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Joel Santana
Personal information

Full name	Joel Natalino Santana
Date of birth	(1955-12-25) 25 December 1955 (age 69)
Place of birth	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Position(s)	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1971–1972	Vasco da Gama	37	(11)
1973	Olaria	29	(8)
1974–1975	Vasco da Gama	18	(1)
1976–1980	América de Natal	148	(45)
Total		232	(65)
Managerial career
1981–1986	Al Wasl
1986–1987	Vasco da Gama
1988–1990	Al Nassr
1991	América
1991	Al-Hilal Figueirense Futebol Clube SC
1992–1993	Vasco da Gama
1994	Bahia
1995	Fluminense
1996	Flamengo
1997	Corinthians
1997–1998	Botafogo
1998	Flamengo
1999–2000	Bahia
2000	Botafogo
2000–2001	Vasco da Gama
2001–2002	Coritiba
2002–2003	Vitória
2003	Fluminense
2004	Guarani
2004	Internacional
2004–2005	Vasco da Gama
2005	Brasiliense
2005	Flamengo
2006	Vegalta Sendai
2007	Fluminense
2007–2008	Flamengo
2008–2009	South Africa
2010–2011	Botafogo
2011	Cruzeiro
2011–2012	Bahia
2012	Flamengo
2013	Bahia
2014	Vasco da Gama
2017	Boavista
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of February 5, 2012 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of February 5, 2010

Joel Natalino Santana, born on December 25, 1955, is a famous Brazilian football coach and former player. He was known for his time as a defender and later became a successful manager for many teams. His last coaching job was with Vasco da Gama in 2014. He retired from coaching in 2017.

Joel Santana's Football Journey
Joel Santana's Acting Roles
Managerial Statistics
Honors and Achievements
- Playing Honors
- Managerial Honors
See also

Joel Santana's Football Journey

Joel Santana was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He played his entire career as a central defender in Brazil during the 1970s. He was best known for playing with Vasco da Gama. Even though he was a great player, he never played for the Brazilian national team.

In 1980, Joel Santana stopped playing football. He then started a new career as a coach. His first coaching job was with Al Wasl in the United Arab Emirates. Most of his coaching career was with Brazilian clubs. However, he also coached teams in Saudi Arabia and Vegalta Sendai in Japan.

Coaching Style and Success

Joel Santana is one of the few coaches to win the Campeonato Carioca (a major state championship in Brazil) with all four big clubs from Rio de Janeiro. These clubs are Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense, and Vasco da Gama.

His coaching style was often described as defensive. His main goal was to stop the other team from scoring.

The "Escape Artist"

Joel Santana became known as an "escape artist." This meant he was very good at saving teams from being moved down to a lower league.

In 2004, he helped Vasco da Gama stay in the top division of Brazilian football. This was his fourth time coaching the club.
A year later, in 2005, Flamengo hired him for the same reason. He successfully kept them from relegation.
In 2007, he returned to Flamengo again. He not only saved them from relegation but also led them to a surprising third-place finish. This allowed them to qualify for the 2008 Copa Libertadores, a big international club tournament.

Coaching the South Africa National Team

In April 2008, Joel Santana became the coach of the South Africa national football team. He took over from another Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira. However, in October 2009, Santana was removed from the position. This was because the team had poor results, including eight losses in his last nine games.

Later Coaching Years

Joel Santana returned to Flamengo for his fifth time as head coach in February 2012. He was fired in July 2012 after two losses.

In April 2013, he was hired by Bahia. This was his fourth time working for the club from Salvador.

Joel Santana is considered one of the most famous managers in Brazilian football history. He won many trophies, especially state leagues, with big clubs like Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, and Fluminense. He is also known for managing over 1,000 games in his career.

He officially retired from coaching in 2017 after managing Boavista at the end of the Carioca Championship.

Joel Santana's Acting Roles

In 2012, a video of Joel Santana went viral. It showed a post-match interview from the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. He was coaching South Africa at the time. People found his English language skills funny.

Because of this, he appeared in a commercial for Pepsi. In the ad, he used funny mixed English and Portuguese phrases. For example, he said, "Me dá uma Pepsi. Pode to be?" which means "Can you give me a Pepsi? Can it be?"

In 2013, he became the star of another commercial series for Head & Shoulders shampoo. Again, he made light of his English. Joel Santana told a Brazilian sports channel that speaking English publicly was "risky." But he realized that people cared more about his feelings than perfect English. He said this experience helped him become a good pitchman.

Managerial Statistics

(as of 10 May 2024)

Team	Nation	From	To	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				1,258	623	312	323	1,988	1,327	+661	49.52