Brazil open door to breaking foreign coach taboo

Brazil open door to breaking foreign coach taboo

© AFP 2022
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:24 PM
Tite left the Brazil job with a record of two World Cup quarter-finals, one Copa America triumph and another losing final in South America's continental championship
Tite left the Brazil job with a record of two World Cup quarter-finals, one Copa America triumph and another losing final in South America's continental championship. Photo: Ina Fassbender / AFP/File
Source: AFP

More than two decades since their last World Cup triumph and without a local consensus pick, Brazil are considering breaking an unwritten taboo: hiring a foreign coach.

After six years in the job, Tite left the Brazil post last month following the Selecao's World Cup quarterfinal exit against Croatia.

Despite knowing for some time before the Qatar showpiece that Tite was leaving, Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Ednaldo Rodrigues still has not found a replacement.

Now he is widening his search.

"We have no nationality prejudices," he said on January 17.

"We want it to be a respected coach who can bring a level of play worthy of the athletes. We want to do what Brazil have always tried to do: to be very attacking."

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Real Madrid's Italian boss Carlo Ancelotti would be a popular choice but has ruled himself out of the Brazil running
Real Madrid's Italian boss Carlo Ancelotti would be a popular choice but has ruled himself out of the Brazil running. Photo: JOSE JORDAN / AFP/File
Source: AFP

Apart from England, who hired Swede Sven Goran Eriksen and Fabio Capello of Italy in the 2000s, almost no other major footballing nation has had a foreign coach in decades.

Brazil's World Cup drought -- stretching back to their dazzling triumph in 2002 with a three-pronged attack comprised of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo -- has forced the record five-time world champions to cast the net farther afield.

There are potential Brazilian candidates, but none have garnered widespread support.

"We have good quality, but before we used to produce more coaches than now," Luiz Felipe Scolari, the 2002 title-winning coach, said recently.

"The new generation ... haven't won enough trophies."

Fans unconvinced of 'gringo' merits

Brazilian press have been proposing numerous possible candidates.

Some Brazilians feel the national football union should develop its own Pep Guardiola, rather than try to hire the original
Some Brazilians feel the national football union should develop its own Pep Guardiola, rather than try to hire the original. Photo: Ben Stansall / AFP/File
Source: AFP

Spaniards Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique, Italy's Carlo Ancelotti, Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, Jose Mourinho of Portugal and even Argentines Marcelo Gallardo and Mauricio Pochettino.

Manchester City's Guardiola and Ancelotti of Real Madrid have both ruled themselves out, although the Spaniard did say a couple of years ago that he fancied leading a national team when he leaves the English champions.

"Since the end of last year I think I've heard 26 names. We will go after some of them," said Rodrigues, who hopes to have the new man in place by March.

But it is not easy hiring a world class coach when top European clubs can pay such inflated wages and offer the chance to compete for the Champions League or national titles.

It is also not easy to convince the Brazilian fans to accept a "gringo" in charge of the Selecao.

A poll in December found 48 percent were against the idea, with only 41 percent in favor.

The rejection rate was at least lower than in previous such polls.

"In Brazil there is one idea: we have the best football in the world, so we don't need a foreign coach telling us how to play," historian and editor of sports website Ludopedio, Victor Figols, told AFP.

"Us, who know how to develop great players, who in part created dribbling, the way to play the beautiful game."

Local candidates

Brazil did once have foreign coaches, although their reigns were fleeting.

Uruguayan Ramon Platero held the position in 1925, Portugal's Jorge Gomes de Lima coached the Selecao alongside Brazilian Flavio Costa in 1944, and Argentina's Filpo Nunez had a brief stint in 1965.

But foreigners were discarded once Brazil, using homegrown coaches, consolidated itself as a world football power.

Flamengo coach Dorival Junior won the 2022 Copa Libertadores and has some support to be the new Brazil coach
Flamengo coach Dorival Junior won the 2022 Copa Libertadores and has some support to be the new Brazil coach. Photo: Rodrigo Buendia / AFP/File
Source: AFP

Quite the opposite occurred as coaches such as Scolari, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Ricardo Gomes and Zico took charge of other national teams.

"An image was built throughout history that since we develop great players, we also develop great coaches, but it's not true," said Figols.

"If we look at the FIFA rankings, Brazilian coaches are not even in the top 10."

There are some local candidates who are popular among the press, such as Dorival Junior, who won the 2022 Copa Libertadores with Flamengo, or Fernando Diniz of Fluminense, Gremio's Renato Portaluppi and Mano Menezes of Internacional.

But none of them have a comparable resume to Tite's before he took over the Brazil role.

With Corinthians, Tite won the Copa Libertadores, two Brazilian titles and the Club World Cup in a five-year period.

"We need to improve the level of those that live here regardless of whether we hire a foreigner or a Brazilian," Paulo Vinicius Coelho, author of the "Brazilian Football School" book, wrote in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

"Guardiola won't come. But that doesn't prevent Brazil from ... developing our own Pep Guardiola within a few years, as we once developed Zagallo and Tele Santana," he added.

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© AFP 2022 photo
© AFP 2022