|
|
|
|
Luiz Felipe Scolari
|
| |
|
| |
Luiz Felipe Scolari, ComIH (born November 9, 1948 in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), also known as Big Phil (Felipão in Brazil and some times in Portugal) is a World Cup-Winning, Brazilian football coach whose most recent post was manager of the English Premier League side Chelsea until he was dismissed on February 9, 2009.
fender regarded as more uncompromising than skillful (he was known as "wooden leg" among his contemporaries), Scolari followed in the footsteps of his father Benjamin, who was also a Braziliian professional footballer.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Luiz Felipe Scolari' Start a new discussion about 'Luiz Felipe Scolari' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Luiz Felipe Scolari, ComIH (born November 9, 1948 in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), also known as Big Phil (Felipão in Brazil and some times in Portugal) is a World Cup-Winning, Brazilian football coach whose most recent post was manager of the English Premier League side Chelsea until he was dismissed on February 9, 2009.
Playing career
A defender regarded as more uncompromising than skillful (he was known as "wooden leg" among his contemporaries), Scolari followed in the footsteps of his father Benjamin, who was also a Braziliian professional footballer. His playing career encompassed spells with Caxias, Juventude, Novo Hamburgo and Alagoano, and often captained his sides. It was with Alagoano that he won his only major title as a player - the Alagoano state championship.
Managerial career
Club management
Early career
Upon retiring as a player in 1982, he was appointed manager of CSA, winning the Alagoano state championship in his first season. After spells with Juventude (twice), Brasil de Pelotas and Al-Shabab of Saudi Arabia, he moved to Grêmio, one of the biggest clubs in Brazil, where he won the 1987 Gaúcho state championship.
Kuwait
He then had a two year stint in charge of Kuwaiti side Al Qadisiya Kuwait, with whom he won the prestigious Kuwait Emir Cup in 1989. This was followed by a brief stint as manager of the Kuwait national team, winning the 10th Gulf Cup in Kuwait. He returned to Brazil after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait during the Gulf War and coached Criciúma to their first major national title Copa do Brasil. He returned to club management in the Middle East, managing Al-Ahli and a second spell at Al Qadisiya.
Grêmio
In 1993 he returned to Grêmio, where he was criticized by the Brazilian media for playing a non-Brazilian pragmatic style of football. He won six titles in only three years including the Copa Libertadores in 1995 which qualified them for the Intercontinental Cup, which they lost to Ajax on penalties. The following year they won the Brazilian Championship.
His team featured no real superstar and depended on workman-like players such as Paraguayan right back Francisco Arce (who he later took to Palmeiras), the tough-tackling midfielder Dinho, Paulo Nunes and centre forward Mário Jardel.
Júbilo Iwata
In 1997, Scolari became manager of J. League side Júbilo Iwata, but left after eleven games and shortly afterwards took charge of Palmeiras.
Palmeiras
In three years, he led Palmeiras to the Copa do Brasil, the Mercosur Cup and their first Copa Libertadores title with a win on penalties over Deportivo Cali of Colombia. They were also runners-up to Manchester United in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup. He was named South American Coach of the Year for 1999.
Cruzeiro
In 2000 he was appointed to manage Cruzeiro, coaching them for a year.
International management
Kuwait
Scolari's first taste of international management came in 1990 when he coached the Kuwait national team. They won the Gulf Cup of Nations in 1990 beating Qatar in the final, but he was forced to leave the country when Iraq invaded during the Gulf War after which he went back to club management for a decade.
Brazil
In June 2001 he was appointed manager of his native Brazil, who with five matches remaining were in danger of not qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. Despite losing his first match 1-0 to Uruguay, Scolari eventually guided the team to qualification.
In the build-up to the finals, Scolari refused to include veteran striker Romário in his squad, despite public pressure and a tearful appeal from the player himself. Brazil entered the tournament unfancied, but wins over Turkey, China, Costa Rica, Belgium, England and Turkey again took them to the final, where they beat Germany 2-0 to win their fifth FIFA World Cup title. At the end of 2002 Scolari resigned as Brazil Manager.
Portugal
Scolari took over as Portugal manager in 2003 and oversaw their preparations as host nation for Euro 2004. In the finals, Portugal got through the group stages and saw off England in the quarter finals on penalties before beating the Netherlands in the semi-finals. However in the final they were beaten 1–0 upset by Greece.
He managed Portugal in the 2006 World Cup in Germany where they reached the semi-finals, again coming out victorious in the quarter-finals against England. But they did not reach the final due to a semi-final defeat against eventual runners-up France. Following the tournament, Scolari was very heavily linked with the England managers job, but he ultimately opted to remain as Portugal coach.
Scolari took Portugal to Euro 2008, were they reached the knockout stages by winning Group A before being eliminated by Germany in the Quarter Finals. During the tournament he announced that he would be joining English Premier League side Chelsea for the 2008–09 season.
Return to club management
Chelsea
Scolari took over as manager of Chelsea on July 1, 2008. This was announced shortly after Portugal's Euro 2008 match against the Czech Republic on June 11. With this appointment, Scolari became the first World Cup winning manager to manage in the Premier League. In previous press conferences Scolari had talked about "tantrums" and "triumphs", and had a reputation as a tough and unpredictable person. When asked whether his decision to join Chelsea was financial he responded "Yes, that is one of the reasons". But he added "I'm 59 and I don't want to work as a coach until I'm 70. I want to retire in four or five years, so it was a financial matter but there are other things". He also said "I could offer my son the opportunity to study elsewhere. You only get this kind of opportunity once so you take it or leave it, but it was not only financial."
Scolari later said that he had turned down an offer to manage Manchester City.
Scolari's first match in charge of Chelsea was a friendly match against Chinese side Guangzhou Pharmaceutical; Chelsea won 4–0. He made Barcelona midfielder Deco his first signing, for a fee of around £8 million, but was subsequently frustrated in his attempts to sign Brazilian international Robinho from Real Madrid.
Scolari's career as Chelsea manager in the Premier League got off to a good start with a 4–0 victory over 2008 FA Cup winners Portsmouth.
Under Scolari, Chelsea had the biggest away win of the club in 5 years in which Chelsea won 5–0 at the Riverside Stadium in October 2008. It was also the club's biggest win ever at Middlesbrough.
Scolari's first defeat and the end of Chelsea's record 86 game unbeaten home run was on October 26, 2008. Liverpool won the game 1–0 through a deflected Xabi Alonso strike on 10 minutes. This record stretched back 4 years and 8 months when Arsenal won 2–1 at Stamford Bridge in February 2004. Claudio Ranieri was manager at the time.
Scolari was sacked as Chelsea manager on February 9, 2009 after a run of poor form culminating in a frustrating 0–0 home draw with Hull City. The club's stated reason for his removal was that 'the results and performances of the team appeared to be deteriorating at a key time in the season' . Scolari's replacement at Chelsea until the end of the 2008-2009 season is Guus Hiddink.
Future
Scolari has said he will continue living in London. In Brazil, speculation emerged in the press about the possibility of Scolari returning to coach the Brazil national football team.
Personality
Scolari is famous for his temper and for his histrionic "performance" beside the field while the match is going on, reacting strongly to both the best and the worst moments of his team. A good example of his fierce temper was a September 12, 2007 qualifying match for Euro 2008 against Serbia when, at the end of the game, and after the referee had blown the whistle for a 1-1 draw, Scolari, threw a left hook at Serbian player Ivica Dragutinovic's face that ended up grazing his cheek.
Scolari's character, however, is often seen as a good point, instead of a drawback, because he tries to keep the players (and himself) free of external pressures: he usually demands a lot more freedom than most coaches are allowed and is bent on exerting a somewhat discretionary power. Some critics mostly agree that his unique character was very beneficial to the Portuguese national team, which had a tradition of talented players but never won anything because of excessive intervention from the federation, the clubs and the player's agents, as well as a lack of a true "team spirit".
In the 2002 FIFA World Cup he gave each of his players a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC. He also gave the team recordings of Ivete Sangalo Festa videoclip, to enforce the Brazilian spirit and motivate the team engagement.
Scolari also holds Italian citizenship, since his family emigrated from Veneto. He is said to be a fan of Grêmio and Palmeiras.
Statistics
Manager
Honours
Alagoano
Al Qadisiya Kuwait
Kuwait
Criciúma
Grêmio
Palmeiras
Cruzeiro
Brazil
External links
|-
|
| |
|
|
