Luxemburgo was for years the best coach in Brazil – 04/05/2023 – PVC

The headline of the Sport section of the Sheet of December 30, 2004 showed how we, journalists, love to doubt the new-old coach of Corinthians: “Luxembourg leaves Santos and says he will take over Real Madrid”.

How do you “say”?

The next day, the front page of Sheet confirmed the contract and maintained the amazement: “Luxembourg becomes galactic!”.

It was astonishing, not because anyone thought that he was not competent to work in Europe. Just because we already assumed our role on the periphery of football.

We doubt Luxembourg since the fall of the Brazilian team. “They never proved anything against me.”

It’s not like that. It was discovered, for example, that his real date of birth is May 10, 1952, not 1955, as was imagined when he left youth to be a professional left-back for Flamengo.

The actual date makes Luxemburgo the oldest coach in Corinthian history. A merit.

Vicente Feola, Aymoré Moreira and Telê Santana did not last as long. Zagallo and Felipão, yes. Heck, just as a coordinator.

It’s fair to say that Luxemburgo is one of the greatest coaches in Brazil’s history. He holds the record for Brazilian titles, tied with Lula, from Santos (5), and the biggest winner of São Paulo Championships (9).

The Real Madrid episode shows how good he was.

Even knowing that his signing by the Spanish team went through a good job by the office of businessman Juan Figer, let’s face it that having a Brazilian on the most starred bench in Europe was a very different situation from what you see today, in which half of the Brazilian teams is with a foreign coach.

Whoever writes here that Vanderlei was one of the greatest in the country is the one who pioneered in saying that he was no longer the best. On September 4, 2007, two days after Corinthians, from newcomer Zé Augusto, beat Santos, from a silent Luxembourg, the PVC Board wrote in the newspaper LANCE! that he was the former best in Brazil.

On the same day, his office called a press conference. Sadly, Luxemburgo stated: “Today I was called a former coach”. It was not. The text read “former best”.

He recognized that, for more than ten years, he was unanimously the main coach in the country. No competition, as confirmed by the testimonials of ten out of ten players who played under his command, including declared enemies like Marcelinho and Edmundo.

Cafu worked with Carlo Ancelotti at Milan. He claims that Luxemburgo was, at the apex, better than the Real Madrid coach and than Telê.

Why did it stop?

When he returned from Real Madrid, without a title, but with more points than Barcelona in 2005, he took over at Santos, with Léo Lima and Geílson. He won Paulista, beating São Paulo, world champion, and Corinthians, winner of the previous Brazilian with Tevez, Nilmar, Roger and Carlos Alberto.

Soon after, Brazil failed in the 2006 World Cup. Luxemburgo may have thought he had a chance to return to the national team. The CBF announced Dunga, who had never been a coach.

It is possible that on that day, Luxembourg decided to like poker more than coaching football players.

He never won a national or international title again.

But he did good things, like revealing Gabriel Menino, Patrick de Paula and Danilo and winning Paulista in a classic against Corinthians. “The best of the three is Danilo”, he said confidently, in 2020. Bingo!

Impossible to know if Luxemburgo will have a breath, a new great work. It is possible that not, because time has passed. Also because Corinthians doesn’t help.

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