Cláudio José Ferreira Braga (born 23 November 1974) is a Portuguese professional
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 ...
.
Managerial career
Braga began his career as youth trainer with the academies of
Excelsior,
Sparta Rotterdam
Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands.
Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...
,
Feyenoord
Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...
,
PSV, and
Jong FC Utrecht. He had his first stint as manager with
Santa Clara in 2014, in the
Liga Portugal 2. He returned to the Netherlands to coach various amateur teams, before being appointed as interim manager with
Fortuna Sittard. He managed to get them promoted into the
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
in his short stint there. He was then named the manager of
Marítimo in the
Primeira Liga
The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...
on 12 June 2018.
On 21 December 2018, Braga was appointed head coach of Dutch
Eerste Divisie
The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...
club
Dordrecht
Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...
on a one-and-a-half-year contract. After failing to lead the club from the lower regions of the league table, he was dismissed on 8 February 2020.
Ahead of the
2020–21 season, Braga became technical director of
UAE Pro League side
Al Wahda. After one season, he was appointed youth academy director of
Israeli Premier League club
Maccabi Tel Aviv. On 28 November 2023, Braga reached an agreement with the club to step down from his role. Several youth coaches at Maccabi Tel Aviv had been
drafted to the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
following the
2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel
On 7 October 2023, the paramilitary wings of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the DFLP launched a series of coordinated armed incursions into the Gaza envelope of neighboring Israeli territory, the first invasion of Israel s ...
, complicating his position at the club.
References
External links
*
Fora de Jogo Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braga, Claudio
1974 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Lisbon
Portuguese football managers
Portuguese emigrants to the Netherlands
C.D. Santa Clara managers
Fortuna Sittard managers
C.S. Marítimo managers
FC Dordrecht managers
Sparta Rotterdam non-playing staff
Feyenoord non-playing staff
PSV Eindhoven non-playing staff
Primeira Liga managers
Eredivisie managers
Al Wahda FC non-playing staff
Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. non-playing staff