 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Joel Natalino Santana | ||
| Date of birth | (1955-12-25)25 December 1955 (age 69) | ||
| Place of birth | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | ||
| Position | Defender | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1971–1972 | Vasco da Gama | 37 | (11) |
| 1973 | Olaria | 29 | (8) |
| 1974–1975 | Vasco da Gama | 18 | (1) |
| 1976–1980 | América de Natal | 148 | (45) |
| Total | 232 | (65) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1981–1986 | Al Wasl | ||
| 1986–1987 | Vasco da Gama | ||
| 1988–1990 | Al Nassr | ||
| 1991 | América | ||
| 1991 | Al-Hilal | ||
| 1992–1993 | Vasco da Gama | ||
| 1994 | Bahia | ||
| 1995 | Fluminense | ||
| 1996 | Flamengo | ||
| 1997 | Corinthians | ||
| 1997–1998 | Botafogo | ||
| 1998 | Flamengo | ||
| 1999–2000 | Bahia | ||
| 2000 | Botafogo | ||
| 2000–2001 | Vasco da Gama | ||
| 2001–2002 | Coritiba | ||
| 2002–2003 | Vitória | ||
| 2003 | Fluminense | ||
| 2004 | Guarani | ||
| 2004 | Internacional | ||
| 2004–2005 | Vasco da Gama | ||
| 2005 | Brasiliense | ||
| 2005 | Flamengo | ||
| 2006 | Vegalta Sendai | ||
| 2007 | Fluminense | ||
| 2007–2008 | Flamengo | ||
| 2008–2009 | South Africa | ||
| 2010–2011 | Botafogo | ||
| 2011 | Cruzeiro | ||
| 2011–2012 | Bahia | ||
| 2012 | Flamengo | ||
| 2013 | Bahia | ||
| 2014 | Vasco da Gama | ||
| 2017 | Boavista | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of February 5, 2012 ‡ National team caps and goals as of February 5, 2010 | |||
Joel Natalino Santana (born 25 December 1955) is a Brazilianfootball coach and former player.[1] He was recently in charge ofVasco da Gama in 2014.
Born inRio 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 atVasco da Gama, but failed to earn a cap with thenational team.[2] In 1980, he retired as a player and moved on to club management withAl Wasl in theUnited Arab Emirates. While much of his management career has been with Brazilian clubs, Santana has also coached clubs inSaudi Arabia andVegalta Sendai in Japan'sJ-League.
Santana is one of the few head coaches to win Brazil'sCampeonato 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 thesecond 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 the2008 Copa Libertadores.[4]
In April 2008, Santana replaced his countryman,Carlos Alberto Parreira, as the coach of theSouth Africa national football team 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 theBafana Bafana.[5]
Joel Santana returned for his fifth spell as Flamengo's head coach on 3 February 2012.[6] On 23 July 2012, Santana, after two consecutives loses, againstCorinthians andCruzeiro, was fired from Flamengo.[7]
On 8 April 2013, afterJorginho's dismissal, Santana was hired forBahia. He worked for fourth time at theTricolor fromSalvador.[8]
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.
In 2012, after a video featuring a post-match interview given by Santana during the2009 FIFA Confederations Cup when he was in charge ofSouth Africa (following the 0–0 draw againstIraq in the opening game) went viral as a result of his poor English language skills, he acted in a commercial forPepsi, saying code-switching phrases such as "Ele quer saber seyour 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. Podeto be?" ("Can you give me a Pepsi? Can it be?" [sic]).[9]
In 2013, he became the star of another commercial: an ad series forHead & Shoulders, again making light of his poor English. Happy with this and the former success, Santana told Brazilian sports channelSporTV about his experience in South Africa: "[Speaking English publicly] was 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."[10]
(as of 10 May 2024)
| Team | Nation | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Win % | ||||
| Al Wasl |  United Arab Emirates | 30 July 1981 | 30 June 1986 | 119 | 80 | 15 | 24 | 200 | 106 | +94 | 67.23 |
| Vasco da Gama |  Brazil | 1 August 1986 | 24 November 1987 | 63 | 28 | 18 | 17 | 97 | 48 | +49 | 44.44 |
| Al Nassr |  Saudi Arabia | 30 June 1988 | 30 May 1990 | 51 | 31 | 11 | 9 | 88 | 42 | +46 | 60.78 |
| America-RJ | Brazil | 17 January 1991 | 30 May 1991 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 20 | 17 | +3 | 25 |
| Al-Hilal | Saudi Arabia | 30 June 1991 | 30 December 1991 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 14 | 10 | +4 | 27.27 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 10 January 1992 | 29 December 1993 | 100 | 56 | 28 | 16 | 175 | 83 | +92 | 56 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 1 February 1994 | 14 December 1994 | 46 | 22 | 11 | 13 | 59 | 51 | +8 | 47.83 |
| Fluminense | Brazil | 14 January 1995 | 28 December 1995 | 53 | 27 | 17 | 9 | 74 | 41 | +33 | 56.82 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 1 February 1996 | 20 December 1996 | 79 | 43 | 21 | 15 | 111 | 63 | +48 | 54.43 |
| Corinthians | Brazil | 8 June 1997 | 16 December 1997 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 23 | 27 | -4 | 32 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 8 January 1998 | 15 September 1998 | 26 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 42 | 36 | +6 | 50 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 10 January 1999 | 2 January 2000 | 55 | 27 | 19 | 9 | 101 | 56 | +45 | 49.09 |
| Botafogo | Brazil | 2 January 2000 | 7 September 2000 | 31 | 16 | 7 | 8 | 56 | 35 | +21 | 51.61 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 10 September 2000 | 17 December 2001 | 68 | 34 | 17 | 17 | 137 | 87 | +49 | 51.61 |
| Coritiba | Brazil | 19 December 2001 | 8 April 2002 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 26 | 30 | -4 | 35.71 |
| Vitória | Brazil | 1 May 2002 | 24 March 2003 | 55 | 30 | 9 | 16 | 106 | 71 | +35 | 54.55 |
| Fluminense | Brazil | 18 July 2003 | 1 October 2003 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 30 | -15 | 16.67 |
| Guarani | Brazil | 5 January 2004 | 8 May 2004 | 21 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 20 | 27 | -7 | 14.29 |
| Internacional | Brazil | 1 July 2004 | 2 September 2004 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 26 | 26 | +0 | 27.78 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 27 September 2004 | 20 April 2005 | 32 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 53 | 44 | +11 | 40.63 |
| Brasiliense | Brazil | 1 June 2005 | 23 October 2005 | 26 | 14 | 5 | 7 | 47 | 34 | +13 | 53.85 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 24 October 2005 | 30 December 2005 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 66.67 |
| Vegalta Sendai |  Japan | 1 February 2006 | 4 December 2006 | 50 | 22 | 14 | 14 | 76 | 44 | +32 | 44 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 30 July 2007 | 4 May 2008 | 54 | 35 | 7 | 12 | 103 | 62 | +41 | 64.81 |
| South Africa |  South Africa | 4 May 2008 | 14 October 2009 | 27 | 10 | 3 | 14 | 25 | 30 | -5 | 37.04 |
| Botafogo | Brazil | 26 January 2010 | 22 March 2011 | 72 | 38 | 22 | 12 | 130 | 80 | +50 | 52.78 |
| Cruzeiro | Brazil | 20 June 2011 | 2 September 2011 | 15 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 24 | 18 | +6 | 53.33 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 4 September 2011 | 2 February 2012 | 23 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 33 | 29 | +4 | 43.48 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 3 February 2012 | 23 July 2012 | 29 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 51 | 40 | +11 | 51.72 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 8 April 2013 | 13 May 2013 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 13 | -4 | 22.22 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 7 September 2014 | 1 December 2014 | 18 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 21 | 17 | +4 | 38.89 |
| Boavista | Brazil | 1 January 2017 | 6 May 2017 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 13 | -4 | 27.27 |
| Total | 1,258 | 623 | 312 | 323 | 1,988 | 1,327 | +661 | 49.52 | |||
