Joel Natalino Santana (born 25 December 1948) is a Brazilian

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 ...

coach and former player. The last team he coached was

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

, in 2014.

Biography

Born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, 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 exam ...

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

. 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 Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and

Vegalta Sendai is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in J2 League. The team is located in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. History Founded in 1988 as ''Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. Soccer Club'', Vegalta joined the J-League in 1999 after p ...

in Japan's

J-League The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J2 ...

. 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 (Port., Rio de Janeiro State Championship), was started in 1906 and is the annual football championship in the state of Rio de Janeiro, B ...

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 (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

Fluminense Fluminense Football Club (), known as Fluminense, is a Brazilian sports club best known for its professional football team that competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first tier of Brazilian football and the Campeonato Carioca, ...

, 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 In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

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 Santander. As such, the compet ...

. In April 2008, Santana replaced his countryman,

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

, as the coach of the

South Africa national football team The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international Association football, soccer and it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Baf ...

following a recommendation from Parreira himself who left the job due to 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 it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Bafana Bafana (The Boys/G ...

. 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 ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) 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-aut ...

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

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") 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 (sta ...

. He worked for fourth time at the ''Tricolor'' from

Salvador Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...

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 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 Convention Centre in Joh ...

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

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

, 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. It was introduced in the United States on 1 January 1961 based in Manhattan and used the slogan THE AMERICA AND WORL ...

, 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 January 18, 2013, were launched High-definition simulcasts of SporTV and S ...

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

J.League Data Site
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Honors

Playing honors

América de Natal The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Campeonato Potiguar The Campeonato Potiguar is the football league of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Format First Division First stage: standard round-robin, in which all teams play each other once. Second stage: home-and-away playoffs between the to ...

: 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; f ...

: 1970

Managerial honors

Campeonato Baiano The Campeonato Baiano is the football league of the state of Bahia, Brazil. The championship has been played since 1905 without interruption. 2020 format First stage: 10 teams are included in one group, playing once only against all teams in ...

: 1994, 1999

: 1997, 2010

: 1996, 2008

: 1995

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

(4th place)

Copa Mercosur The Copa Mercosur (, pt, Copa Mercosul , "Mercosur Cup") was a 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 TV m ...

: 2000 * Campeonato Brasileiro First Division: 2000 *

: 1992, 1993 Vitória *

: 2003 * Supercampeonato Baiano: 2002

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 ...

UAE Pro League The UAE Pro League ( ar, دوري المحترفين الإماراتي), known for sponsorship reasons as the ADNOC Pro League, is the top professional football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The first team to win the title was Al O ...

: 1982, 1983, 1985

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Santana, Joel 1948 births Living people Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (city) Brazilian footballers 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 (RJ) 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 Futebol Clube 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 Professional 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 managers in the United States