‘King of Access’, made history as a player and coach – 05/22/2023 – Daily life

It was almost the end of the 2006 season when Portuguesa was thrashed by Marília by 4-0. The vexing score —and the last place in the Serie B ranking table of the Brazilian Championship— cost coach Candinho his job and signaled that only a miracle would save the Canindé club that year.

And the miracle came. With Vagner Benazzi on the bench, Lusa managed to leave the relegation zone in the last round, in the 44th minute of the second half, with a 3-2 comeback over Sport, at the Ilha do Retiro stadium, in Recife.

Portuguesa gambled right on hiring a coach who throughout its history became known as the “King of Access”, for putting together teams with the capacity to ascend to the division — the following year, with Benazzi on the bench, Lusa rose to the elite state and national championships—and for saving desperate clubs

Born in Osasco, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Benazzi was a right-back who liked to move forward and played more up front than as a defender.

He wore the shirt of Palmeiras between 1981 and 1982. Two years later, in 1984, he became a kind of on-field coach for Paulista de Jundiaí (SP), champion of the second division of São Paulo that year.

“He was one of the leaders of the team and even helped with the hiring of players,” said former goalkeeper Sérgio Vitorino, 68, who was part of that squad.

Benazzi ended his career as a player and started coaching in 1989 at São Carlense. With the club from the city of São Carlos (SP) came the first access, with the title of Série A-3 of the Campeonato Paulista.

From there, a vast list of accomplishments grew — there were more than a dozen accessions. Outside of São Paulo, where it is even difficult to count the number of titles in the interior, he collected champion cups from Ceará (Fortaleza) and from Série B of the Brazilian Championship (Gama-DF), in addition to leading the accession of two teams from Santa Catarina: Avaí and Figueirense.

From lawns that ranged from shady fields to large stadiums, his nearly 30-year career as a coach ended in 2016, at Nacional do Amazonas. “He was a charismatic coach, who spoke the players’ language and knew how to stir their emotions”, says Darcy Marques Júnior, 68, Benazzi’s assistant coach for nearly 20 years.

This Monday (22), due to the news of his death, numerous Brazilian clubs used their social networks to pay tribute to the winning coach.

Portuguesa even remembered that game from 2006, which she called “Battle of Ilha do Retiro”. José Martins Pontes, 41, a football supervisor at the time, recalls that one of his trump cards was bringing everyone together at the club. Benazzi instituted that part of the animal’s money, the award for victory, be reversed in basic food baskets for Lusa employees. “He was called Uncle Bena by many.”

With frontotemporal dementia in recent years, Benazzi ended up hospitalized on Sunday (21) and died early this Monday, aged 68. He left a wife and three children. He was buried in Osasco.