Cláudio Coutinho facts for kids
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Cláudio Pêcego de Moraes Coutinho | |||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 5 January 1939 | |||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Brazil | |||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 27 November 1981 (aged 42) | |||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | ||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||
| 1977–1980 | Brazil | |||||||||||||||
| 1978–1980 | Flamengo | |||||||||||||||
| 1981 | Los Angeles Aztecs | |||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Cláudio Pêcego de Moraes Coutinho (born January 5, 1939 – died November 27, 1981) was a famous Brazilian football manager. He coached the Brazilian national team from 1977 to 1980. Later, he managed the Los Angeles Aztecs in 1981. Sadly, he passed away in a scuba diving accident in Rio de Janeiro.
Early Life and Military Training
Cláudio Coutinho was born in a small town called Dom Pedrito in Brazil. When he was four years old, his family moved to Rio de Janeiro.
In Rio, Cláudio joined a military school. He worked hard and eventually became a Captain in the Artillery. He was also very interested in sports. He studied at the Army's School of Physical Education.
In 1968, he went to a big meeting in the United States. There, he met an American professor named Kenneth H. Cooper. Professor Cooper created a famous fitness test called the Cooper test. Coutinho was invited to visit a special lab at NASA. This lab studied how the human body handles stress.
His Football Career
In 1970, Coutinho became the physical fitness coach for the Brazilian team. They were getting ready for the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. He taught the team the Cooper method to help them get super fit.
After that, he worked with many different teams. He was a supervisor for the Peru national football team. He also helped coordinate Brazil's team for the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He even worked with a French team, Olympique de Marseille.
Coutinho also coached the Brazilian Olympic Team. He led them to a great fourth-place finish at the 1976 Summer Olympics. In the same year, he became the head coach of Flamengo, a very popular Brazilian club.
Because of his good work, Coutinho was chosen to coach the Brazilian national team. This was for the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina. Some people were surprised because they thought he was too new to the job.
Coutinho wanted to try a new way of playing football. He believed that players should work together like parts of a machine. This was different from the old Brazilian style, which focused on individual star players. He was inspired by the "Total Football" style. This style was used by the Dutch team that beat Brazil in the 1974 World Cup.
In 1981, Coutinho moved to the United States. He became the manager for the Los Angeles Aztecs football team.
His Passing
After the 1981 football season ended, Coutinho was on holiday in Rio de Janeiro. He was planning to start a new job in Saudi Arabia soon.
Cláudio Coutinho was an experienced diver. He was diving near some small islands called Ilhas Cagarras, close to Ipanema Beach. Sadly, he drowned during this dive. He was 42 years old.
See also
In Spanish: Cláudio Coutinho para niños
