Joel Santana Brazilian Footballer From Rio de Janeiro

Early life

Joel Natalino Santana was born on 25 December in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He grew up to play football as a central defender, and his playing years were spent entirely in his home country during the 1970s. Vasco da Gama is the club he is most closely linked with as a player, though he never earned a cap for the Brazilian national team. He retired from playing in 1980 and moved directly into coaching.

Career

Santana's first job as a head coach was abroad, with Al Wasl in the United Arab Emirates, where the club won the UAE league in 1982, 1983 and 1985. He later led Al Nassr to the Saudi league title in 1989. Most of his coaching career, however, took place in Brazil, and he also spent time in Japan with Vegalta Sendai of the J.League.

At home he became associated with the state championships. He won the Campeonato Carioca with each of Rio's four big clubs: with Vasco da Gama in 1992 and 1993, Fluminense in 1995, Flamengo in 1996 and 2008, and Botafogo in 1997 and 2010. At Bahia he won the Campeonato Baiano in 1994 and 1999, and with Vitória he took the Baiano title in 2003 as well as the Supercampeonato Baiano in 2002. With Vasco he also won the Copa Mercosur and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A in 2000.

He gained a reputation for rescuing clubs from relegation. In 2004 he kept Vasco da Gama in the top division of the Brazilian league during his fourth spell in charge, and a year later Flamengo hired him with the same goal and he again succeeded. When he returned to Flamengo in 2007, he did more than avoid the drop: the club finished third and qualified for the 2008 Copa Libertadores.

In April 2008 he took over the South Africa national team from his compatriot Carlos Alberto Parreira, who had recommended him for the role. He led the team at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, where South Africa finished fourth, and left the job in October 2009 after a run of poor results in which the team lost eight of its last nine matches.

He began a fifth spell at Flamengo on 3 February 2012 and was dismissed on 23 July 2012 after consecutive defeats to Corinthians and Cruzeiro. In April 2013 he was appointed by Bahia after the departure of Jorginho, his fourth time at that club. He finished his coaching career in 2017 with Boavista at the end of the Carioca championship. Over the years he managed more than 1,000 matches, which places him among a small group of coaches to have reached that number.

Public roles

After a video of his English-language interview from the 2009 Confederations Cup circulated widely in 2012, Santana took part in a television commercial for Pepsi in which he joked about his command of English. In 2013 he starred in a series of advertisements for Head and Shoulders built on the same theme. He later told the Brazilian channel SporTV that speaking English in public had been a risk, but one that gave him a platform as a spokesman.

Recognition

Winning the Campeonato Carioca with all four of Rio de Janeiro's major clubs, Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense and Vasco da Gama, sets him apart among Brazilian head coaches. His most notable titles include the UAE league with Al Wasl, the Saudi league with Al Nassr, and the Brazilian league and Copa Mercosur with Vasco da Gama. His approach to coaching has been characterised as defensive, with the first aim of keeping the opposition from scoring.