is a

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Born in Brazil, Lopes is a naturalised Japanese citizen and represented their national team on 20 occasions. After retiring he took up coaching, mainly working in both his home and footballing countries.

Club career

Lopes was born in

Franca Franca is a municipality in the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, Brazil. The city is located in the northeastern portion of the state, distant 401 km (249 mi) from the state capital (São Paulo), and 676 km (420 mi) from Brasília, Brasil ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

and represented

São Paulo FC São Paulo Futebol Clube (), commonly referred to as São Paulo, is a professional football club in the Morumbi district of São Paulo, Brazil, founded in 1930. It plays in the Campeonato Paulista (the State of São Paulo's premier state leag ...

as a youth. In 1987, after two years as a senior, he moved to Japan and signed with

Japan Soccer League , or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...

club

Nissan Motors , trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands, ...

. From 1988 to 1990, the club won all three major titles in Japan;

JSL Cup was the original league cup for clubs in the top levels of Japanese soccer before the creation of the J. League and its cup. The cup was first played in 1973, but did not become an annual tournament until 1976. The JSL/JFL Cup included clubs fro ...

and

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

two years in a row. Lopes moved to

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

(later ''Kashiwa Reysol'') in 1990. In 1992, Japan Soccer League was folded and the club joined the new

Japan Football League The also known as simply the JFL is the 4th tier of the Japanese association football league system, positioned beneath the three divisions of the J.League. The league features fully professional teams that hold J.League associate membership am ...

(JFL). The club won 2nd place in 1994 and secured promotion to the

J1 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 J ...

. In 1994, after Kashiwa signed Müller, Lopes left the club. He joined JFL club

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

in 1995 where he was top scorer for two years in a row (

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

). He moved to J1 League club

Bellmare Hiratsuka is a Japanese professional football club based in Hiratsuka, in the west of Kanagawa Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Hiratsuka ...

in 1997, playing with

Hidetoshi Nakata is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest Asian players of all time. Nakata began his professional career in 1995 and won the Asian Football Confederation Player ...

and scoring regularly. However, he left the club end of 1998 season due to financial strain and moved to

Nagoya Grampus Eight (formerly known as ) is a Japanese association football club that plays in the J1 League, following promotion from the J2 League in 2017. Based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture and founded as the company team of the Toyota Motor Corp. in 1939, the c ...

, winning the

1999 Emperor's Cup Statistics of Emperor's Cup in the 1999 season. Overview It was contested by 80 teams, and Nagoya Grampus Eight won the championship. Results 1st round *Juntendo University 2–0 Aichi Gakuin University *Tochigi SC 0–2 Júbilo Iwata Youth *Ku ...

. Toward the end of his career, Lopes played for

FC Tokyo Football Club Tokyo, commonly known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chōfu, Tokyo. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The team is one of only four in the J.League to be si ...

(2001) and

Avispa Fukuoka is a Japanese professional football club, currently competing in the J1 League. The team is located in Hakata, Fukuoka. "Avispa" means "wasp" in Spanish. They were originally called Fujieda Blux and based in Fujieda, Shizuoka before moving t ...

(2001–02). He retired at the end of the 2002 season.

International career

In September 1997, Lopes obtained Japanese citizenship. Immediately after this, he was called up to the Japan national team for the 1998 World Cup qualifiers. On 28 September, he made his national team debut against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Lopes went on to play six games and scored three goals to help Japan qualify for their first ever

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. At the 1998 World Cup, he played all three matches, assisting

Masashi Nakayama is a Japanese football manager and former player who is the manager of Azul Claro Numazu from 2023. He played as a forward in his playing career. Club career Playing as a forward, Nakayama made his J1 League debut on 11 March 1994. From then ...

in Japan's first ever World Cup against

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. He also played at the 1999 Copa America and scored twice. Lopes played 20 games and scored five goals for Japan until 1999.Japan National Football Team Database
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Managerial career

Lopes started his career as Vágner Mancini's assistant at

Paulista Paulista is a municipality in Pernambuco, Brazil, with a population of 334,376 as of 2020. It has the highest Human Development Index (HDI) of the Recife metropolitan area. It is the birthplace of footballer Rivaldo and is also famous for its beac ...

in 2005, helping the club win their first-ever national title, the

2005 Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil 2005 was the 17th staging of the Copa do Brasil. The competition started on February 2, 2005 and concluded on June 22, 2005 with the second leg of the final, held at the Estádio São Januário in Rio de Janeiro, in which Paul ...

. He left the club in 2007 due to health problems, but returned in December 2009. Initially an interim for the 2010 season, he was definitely appointed manager on 23 February. In May, he resigned and was subsequently appointed manager of Pão de Açúcar Esporte Clube. Lopes returned to Paulista in 2011, winning the year's

Copa Paulista The Copa Paulista de Futebol, formerly known as Copa FPF, also sometimes called Copa Federação Paulista de Futebol or, in English, São Paulo State Cup, is a tournament organized by Federação Paulista de Futebol Company every second half of ...

before returning to Japan and being named

Gamba Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Gamba'' comes from the Japanese , meaning "to do your best" or "to st ...

's assistant manager in 2012. In October 2012, he was presented as manager of Comercial-SP manager for the ensuing campaign. In that season, he also managed São Bernardo. In the 2014 campaign, Lopes was in charge of

Botafogo-SP Botafogo Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as Botafogo-SP, Botafogo de Ribeirão Preto or simply Botafogo, is a Brazilian association football club in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo. They currently play in the Série B, the second tier of Braz ...

Criciúma Criciúma is a city in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. At , it is located 180 km south of Florianópolis, the state capital and around 900 km south of São Paulo. The city is the center of Brazil's flooring and home materials in ...

and

Atlético Goianiense Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico * Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy * Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic ...

. In the following year, he took over

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...

and

Bragantino Red Bull Bragantino, commonly known as Bragantino, is a Brazilian football club based in Bragança Paulista, São Paulo. It competes in the Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system, as well as in the Campeonato Paulista S ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lopes goal.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

São Paulo *

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional association football, football league in the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo. Run b ...

: 1985, 1987 Nissan Motors *

: 1988–89, 1989–90 *

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Nagoya Grampus *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Manager

Paulista *

: 2011 Atlético Goianiense *

Campeonato Goiano The Campeonato Goiano is the football league of the state of Goiás, Brazil. Format First Division First stage *Teams are divided in two groups of six teams. *Double round-robin, in which all teams home-and-away games against the team fro ...

: 2019

Individual

*Asian Goal of the Month: November 1997

Notes

References

External links

* *
Japan National Football Team Database
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopes, Wagner 1969 births Living people Brazilian emigrants to Japan Japanese footballers Brazilian footballers Japanese football managers Japanese expatriate football managers Naturalized citizens of Japan Japan international footballers Expatriate footballers in Brazil Expatriate football managers in Brazil People from Franca Association football forwards Japan Soccer League players J1 League players J2 League players Japan Football League (1992–1998) players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1999 Copa América players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série B managers J1 League managers São Paulo FC players Yokohama F. Marinos players Kashiwa Reysol players Honda FC players Shonan Bellmare players Nagoya Grampus players FC Tokyo players Avispa Fukuoka players Paulista Futebol Clube managers Grêmio Osasco Audax Esporte Clube managers Comercial Futebol Clube (Ribeirão Preto) managers São Bernardo Futebol Clube managers Botafogo Futebol Clube (SP) managers Criciúma Esporte Clube managers Atlético Clube Goianiense managers Clube Atlético Bragantino managers Goiás Esporte Clube managers Sampaio Corrêa Futebol Clube managers Paraná Clube managers Vila Nova Futebol Clube managers Albirex Niigata managers Esporte Clube Vitória managers Footballers from São Paulo (state)