Leandro da Silva (born 24 August 1973), known as Leandro Cuca or just Cuca, 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 Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and former player who played as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Playing career

Born in

Blumenau Blumenau () is a city in Vale do Itajaí, Santa Catarina (Brazil), Santa Catarina state, in the South Region, Brazil, South Region of Brazil, from the state capital Florianópolis. The city was founded by the German chemist and pharmacist H ...

, Santa Catarina, Cuca began his career with

Coritiba Coritiba Foot Ball Club, commonly known as Coritiba and colloquially referred to as heCoxa, is a Brazilian football club from Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Founded in 1909 by German immigrants, it is the olde ...

in 1994. He left the club in 1997 after a loan stint at

Londrina Londrina (, literally "Little London") is a city located in the north of the state of Paraná (state), Paraná, South Region, Brazil, and is 388 km (241 miles) away from the state capital, Curitiba. It is the second largest city in the state and f ...

, and subsequently represented Iraty,

XV de Piracicaba Esporte Clube XV de Novembro, commonly referred to as XV de Piracicaba, is a professional association football club based in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil. The club competes in the Série D, the fourth tier of the Brazilian football league sys ...

(two stints),

Criciúma Criciúma () is a city in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. At , it is located 180 km south of Florianópolis, the state capital and around 900 km south of São Paulo. The city is the center of Brazil's flooring and home material ...

, Juventus-SP and União Barbarense before moving abroad in 2002, with Portuguese Segunda Liga side

União da Madeira União is the Portuguese word for Union. It may refer to: *the Brazilian federal government *União do Vegetal, a church known for its usage of Hoasca as tea * Brazilian frigate ''União'' (F45), a general-purpose ''Niterói'' class frigate launc ...

. Cuca returned to his home country in 2004 with Cianorte. He went on to play for Gama, Adap Galo Maringá,

Paraná Paraná, Paranã or Parana may refer to: Geology * Paraná Basin, a sedimentary basin in South America Places In Argentina *Paraná, Entre Ríos, a city * Paraná Department, a part of Entre Ríos Province In Brazil *Paraná (state), a state ...

, Chapecoense, Caxias and Universidade, retiring with the latter in 2009 at the age of 36.

Coaching career

After retiring, Cuca worked at J. Malucelli's youth setup before returning to União Barbarense in 2013, as an assistant coach. He was also a manager of the under-20 squad of Figueirense, and also worked as an assistant manager at Paraná and

Volta Redonda Volta Redonda () is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro state of Brazil with an area of 182.81 km2, located from 350m to 707m above the sea level (22°31'23" S, 44°06'15" W) and with a pop ...

before being named manager of the latter on 30 August 2015, in the place of sacked Leandro Niehues. Cuca was himself dismissed by ''Voltaço'' on 20 November 2015, and subsequently rejoined Niehues' staff at Vila Nova in March 2016. In June, he was named interim manager after Niehues was sacked. On 23 December 2016, Cuca was named Fábio Carille's assistant at

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 ...

. He subsequently followed Carille to Al-Wehda,

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad may refer to: Sports Football Men Teams * Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia * Al Ittihad SCSC (Tripoli), Tripoli, Libya * Al Ittihad Gheryan, Gharyan, Libya * Al Ittihad Misurata SC, Misurata, Libya * Al Ittihad SC ...

, Santos (two stints),

Athletico Paranaense Club Athletico Paranaense (abbreviated CAP, commonly known as Athletico Paranaense and up to 2019 known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded o ...

and Japanese club

V-Varen Nagasaki is a Japanese association football, football club based in Nagasaki, Capital of Nagasaki Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, the Japanese second tier professional in football league. History The club was established in 1985 as Ari ...

, always as his assistant.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuca, Leandro 1973 births Living people Footballers from Blumenau Men's association football midfielders Brazilian men's footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Coritiba Foot Ball Club players Londrina Esporte Clube players Esporte Clube XV de Novembro (Piracicaba) players Criciúma Esporte Clube players Clube Atlético Juventus players União Agrícola Barbarense Futebol Clube players Cianorte Futebol Clube players Sociedade Esportiva do Gama players Adap Galo Maringá Futebol Clube players Paraná Clube players Associação Chapecoense de Futebol players Sociedade Esportiva e Recreativa Caxias do Sul players Canoas Sport Club players Liga Portugal 2 players C.F. União players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Brazilian football managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série B managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série D managers Volta Redonda FC managers Vila Nova Futebol Clube managers Sport Club Corinthians Paulista managers Santos FC non-playing staff Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia