Vanderlei Luxemburgo


Vanderlei Luxemburgo da Silva, better known as Vanderlei Luxemburgo, and often known as Wanderley Luxemburgo, is a Brazilian football manager, who is the manager of Palmeiras and former player. As a manager, he has won Brazil's Série A five times, a record total. His surname is after revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg.

Coaching career

Early career

Luxemburgo started to be noticed as a top tier coach when he led Bragantino, a modest team from the countryside, to the title of the 1990 Campeonato Paulista. This gave him enough visibility to be hired by Palmeiras in the Série A. In 1993 and 1994 he led Palmeiras to win both the São Paulo State and Brazilian championships. When he left in 1995, Palmeiras' performance was visibly affected and when he came back in 1996 the team won the São Paulo State championship again.
After a brief passage through Santos, in 1998 he went to Corinthians and won the Brazilian National League that year. He left Corinthians the next year to join the Brazilian National Team.
Luxemburgo coached Brazil after the 1998 World Cup until the end of 2000 Olympics. Most notably, he is known for centering his play around Rivaldo. In 1999 the National Team won the South American Nationals Championship undefeated. However, he is also remembered for the disastrous performance at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, where Brazil lost 1–2 in overtime to gold medal winners Cameroon despite having a two men advantage in that game. He was often blamed at this tournament for leaving out Romário, who had gone on national television, pleading his case to play in the tournament.
In 2001, he went back to Corinthians and won yet another State Championship. In 2003, he led Cruzeiro Esporte Clube to win the Brazilian National League. Even more impressively, the club won two of the three competitions without losing a single match. The following year he led Santos to win the Brazilian Championship.
Luxemburgo also stirred up controversy by having a one-way transmission device on a forward of his club team during a match. He claimed that the Cameroon match inspired him to create a device in order to tell his players where and when to attack. The CBF ruled days later that such electronic devices were illegal, but did not penalize him for using it in that match.

Real Madrid

Luxemburgo was hired as Real Madrid's coach from Santos in the second half of the 2004/2005 season when Mariano García Remón was dismissed from the job. He led Real Madrid to seven consecutive league wins, putting them back in the title race but ended up losing it four points behind FC Barcelona.
In the following season, Real Madrid started brightly. However, the introduction of a new formation, combined with multiple injury issues and poor performances began Luxemburgo's downfall. Calls for him to resign were intensified after a humiliating 0–3 home defeat to long-time rivals, Barcelona.
He was sacked on 5 December 2005, Real Madrid announced Juan Ramón López Caro would be his successor.

Santos

Luxemburgo signed, for the third time, a contract with Santos, leading the club to the 2006 São Paulo State Championship and in fourth place of the Série A.
He continued with Santos in 2007 and won the São Paulo State Championship again. He also saw Santos through the semi-finals of the 2007 Copa Libertadores, winning all the matches in the group stage and eliminating strong teams, such as Caracas in the round of 16 and América in the quarter-finals, before losing to Grêmio in the semis. Later Luxemburgo finished second in the Série A. In both years, 2006 and 2007, he led Santos to a Copa Libertadores berth.

Palmeiras return

At the end of 2007, Luxemburgo left Santos. He signed with Palmeiras in 2008, and won the São Paulo State Championship for the third consecutive time.
With Palmeiras he was eliminated from the Sudamericana by Argentinos Juniors and from the Brazilian Cup by Sport Recife the eventual champions. In the 2008 Série A he reached fourth place with Palmeiras in a very competitive season, earning the club a spot in the Libertadores.
Luxemburgo remained with Palmeiras in 2009. He managed the team to a successful campaign in the São Paulo State Championship but lost to Santos in the semi-finals. In the Copa Libertadores he conquered a place in the Round of 16 by defeating Colo-Colo 1–0 in Santiago, with Cleiton Xavier scoring a last minute long-range goal in the angle of Colo-Colo's goalkeeper. Palmeiras defeated Sport Recife on penalties in the Round of 16, but were eliminated by an away goal from Nacional from Uruguay drawing both matches, by 1–1 at home and 0–0 away.
In the 2009 Série A Luxemburgo started well in the competition, but after an incident involving young striker Keirrison, Luxemburgo was dismissed from Palmeiras in the seventh round of the competition.

Santos return

He was re-signed as Head Coach of Santos after a one and a half-year absence on 17 July 2009 and on 7 December 2009 the coach quit Santos, finishing 12th in the league, to sign with Atlético Mineiro.

Return of Flamengo / Grêmio

On 5 October 2010, Vanderlei Luxemburgo was named as a new head coach of Flamengo, and managed the club until February 2012.
On 21 February 2012, it was announced that Luxemburgo was taking charge of Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense until 31 December 2012. On 29 April 2013, after getting involved in a fight in the game between Grêmio and Huachipato for the Libertadores Cup, Luxemburgo was suspended for six games in this competition.
On 29 June 2013, Luxemburgo was dismissed by directors of Grêmio.

Fluminense

On 30 July 2013, Luxemburgo signed with carioca side Fluminense FC, that dismissed, one day earlier, Abel Braga. Luxemburgo defended his predecessor, calling him "winner", and lamented his resignation, a "culture of brazilian football". The coach, to resume, wants his players "wrathful with losses". On 12 November Fluminense FC sacked Luxemburgo after a long winless streak. At the time Fluminense stood in 18th place in the Brazilian Série A and was under relegation threat.

Flamengo (4th spell)

On 23 July 2014, Luxemburgo was named as a new head coach of Flamengo with the mission of taking lot of an unprecedented low points record at the start of the Brazilian national league. Luxa was ultimately successful in leading the club's struggle against relegation, earning important points in the tournament and taking the team to the upper half of the table.

Cruzeiro

On 2 June 2015, Vanderlei Luxemburgo was named as a new head coach of Cruzeiro Esporte Clube. But was dismissed after poor results

Tianjin Songjiang

On 23 September 2015, Vanderlei Luxemburgo was named as a new head coach of Tianjin Songjiang, for the 2016 season.

Sport Club do Recife

On 29 May 2017, Vanderlei Luxemburgo was named as a new head coach Sport Club do Recife and won the championship of Pernambuco in 2017.

Assistant coach

Player

;Flamengo
;Rio Branco
;Bragantino
;Palmeiras
;Santos
;Corinthians
;Cruzeiro
;Atlético Mineiro
;Flamengo
;Sport
;Brazilian national team