Carlos Carvalhal

Carlos Augusto Soares da Costa Faria Carvalhal (born 4 December 1965) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a central defender, and is the current head coach of English club Sheffield Wednesday.

Born in Braga, Carvalhal represented mainly hometown's S.C. Braga during his career. In the 1987–88 campaign, in one of his three spells at the club, he had one of his best years in the Primeira Liga, appearing in 34 games and only being booked seven times, even though the Minho team could only finish in 11th position.

Immediately afterwards, Carvalhal joined FC Porto, but was released after only one year, going on to represent in the following nine seasons – until his retirement at the age of 32 – S.C. Beira-Mar, Braga, F.C. Tirsense, G.D. Chaves and S.C. Espinho. In the top level, he amassed totals of 197 games and one goal.

Carvalhal began managing at his last club Espinho, in the Segunda Liga, being dismissed early into his second year. In 2002, he became the first coach in the country to take a team in the third division to the UEFA Cup, after leading Leixões S.C. to the final of the Taça de Portugal. Two years later he led Vitória de Setúbal back to the top flight, which prompted his move to a side in that category, C.F. Os Belenenses.

Carvalhal was sacked by Belenenses early into 2005–06, after five defeats in eight games. He met the same fate with the two teams he coached in the following season, Braga and S.C. Beira-Mar. With the latter, he was dismissed in December 2006 after the Aveiro club signed a cooperation deal with Inverfutbol, a Spanish-based sporting company, in a relegation-ending campaign.

Returning to Setúbal for 2007–08, Carvalhal enjoyed his best year as a manager, leading the Sadinos to the sixth position in the league – with subsequent UEFA Cup qualification, with the club posting one of the best defensive records in Europe that year – and victory in the inaugural edition of the Taça da Liga, against Sporting Clube de Portugal.

After a few weeks in Greece, Carvalhal returned to Portugal and joined C.S. Marítimo, only winning one match in 11, but with the Madeira team finishing comfortably in mid-table. He was sacked late into the year 2009, moving to Sporting in mid-November to replace fired Paulo Bento.

As originally intended, Carvalhal left his Sporting post at the end of the season, with Sporting finishing in fourth position, 28 points behind champions S.L. Benfica. On 2 August 2011, he was appointed caretaker manager in Beşiktaş J.K. of Turkey, as incumbent Tayfur Havutçu resolved his legal issues stemming from the 2011 Turkish sports corruption scandal.

On 30 June 2015, after nearly three years of inactivity, Carvalhal was appointed head coach of English Championship club Sheffield Wednesday. He led the team to the sixth position in his debut campaign and subsequently qualified them to the play-offs (albeit without promotion), also ousting Arsenal in the fourth round of the Football League Cup.

As of match played 3 February 2017

Manager

Leixões

• Taça de Portugal: Runner-up 2001–02
• Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: Runner-up 2002

Setúbal

• Taça da Liga: 2007–08

Individual

• Football League Cup: Manager of the Tournament 2015–16

• "Leixões-Sporting, 0–1: Taça só para uns e festa para todos" [Leixões-Sporting, 0–1: Cup only for some and party for everyone] (in Portuguese). Record. 13 May 2002. Retrieved 15 January 2016. 
• "Sheffield Wednesday boss Carlos Carvalhal hopes that his Cup pedigree pays off against Arsenal". The Independent. 22 October 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2016. 
• "Revoltados por Beto" [Angry over Beto] (in Portuguese). Record. 20 August 2002. Retrieved 15 January 2016. 
• "Carlos Carvalhal: "Eduardo dá pontos e Taças"" [Carlos Carvalhal: "Eduardo gives points and Cups"] (in Portuguese). Record. 22 March 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2016. 
• Catterick, Phill (28 February 2016). "Capital One Cup: Team of the Tournament". Capital One Cup. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2016.