Alexandre Henrique Borges Guimarães (born 7 November 1959) is a Costa Rican

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He is the current manager of

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

. Born and raised in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Guimarães played for the Costa Rica national team in the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

, and was also their manager in the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and 2006 editions. He had successful runs with teams like Al Wasl in United Arab Emirates,

Tianjin Teda Tianjin Jinmen Tiger Football Club is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Tianjin, and their home stadium is t ...

in China and

Deportivo Saprissa Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is based in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and play their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. The team's signature colours are purple ...

in Costa Rica. His son

Celso Borges Celso Borges Mora (born 27 May 1988), is a Costa Rican professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Liga FPD club Alajuelense and the Costa Rica national team. Early years His father is Alexandre Guimarães, Brazilian-born, Co ...

currently plays for

Alajuelense Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA, ), commonly known as Alajuelense and nicknamed La Liga (), is a Costa Rican multisport club based in the borough of El Llano, Alajuela, Alajuela province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Ala ...

Club career

Born in

Maceió Maceió (), formerly sometimes Anglicised as Maceio, is the capital and the largest city of the coastal state of Alagoas, Brazil. The name "Maceió" is an Indigenous term for a spring. Most maceiós flow to the sea, but some get trapped and form la ...

Alagoas Alagoas (, ) is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is the city of Maceió. It ...

, in the northeast of Brazil, Guimarães moved to Costa Rica in 1971 at the age of twelve and became a Costa Rican citizen in 1980. He played basketball for Asturias but as a football player, Guimarães started his career at second division side Durpanel San Blas where he became the league's goalscorer with 16. He then played for top flight clubs Municipal Puntarenas,

, and Turrialba. He was national champion three times with Saprissa in 1982, 1988 and 1989 and scored 95 goals in 377 official matches.Guima - The boy from Brazil
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International career

Guimarães made his debut for

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

in a March 1985

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and earned a total of 16 caps, scoring 2 goals. He represented his country in 5

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches and played in three matches in the

. His final international was in that World Cup's Round of 16 match against

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list Costa Rica's goal tally first.''

Managerial career

After retiring as a player, he became one of the most successful coaches in Costa Rica's history. He started coaching Belén, then moved to

Herediano Club Sport Herediano (), commonly known as Herediano and nicknamed El Team, is a Costa Rican multisport club based in Heredia, Heredia province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Herediano is mostly known for its association ...

in summer 1996, where he achieved good results with both teams. He was hired by Saprissa, where he worked for several years, winning three national tournaments with them. His last Costa Rican team was Cartaginés, whom he joined in June 2003, a stint that was catastrophic, ending with his dismissal in November 2003 as the team was almost relegated to the second tier and in financial troubles due to high salaries on players that did not show their quality. He has also coached several teams internationally, such as

Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, are a football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. The most popular and successful footba ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Irapuato Irapuato is a Mexican city (and municipality) located at the foot of the Arandas Hill (in Spanish: ''Cerro de Arandas''), in the central region of the state of Guanajuato. It lies between the Silao River and the Guanajuato River, a tributary of t ...

and

Dorados de Sinaloa Dorados de Sinaloa, or Dorados, is a Mexican professional football club based on Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. History Dorados de Sinaloa was founded on August 9, 2003. The Dorados was the youngest team to play on First Division de México, hav ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. He is best known for his great achievements as a member of Costa Rica's national squad, and as a head coach, leading them to an almost perfect qualifier for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. Not having advanced to the second round, ''Guima'' was replaced as the head coach of the national team. Later he would regain his position, but was handed a National squad in a poor state. Still, he led Costa Rica's team to the 2006 World Cup, after which he quit from the squad, given the team's poor performance in the tournament. On November 7, 2006, on his 47th birthday, Guimarães was chosen as the head coach for the

Panama national football team The Panama national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Panamá) represents Panama in men's international football and is governed by the Panamanian Football Federation. The team represents all three FIFA, CONCACAF and the regional UNC ...

but he was dismissed in June 2008. In April 2009, he has moved to the Middle East to start a new challenge coaching the famous

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

Club,

Al Wasl FC Al Wasl Football Club ( ar, نادي الوصل لكرة القدم) is an Emirati professional football club based in Dubai, that competes in the United Arab Emirates Football League. It is a part of the multi-sports club Al Wasl SC. Argen ...

, starting from the 2009/2010 Season. With Al Wasl he managed to win the Gulf Clubs Championship in a final against

Qatar SC Qatar Sports Club ( ar, نادي قطر الرياضي) is a sports club based in Doha, Qatar. It is best known for its football team which competes in the Qatar Stars League. The club was founded in 1961 as a merger of two Qatari football club ...

, the first and only international honour for this club. Then he moved on to Al Dhafra in 2010. In May 2011 he returned to Saprissa for a one-year spell. On 1 June 2012, Chinese Super League side

announced that they had officially signed Guimarães as new head coach after Croatian coach

Josip Kuže Josip Kuže (13 November 1952 – 16 June 2013) was a Croatian football manager and footballer. He was a player and later a manager of Dinamo Zagreb where he played for 10 years, making a total of 384 appearances and scoring 14 goals. Playing c ...

was sacked, completing the first season with excellent results, emerging from the bottom of the table to near the first positions. Before his second season, the club suffered a sanction with -6 points due to irregularities in the mid-2000s years and the team had to battle for finishing in a comfortable position, which finally happened. Guimaraes didn't come to an agreement to renew the contract for the next season. On 19 April 2016, the

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

franchise Mumbai City FC signed Guimarães as their new head coach, replacing French international

Nicolas Anelka Nicolas Sébastien Anelka (; born 14 March 1979) is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and retired Football player, player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. As a player, he regularly fe ...

. He left the role in August 2018. On 17 June 2019, he was appointed manager of

. This same year he took América de Cali to win their 14th Colombian Championship, on December 7, 2019. The final was held over a 2-game tie against Junior de Barranquilla. The first leg was a no goal tie in Baranquilla. The 2nd leg was played in Cali, and saw America win 2–0.¡Ya está en Cali! Alexandre Guimaraes, nuevo DT de América, arribó a la ciudad
elpais.com.co, 15 June 2019

Personal life

He is a son of doctor Luis de Souza Borges and María Alice Guimarães and has two brothers and a sister.
- Nación He is married to Lina Mora and has two children, Mauro and Celso,El buzón de Rodrigo
- Nación who also plays for the Costa Rica national team and as of 2022 season for Costa Rican club

Liga Deportiva Alajuelense Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA, ), commonly known as Alajuelense and nicknamed La Liga (), is a Costa Rican multisport club based in the borough of El Llano, Alajuela, Alajuela province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Ala ...

References

External links

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Guima, un terco soñador
- Nación {{DEFAULTSORT:Guimaraes, Alexandre 1959 births Living people Costa Rican people of Brazilian descent People from Maceió Costa Rican footballers Association football midfielders Puntarenas F.C. players Deportivo Saprissa players Liga FPD players Costa Rica international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players CONCACAF Championship-winning players Costa Rican football managers C.S. Herediano managers Deportivo Saprissa non-playing staff Deportivo Saprissa managers Comunicaciones F.C. managers Costa Rica national football team managers Irapuato F.C. managers Dorados de Sinaloa managers Panama national football team managers Al-Wasl F.C. managers Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. managers Mumbai City FC head coaches América de Cali managers Liga MX managers UAE Pro League managers Chinese Super League managers Indian Super League head coaches 2001 Copa América managers 2002 FIFA World Cup managers 2006 FIFA World Cup managers Costa Rican expatriate football managers Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Guatemala Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Panama Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in China Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in India Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Expatriate football managers in Guatemala Expatriate football managers in Mexico Expatriate football managers in Panama Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in China Brazilian emigrants to Costa Rica Naturalized citizens of Costa Rica Mumbai City FC managers