Joel Natalino Santana (born 25 December 1955) is a Brazilian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player. He was recently in charge of

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

in 2014.

Biography

Born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Santana played his entire career as a central defender in his native Brazil in the 1970s. He became best known as a player at

, but failed to earn a cap with the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

. In 1980, he retired as a player and moved on to club management with Al Wasl in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. While much of his management career has been with Brazilian clubs, Santana has also coached clubs in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and

Vegalta Sendai is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Sendai, Miyagi, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, the Japanese second tier of professional football. History Founded in 1988 as ''Tohoku Elect ...

in Japan's

J-League The , commonly a.k.a. shortened to the , and officially known as the for sponsorship with Meiji Yasuda Life, is the men's association football league in Japan. It is responsible for organizing Japan's major professional football tournaments, in ...

. Santana is one of the few head coaches to win Brazil's

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Championship), also commonly known as the Cariocão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Br ...

with each of the four big clubs (

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

, Fluminense, and Vasco da Gama). His playing style has been characterized as defensive, with the main objective of preventing the opposition from scoring. 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 The 2008 Copa Libertadores de América was the 49th edition of the Copa Libertadores, CONMEBOL's premier annual international club tournament. This marked the first year the competition was sponsored by Spanish bank Grupo Santander, Santander. As ...

. In April 2008, Santana replaced his countryman,

Carlos Alberto Parreira Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira (born 27 February 1943) is a Brazilian former football manager who holds the record for attending the most FIFA World Cup final tournaments as manager with six appearances. He also managed five different national t ...

, as the coach of the

South Africa national football team The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for soccer in South Africa. Nicknamed Bafana Bafana (The Boys in Zulu), the ...

following a recommendation from Parreira himself who left the job for 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 The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for soccer in South Africa. Nicknamed Bafana Bafana (The Boys in Zulu), the ...

. Joel Santana returned for his fifth spell as Flamengo's head coach on 3 February 2012. On 23 July 2012, Santana, after two consecutives loses, against

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in C ...

and Cruzeiro, was fired from Flamengo. On 8 April 2013, after Jorginho's dismissal, Santana was hired for

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

. He worked for fourth time at the ''Tricolor'' from Salvador. Santana is considered to be one of the most well-known managers in brazilian football history, winning many trophies with many big clubs like Flamengo, Vasco da Gama and Fluminense especially state leagues. He is also well-known for being one a few managers to have managed more than 1,000 games during his managerial career. Santana retired in 2017, after managing Boavista at the end of the Carioca Championship.

Acting issues

In 2012, after a video featuring a post-match interview given by Santana during the

2009 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup was the eighth FIFA Confederations Cup, Confederations Cup, and was held in South Africa from 14 June to 28 June 2009, as a prelude to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The draw was held on 22 November 2008 at the Sandton ...

when he was in charge of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

(following the 0–0 draw against

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

in the opening game) went viral as a result of his poor English language skills, he acted in a commercial for

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

, saying code-switching phrases such as "Ele quer saber se ''your dog has a phone''" (''"He wants to know if your dog has a phone number"'' - a tongue-in-cheek Brazilian Portuguese slang expression used when picking up women) and "Me dá uma Pepsi. Pode ''to be''?" (''"Can you give me a Pepsi? Can it be?''" ic. In 2013, he became the star of another commercial: an ad series for

Head & Shoulders Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti- dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble. The active anti-fungal ingredient in Head & Shoulders is piroctone olamine or zinc pyrithione, with some "cl ...

, again making light of his poor English. Happy with this and the former success, Santana told Brazilian sports channel

SporTV SporTV is a Brazilian pay television sports network owned by Canais Globo, part of Grupo Globo, launched in 1991. It is the most watched sports network in Brazil. On 18 January 2013, were launched High-definition simulcasts of SporTV and ...

about his experience in South Africa: " peaking English publiclywas indeed risky. The English-speaking press, very nobly, said: 'We don't care whether you are saying it right or wrong, mate, your feelings are actually what we want to know about.' And I think, in football, one needs to have feelings, otherwise, if one just philosophizes, one will never go further. Because of this, at that time, I risked myself. It turned out to be a plus, because I figured out a way to be a good pitchman."

Managerial statistics

(as of 10 May 2024)

Honors

Playing honors

América de Natal *

Campeonato Potiguar The Campeonato Potiguar is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, ...

: 1974, 1977, 1979, 1980

* Campeonato Brasileiro First Division:

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

: 1970

Managerial honors

Al Wasl FC Al Wasl Football Club () is an Emirati professional football club based in Zabeel, Dubai that competes in the UAE Pro League. The club plays its home games at Zabeel Stadium. Al-Wasl is amongst the most successful teams in the UAE, winning e ...

UAE Pro League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

: 1982, 1983, 1985

Al Nassr Al-Nassr Football Club () is a professional football club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The club competes in the Saudi Pro League, the top tier of the Saudi football league system. Al-Nassr is one of only three clubs to have participated ...

Saudi Pro League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

: 1989

Campeonato Baiano The Campeonato Baiano (), also known as the Baianão (), is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Run by the Bahia Football Federation (FBF), it is the second-oldest state football championship o ...

: 1994, 1999

: 1997, 2010

: 1996, 2008 Fluminense *

: 1995

(4th place)

Copa Mercosur The Copa Mercosur (, , "Mercosur Cup") was a Association football, football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate ...

: 2000 * Campeonato Brasileiro First Division: 2000 *

: 1992, 1993 Vitória *

: 2003 * Supercampeonato Baiano: 2002

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Santana, Joel 1948 births Living people Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (city) Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football defenders CR Vasco da Gama players Olaria Atlético Clube players América Futebol Clube (RN) players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Brazilian football managers Al Wasl F.C. managers CR Vasco da Gama managers Al Hilal SFC managers America Football Club (Rio de Janeiro) managers Al-Nassr FC managers Esporte Clube Bahia managers Fluminense FC managers CR Flamengo managers Sport Club Corinthians Paulista managers Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas managers Coritiba Foot Ball Club managers Esporte Clube Vitória managers Guarani FC managers Sport Club Internacional managers Brasiliense FC managers Vegalta Sendai managers South Africa national soccer team managers Cruzeiro Esporte Clube managers Boavista Sport Club managers UAE Pro League managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A managers Saudi Pro League managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série B managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série C managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série D managers J2 League managers 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup managers Brazilian expatriate football managers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate football managers in Japan Expatriate soccer managers in South Africa Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States 20th-century Brazilian sportsmen