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, 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 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 * Co ...

and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the current assistant manager of Santos.

Playing career

Born in

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

, Santa Catarina, Cuca began his career with Coritiba in 1994. He left the club in 1997 after a loan stint at Londrina, 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 team competes in Campeonato Paulista Série A2, the second tier of the São Paulo st ...

(two stints), Criciúma, 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, 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 Figueirense Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as Figueirense, is a Brazilian professional club based in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina founded on 12 June 1921. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série C, the third tier of Brazilian ...

, and also worked as an assistant manager at Paraná and

Volta Redonda Volta Redonda () is the name of 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) an ...

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 ( 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 ...

. He subsequently followed Carille to Al-Wehda,

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

, Santos (two stints),

Athletico Paranaense Club Athletico Paranaense (commonly known as Athletico and formerly known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded on March 26, 1924. The team ...

and Japanese club

V-Varen Nagasaki is a Japanese J2 League football club based in Nagasaki. The club was established in 1985 as Ariake SC till they merged with Kunimi FC in 2004 and adopted the present name in 2005. The club gained promotion into the J. League Division 2 in 20 ...

, always as his assistant.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuca, Leandro 1973 births Living people Sportspeople 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 Footballers from Santa Catarina (state)