Juca

Juca
Personal information
Full nameJúlio Cernadas Pereira
Date of birth13 January 1929
Place of birthLourenço Marques, Mozambique
Date of death11 October 2007 (aged 78)
Place of deathLisbon, Portugal
Playing positionMidfielder
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
?–1949Sporting Lourenço Marques
1949–1958Sporting CP145(6)
National team
1952–1956Portugal6(0)
Teams managed
1961–1963Sporting CP
1964–1965Sporting CP
1967–1968Vitória Guimarães
1969–1972Académica
1973–1974Barreirense
1975–1976Sporting CP
1976–1979Académica
1977–1978Portugal
1979–1980Belenenses
1980–1982Portugal
1982–1983Braga
1987–1989Portugal
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Júlio Cernadas Pereira (13 January 1929 – 11 October 2007), commonly known as Juca, was a Portuguese football midfielder and coach.

Most of his career was associated with Sporting, as both player and manager.

Playing career

The son of Portuguese parents who had settled in Mozambique, Juca was born in Lourenço Marques, and started playing professionally with local Sporting de Lourenço Marques, as a goalkeeper.[1] In 1949 he returned to the land of his ancestors and joined Sporting Clube de Portugal, where he would remain nine years until his retirement at the age of only 29 – due to a knee injury[1]– helping the Lions win five national championships and the 1954 domestic cup.

During nearly four years, Juca gained six caps for Portugal. His first game was a 1–1 draw with Austria on 23 November 1952 in a friendly match in Porto, and his last appearance was in another exhibition game, against Hungary (9 June 1956 in Lisbon, same result).

Coaching career

Shortly after retiring, in 1960, Juca started managing, his first job being with main club Sporting's under-19. He was promoted to head coach of the first team the following year, being in charge for three 1/2 of the following five years and winning the 1962 and 1966 leagues (he was only in charge for four matches in the latter campaign however) and the 1963 Portuguese Cup.

After spending the following years with three clubs, mainly Académica de Coimbra, and some periods of inactivity, Juca returned to Sporting for 1975–76, being fired after the team could only rank in fifth position, 12 points behind champions S.L. Benfica.

In his second spell with the Coimbra side, Juca accumulated and worked for the first time as coach of the Portuguese national team – in 1968 he had already worked in Otto Glória's staff[2]– winning three games during the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and finishing second to Poland in its group, but faring worse in the 1982 edition (fourth position);[3] both campaigns ended in failure to reach the final stages.

Juca was again in charge of the national team for the 1990 World Cup qualification, missing it by just two points in the favour of Czechoslovakia. After being dismissed he returned to Sporting Clube de Portugal, working until 2004 as director of football and youth coordinator.[1] He died at the age of 78.

Honours

Player

Manager

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Biography and stats; Wiki Sporting (Portuguese)
  2. ↑ O primeiro na casa dos 40 jogos (First to reach 40); Portuguese Football Federation (Portuguese)
  3. ↑ Portuguese national team coaches; at RSSSF

External links