# Joel Santana

Joel Natalino Santana (born 25 December 1948) is a Brazilian football coach and former player. He was recently in charge of Vasco da Gama in 2014.

## Biography

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Santana played his entire career as a central defender in his native Brazil in the 1970s. He became best known as a player at Vasco da Gama, but failed to earn a cap with the national team. In 1980, he retired as a player and moved on to club management with Al Wasl in the United Arab Emirates. While much of his management career has been with Brazilian clubs, Santana has also coached clubs in Saudi Arabia and Vegalta Sendai in Japan's J-League.
Santana is one of the few head coaches to win Brazil's Campeonato Carioca with each of the four big clubs (Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense, 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 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.
In April 2008, Santana replaced his countryman, Carlos Alberto Parreira, as the coach of the South Africa national football team following a recommendation from Parreira himself who left the job for 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.
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 and Cruzeiro, was fired from Flamengo.
On 8 April 2013, after Jorginho's dismissal, Santana was hired for Bahia. He worked for fourth time at the Tricolor from Salvador.
Santana is considered to be one of the most well-known managers in brazilian football history, winning many trophies with many big clubs like Flamengo, Vasco da Gama and Fluminense especially state leagues. He is also well-known for being one a few managers to have managed more than 1,000 games during his managerial career.
Santana retired in 2017, after managing Boavista at the end of the Carioca Championship.

## Acting issues

In 2012, after a video featuring a post-match interview given by Santana during the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup when he was in charge of South Africa (following the 0-0 draw against Iraq in the group stage) went viral as a result of his poor English language skills, he acted in a commercial for Pepsi, 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?" [sic]).
In 2013, he became the star of another commercial: an ad series for Head & Shoulders, again making light of his poor English. Happy with this and the former success, Santana told Brazilian sports channel SporTV about his experience in South Africa: "[Speaking English publicly] was 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

(as of 10 May 2024)
| Team | Nation | From | To | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Team | Nation | From | To | G | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Win % |
| Al Wasl | United Arab Emirates | 30 July 1981 | 30 June 1986 | 119 | 80 | 15 | 24 | 200 | 106 | +94 | 67.23 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 1 August 1986 | 24 November 1987 | 63 | 28 | 18 | 17 | 97 | 48 | +49 | 44.44 |
| Al Nassr | Saudi Arabia | 30 June 1988 | 30 May 1990 | 51 | 31 | 11 | 9 | 88 | 42 | +46 | 60.78 |
| America-RJ | Brazil | 17 January 1991 | 30 May 1991 | 20 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 20 | 17 | +3 | 25 |
| Al-Hilal | Saudi Arabia | 30 June 1991 | 30 December 1991 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 14 | 10 | +4 | 27.27 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 10 January 1992 | 29 December 1993 | 100 | 56 | 28 | 16 | 175 | 83 | +92 | 56 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 1 February 1994 | 14 December 1994 | 46 | 22 | 11 | 13 | 59 | 51 | +8 | 47.83 |
| Fluminense | Brazil | 14 January 1995 | 28 December 1995 | 53 | 27 | 17 | 9 | 74 | 41 | +33 | 56.82 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 1 February 1996 | 20 December 1996 | 79 | 43 | 21 | 15 | 111 | 63 | +48 | 54.43 |
| Corinthians | Brazil | 8 June 1997 | 16 December 1997 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 23 | 27 | -4 | 32 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 8 January 1998 | 15 September 1998 | 26 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 42 | 36 | +6 | 50 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 10 January 1999 | 2 January 2000 | 55 | 27 | 19 | 9 | 101 | 56 | +45 | 49.09 |
| Botafogo | Brazil | 2 January 2000 | 7 September 2000 | 31 | 16 | 7 | 8 | 56 | 35 | +21 | 51.61 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 10 September 2000 | 17 December 2001 | 68 | 34 | 17 | 17 | 137 | 87 | +49 | 51.61 |
| Coritiba | Brazil | 19 December 2001 | 8 April 2002 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 26 | 30 | -4 | 35.71 |
| Vitória | Brazil | 1 May 2002 | 24 March 2003 | 55 | 30 | 9 | 16 | 106 | 71 | +35 | 54.55 |
| Fluminense | Brazil | 18 July 2003 | 1 October 2003 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 30 | -15 | 16.67 |
| Guarani | Brazil | 5 January 2004 | 8 May 2004 | 21 | 3 | 11 | 6 | 20 | 27 | -7 | 14.29 |
| Internacional | Brazil | 1 July 2004 | 2 September 2004 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 26 | 26 | +0 | 27.78 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 27 September 2004 | 20 April 2005 | 32 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 53 | 44 | +11 | 40.63 |
| Brasiliense | Brazil | 1 June 2005 | 23 October 2005 | 26 | 14 | 5 | 7 | 47 | 34 | +13 | 53.85 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 24 October 2005 | 30 December 2005 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 66.67 |
| Vegalta Sendai | Japan | 1 February 2006 | 4 December 2006 | 50 | 22 | 14 | 14 | 76 | 44 | +32 | 44 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 30 July 2007 | 4 May 2008 | 54 | 35 | 7 | 12 | 103 | 62 | +41 | 64.81 |
| South Africa | South Africa | 4 May 2008 | 14 October 2009 | 27 | 10 | 3 | 14 | 25 | 30 | -5 | 37.04 |
| Botafogo | Brazil | 26 January 2010 | 22 March 2011 | 72 | 38 | 22 | 12 | 130 | 80 | +50 | 52.78 |
| Cruzeiro | Brazil | 20 June 2011 | 2 September 2011 | 15 | 8 | 0 | 7 | 24 | 18 | +6 | 53.33 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 4 September 2011 | 2 February 2012 | 23 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 33 | 29 | +4 | 43.48 |
| CR Flamengo | Brazil | 3 February 2012 | 23 July 2012 | 29 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 51 | 40 | +11 | 51.72 |
| Bahia | Brazil | 8 April 2013 | 13 May 2013 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 13 | -4 | 22.22 |
| Vasco da Gama | Brazil | 7 September 2014 | 1 December 2014 | 18 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 21 | 17 | +4 | 38.89 |
| Boavista | Brazil | 1 January 2017 | 6 May 2017 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 13 | -4 | 27.27 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 1,258 | 623 | 312 | 323 | 1,988 | 1,327 | +661 | 49.52 |

## Honors
### Playing honors

América de Natal
* Campeonato Potiguar: 1974, 1977, 1979, 1980
Vasco da Gama
* Campeonato Brasileiro First Division: 1974
* Campeonato Carioca: 1970

### Managerial honors

Al Wasl FC
* UAE Pro League: 1982, 1983, 1985
Al Nassr
* Saudi Pro League: 1989
Bahia
* Campeonato Baiano: 1994, 1999
Botafogo
* Campeonato Carioca: 1997, 2010
Flamengo
* Campeonato Carioca: 1996, 2008
Fluminense
* Campeonato Carioca: 1995
South Africa
* 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup (4th place)
Vasco da Gama
* Copa Mercosur: 2000
* Campeonato Brasileiro First Division: 2000
* Campeonato Carioca: 1992, 1993
Vitória
* Campeonato Baiano: 2003
* Supercampeonato Baiano: 2002