Joel Santana

Joel Santana
Personal information
Full nameJoel Natalino Santana
Date of birthDecember 25, 1948
Place of birthRio de Janeiro, Brazil
Playing positionDefender (retired)
Youth career
1958–1962Santos
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1971–1972Vasco da Gama37(11)
1973Olaria29(8)
1974–1975Vasco da Gama18(1)
1976–1980América de Natal148(45)
Total232(65)
Teams managed
1981–1986Al Wasl
1986–1987Vasco da Gama
1987–1990Al-Hilal
1991América
1991Al Nasr
1992–1993Vasco da Gama
1994Bahia
1995Fluminense
1996Flamengo
1997Corinthians
1997–1998Botafogo
1998Flamengo
1999–2000Bahia
2000Botafogo
2000–2001Vasco da Gama
2001–2002Coritiba
2002–2003Vitória
2003Fluminense
2004Guarani
2004Internacional
2004–2005Vasco da Gama
2005Brasiliense
2005Flamengo
2006–2007Vegalta Sendai
2007Fluminense
2007–2008Flamengo
2008–2009South Africa
2010–2011Botafogo
2011Cruzeiro
2011–2012Bahia
2012Flamengo
2013Bahia
2014Vasco da Gama
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of February 5, 2012.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of February 5, 2010

Joel Natalino Santana (born December 25, 1948) is a Brazilian football head coach and former football player.[1] He currently coaches Vasco da Gama.

Biography

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Santana played his entire career as a central defender in his native Brazil in the 1970s. He became best known as a player at Vasco da Gama, but failed to earn a cap with the national team.[2] In 1980, he retired as a player and moved on to club management with Al Wasl in the United Arab Emirates. While much of his management career has been with Brazilian clubs, Santana has also coached clubs in Saudi Arabia and Vegalta Sendai in Japan's J-League.

Santana is one of the few head coaches to win Brazil's Campeonato Carioca with each of the four big clubs (Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense, and Vasco da Gama).[1] His playing style has been characterized as defensive, with the main objective of preventing the opposition from scoring.[3]

In 2004, Santana successfully kept Vasco da Gama from relegation to the second division of Campeonato Brasileiro in his fourth stint as club's head coach. A year later, he was hired by Flamengo to also save them from relegation, which he did successfully. Having established a reputation as an "escape artist" capable of rescuing teams from relegation, he returned to Flamengo in 2007 with the same goal. He not only prevented relegation, but lead the Rio state club to a surprising third place finish to qualify for the 2008 Copa Libertadores.[4]

In April 2008, Santana replaced his countryman, Carlos Alberto Parreira, as the coach of the South Africa national football team following a recommendation from Parreira himself who left the job due to personal reasons. In October 2009 Santana was dismissed from the position due to the poor results achieved by the team; most notably a streak of eight defeats in his last nine games as coach of the Bafana Bafana.[5]

Joel Santana returned for his fifth spell as Flamengo's head coach on February 3, 2012.[6] On July 23, 2012, Santana, after two consecutives loses, against Corinthians and Cruzeiro, was fired from Flamengo.[7]

On April 8, 2013, after Jorginho's dismissal, Santana was hired for Bahia. He worked for fourth time at the Tricolor from Salvador.[8]

Acting issues

After gaining some fame in 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup for speaking a bad English - a video that has millions of views - when he was coach of South Africa, Santana decided to earn some money joking with this. In 2012, he acted in a commercial for Pepsi, saying phrases like "Ele quer saber se your dog has a phone" ("He wanna know if your dog has a phone number" - a slang of Brazilian Portuguese to know girls) and "Me dá uma Pepsi. Pode to be?” ("Can you give me a Pepsi? Can it be?).[9]

In 2013, he became star in a several films for Head & Shoulders, again joking with his poor English. Happy with his success, Santana still said about his experience in South Africa: "It was (the experience) a risk. English press, who is very gentle, spoke to me: 'Dear, We do not know if you are speaking right ou wrong, what we want to know is about your feelings.' And I think football needs to have feelings, because, if you don not have feelings, if you just do some philosophy, you do not go ahead. Because of this, in that time, I risked myself. And it was a good thing, because I got a way to be a good pitchman."[10]

Honors

Playing honors

América de Natal

Vasco da Gama

Managerial honors

Bahia

Botafogo

Flamengo

Fluminense

South Africa

Vasco da Gama

Vitória

Al Wasl FC

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Enciclopédia do Futebol Brasileiro Lance Volume 2. Rio de Janeiro: Aretê Editorial S/A. 2001. pp. 430–431. ISBN 85-88651-01-7.
  2. ↑ Enciclopédia do Futebol Brasileiro Lance Volume 1. Rio de Janeiro: Aretê Editorial S/A. 2001. p. 99. ISBN 85-88651-01-7.
  3. ↑ São Paulo empata e adia festa do tri
  4. ↑ Recuperação
  5. ↑ "SA and Santana part company". BBC Sport. October 19, 2009. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
  6. ↑ "Empresário de Joel confirma que técnico tem acerto com o Flamengo". Globo Esporte (in Portuguese). February 3, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Joel Santana técnico do Flamengo". Lance! (in Portuguese). July 23, 2012. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  8. ↑ Experiente e vitorioso, Joel Santana retorna ao Bahia pela quarta vez
  9. ↑ "Joel Santana gasta seu inglês em campanha da Pepsi" (in Portuguese). Exame Abril. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Joel comemora o sucesso de seu inglês: 'Virei garoto-propaganda'". Sportv (in Portuguese). June 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2014.