComIH (born November 9, 1948 in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), also known as Felipão ("Big Phil"), is an Italo-Brazilian football coach. He has been the head coach of the Portuguese national team since 2003. From 2001 to 2002, Scolari coached the Brazilian national team, leading them to victory in the 2002 World Cup.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Brazilian clubs 1.2 Brazil national team 1.3 Portugal national team 2 Personality

[edit] Career

[edit] Brazilian clubs

Scolari had an auspicious career coaching Brazilian clubs. His first big title was the Brazilian Cup, in 1991, coaching the small Criciúma, from Santa Catarina. In 1994, Scolari joined one of the biggest teams in South America, Grêmio, for whom he also played in the 1970s. During his time at the club, Grêmio enjoyed a significant degree of success winning the Brazilian Cup, in 1994; the Libertadores da América, in 1995; the Recopa, also in 1995 and the Brazilian Championship in 1996. Grêmio were defeated in the 1995 Toyota Cup final after a penalty shootout with Ajax. During the late 1990s he also coached other South American's Giant, Palmeiras. Here he won the Brazilian Cup and the Mercosur Cup. He won the Libertadores once more but was defeated again in the Toyota Cup, this time his team suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester United. The Gremio was the most important moment in his career.

[edit] Brazil national team

After a brief period coaching Cruzeiro, he was invited, in 2001, to coach the Brazilian national team, whose morale was very low after the lacklustre defeat of the final match of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, its elimination in quarterfinals of 2001 Copa America by Honduras and a series of bad results which threatened their qualification for the upcoming 2002 FIFA World Cup (which would be nothing short of a national disaster, as Brazil never failed to qualify). His career with the national team was controversial since the beginning mostly for his refusal to call famous footballer Romário with whom he supposedly had a major disagreement over the former's demands of privileges and (in Scolari's opinion) decaying physical fitness. After resisting a national outcry in favour of Romário he coached Brazil in its probably easiest-won World Cup ever but resigned soon after the final match with allegations of excessive pressure from the CBF and disappointment with the public's reaction to his work. After resigning he said that after successfully coaching a major national team in a World Cup returning to coaching Brazilian clubs would be a return into obscurity and sought work abroad, eventually signing with the Portuguese federation.

[edit] Portugal national team

Portugal, as organizer of Euro 2004, did not have to qualify, and played only friendlies on the run up to the tournmant. Apart from a victory against Brazil, the results were mostly disappointing: the team selected by Scolari showed itself uncapable of beating any of the Euro 2004 finalists.

The opening game of Euro 2004 was a humilliating 1-2 defeat against Greece at the Estádio do Dragão; for the next game against Russia, Scolari ditched the team he had been building for the previous two years in favour of a team based on José Mourinho's FC Porto who had the previous month won the UEFA Champions League, replacing six players. The changes proved successful, and Scolari became the first foreign coach ever to lead any team to the final of that event. He was joined the following day by Otto Rehhagel, the German coach of Greece. Greece eventually did a Maracanazo and won the tournament.

During the spring of 2006, Scolari was one of a number of coaches in talks with the English FA over the possibility of replacing Sven-Göran Eriksson as England coach. However, Scolari eventually withdrew his name from the appointment procedure, later explaining that his empathy with the Portuguese players would be spoiled if he had another deal signed beforehand. On the eve of Portugal's 2006 World Cup quarter final meeting with England, Scolari apologised to the Football Association for claiming that he had turned down the England job. Scolari subsequently led Portugal to eliminate England in the quarter-finals (the third time a team under his guidance had knocked England out of a major championship; although Portugal was ultimately defeated by France in the semi-finals).

After the 2006 World Cup finished, Scolari signed a new two year contract with the Portuguese Football Federation which therefore will in principle last until the end of Euro 2008, in Austria and Switzerland.

[edit] Personality

Scolari is famous for his temper and for his histrionic "performance" by the field while the match is going on, reacting strongly to both the best and the worst moments of his team. His strong character has earned him a controversial reputation of encouraging a violent behaviour on the part of the players (though he is more often quoted scolding referees for not stopping violence) and in his early years in Brazil he was often sent off for excessively complaining with the referees. His character, however, is often seen as a good point, instead of a drawback, because he tries to keep the players (and himself) free of external pressures: he usually demands a lot more of freedom than most coaches are allowed and is bent on exerting a somewhat discretionary power. Some critics mostly agree that his unique character was very beneficial to the Portuguese national team, which had a tradition of talented players but never won anything because of excessive intervention from the federation, the clubs and the player's agents, as well as a lack of a true "team spirit". Others point that Scolari's insistence in using the same players over and over, regardless of current form, ends up being prejudicial for the team.

He has said that he is a big fan of Nottingham Forest and that Brian Clough is the biggest inspiration for him being a manager.

In the 2002 FIFA World Cup he gave each of his players a copy of Sun Tzu's, The Art of War, a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century. In the recent 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany he used the book to plan his team's win against England. [1]

Scolari also holds the Italian citizenship, since his family emigrated from Veneto.

Preceded by Aimé Jacquet	FIFA World Cup winning managers 2002	Succeeded by Marcello Lippi
Preceded by Émerson Leão	Brazilian national football team manager 2001–2002	Succeeded by Parreira
Preceded by António Oliveira	Portugal national football team manager 2003—	Succeeded by incumbent
Preceded by Carlos Bianchi	South American Coach of the Year 1999	Succeeded by Carlos Bianchi
Preceded by Carlos Bianchi	South American Coach of the Year 2002	Succeeded by Carlos Bianchi

	Brazil squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Champions (5th Title)
1 Marcos | 2 Cafu | 3 Lúcio | 4 Roque Júnior | 5 Edmílson | 6 Roberto Carlos | 7 Ricardinho | 8 Gilberto Silva | 9 Ronaldo | 10 Rivaldo | 11 Ronaldinho | 12 Dida | 13 Belletti | 14 Anderson Polga | 15 Kléberson | 16 Júnior | 17 Denílson | 18 Vampeta | 19 Juninho | 20 Edílson | 21 Luizão | 22 Rogério Ceni | 23 Kaká | Coach: Scolari

	Portugal squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place
1 Ricardo | 2 Ferreira | 3 Caneira | 4 Costa | 5 Meira | 6 Costinha | 7 Figo | 8 Petit | 9 Pauleta | 10 Viana | 11 Simão | 12 Quim | 13 Miguel | 14 Valente | 15 Boa Morte | 16 Carvalho | 17 Ronaldo | 18 Maniche | 19 Tiago | 20 Deco | 21 Nuno Gomes | 22 Santos | 23 Postiga | Coach: Scolari