Mano Menezes

Luiz Antônio Venker de Menezes (born 11 June 1962), known as Mano Menezes, is a Brazilian football manager. He managed the Brazil national team until his sacking on November 2012. His nickname comes from his early childhood, when his sister used to call him "Mano", which is a popular slang term meaning "brother" in Portuguese.

He was born in Passo do Sobrado, Rio Grande do Sul, and began his footballing career as a defender for Guarani de Venâncio Aires in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He gave up playing to become a physical education professional, beginning in 1986 in Rio Grande do Sul, before going on to Guarani de Venâncio Aires, Juventude and Internacional (as well as a spell in 1997 with Paulo Autuori at Cruzeiro).

Menezes was the coach of Grêmio from 2005 through 2007, a relatively long time for a coach in Brazilian football. He led them to promotion in 2005 and followed that up with a third-place finish in the 2006 Série A. In 2007, he led Grêmio to the final of the Copa Libertadores. At the end of the 2007 season, he took over as coach of Corinthians and started the 2008 season with a 3–0 win over Guarani. Menezes led Corinthians to the 2008 Série B title with 25 wins, 10 draws and three losses, finishing with 85 points.

15 de Novembro

Mano's biggest highlight during his managerial time at 15 de Novembro was during 2004 Copa do Brasil. As the coach of the team, who has never even won the Rio Grande do Sul state championship, he made to the semifinals, beating more traditional clubs such as four-time Campeonato Brasileiro Série A champion Vasco da Gama.

Grêmio

In April 2005, Menezes was hired as coach by Grêmio to be responsible for bringing back the team to the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, which he achieved and also won the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B championship title that year in a match that became known as "The Battle of the Afflicted (Batalha dos Aflitos)", due to events that took place along the departure and the fact that this has been held in the stadium Aflitos, Náutico's stadium in Recife, Pernambuco. This episode later became a movie named Batalha dos Aflitos, released in 2007.

In 2006, he led Grêmio when they took the win in the Campeonato Gaúcho with a victory over arch-rival Internacional, the first time Grêmio had won since 2001. Also in 2006, Grêmio ranked in third in the Série A, thereby earning a place in the 2007 Copa Libertadores. In 2007 they won the Campeonato Gaúcho again and reached the final in Copa Libertadores, where they lost to Boca Juniors.

Menezes left Grêmio after 169 games, with 89 wins, 35 draws and 45 losses, a win rate of 59.56%; 302 points were earned from a total of 507. The last game played by Grêmio with him as coach was the last game of the season's Série A, on 28 November 2007, against Corinthians, the team he was to coach next. In losing that match, the Corinthians were relegated to Série B.

Corinthians

Menezes was hired to manage the Corinthians at the end of 2007, and to raise them back up from relegation. In 2008, Corinthians played the Copa do Brasil, losing to Sport Club do Recife. That year they also took the title of Campeonato Brasileiro Série B 2008.

In May 2009, Menezes led Corinthians to become unbeaten champions of the Campeonato Paulista. On 1 July 2009, Corinthians won the Copa do Brasil against Internacional. With the win, Corinthians gained entry to the 2010 Copa Libertadores.

Brazil

On 24 July 2010, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) announced that Mano would replace Dunga as manager of the Brazil national team. He was not the CBF's first choice, but Fluminense had refused to release Muricy Ramalho the day before. Menezes' appointment was generally well received, although some pointed out that his favoured playing style resembled Dunga's defensive style. He coached his first Brazil match on 10 August 2010, a 2–0 win against the United States. For this match, he selected many young players, including Diego Tardelli, André and David Luiz, among others. In addition, Menezes selected only four players that participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa: Dani Alves, Ramires, Thiago Silva and Robinho, as well as 2010 World Cup cuts Alexandre Pato, Marcelo and Neymar.

At the 2011 Copa América, Brazil went out in the quarter-finals on penalties to Paraguay after a 0–0 draw, with Brazil missing all the four of its penalties. He was also the coach of the Olympic team at London 2012, hoping to win the long-awaited gold medal for Brazil, the only accolade Brazil had not won in football, however they were defeated by Mexico in the final and Menezes was the target of criticism in Brazil.

Following disappointing results, Menezes was sacked on 23 November 2012.

Flamengo

In June 2013, Menezes was named as the new coach of Brazilian club Flamengo.

Corinthians

In 2014, Menezes returned to Corinthians. After helping Corinthians to a fourth-place league finish, as well as qualifying for the Copa Libertadores, on 6 December 2014 Menezes resigned as manager of the club.

Shandong Luneng

In December 2015, Shandong Luneng Taishan of the Chinese Super League announced that Menezes would be the new coach of the team.

On 21 April 2016, with a 1–0 victory over Japanese side Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Shandong Luneng returned to the knockout stage of the Asian Champions League after an 11-year absence, with one round of the group stage in advance. On 25 May, Shandong Luneng defeated Sydney FC, entering the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League, which was the best result for the team in ACL. In contrast to the excellent performance in continental competition, Shandong fell into the relegation zone in domestic league. On 7 Jun 2016, Shandong Luneng Taishan announced that Mano resigned for personal reasons and he was no longer the manager of the team. He was replaced by former FC Bayern Munich and VfL Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath.

Cruzeiro

After the fiasco in China, Mano returned to Cruzeiro in order to repeat the campaign of the Brasileirão 2015, when freed from relegation.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Goalscorers	Competition
2010
1	August 10, 2010	New Jersey, United States	United States	2–0	Neymar and Alexandre Pato	Friendly
2	September 7, 2010	Sant Joan Despí, Spain	Barcelona B	3–0	Lucas, Pato and Fernandinho	Unofficial friendly
3	October 7, 2010	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	Iran	3–0	Da. Alves, Alexandre Pato and Nilmar	Friendly
4	October 11, 2010	Derby, England	Ukraine	2–0	Da. Alves and Pato	Friendly
5	November 17, 2010	Doha, Qatar	Argentina	0–1		Friendly
2011
6	February 9, 2011	Saint-Denis, France	France	0–1		Friendly
7	March 27, 2011	London, England	Scotland	2–0	Neymar (2)	Friendly
8	June 4, 2011	Goiânia, Brazil	Netherlands	0–0		Friendly
9	June 7, 2011	São Paulo, Brazil	Romania	1–0	Fred	Friendly
10	July 3, 2011	La Plata, Argentina	Venezuela	0–0		2011 Copa América
11	July 9, 2011	Córdoba, Argentina	Paraguay	2–2	Fred and Jádson	2011 Copa América
12	July 13, 2011	Córdoba, Argentina	Ecuador	4–2	Pato (2) and Neymar (2)	2011 Copa América
13	July 17, 2011	La Plata, Argentina	Paraguay	0–0 (0–2 PSO)		2011 Copa América
14	August 10, 2011	Stuttgart, Germany	Germany	2–3	Robinho and Neymar	Friendly
15	September 5, 2011	Fulham, England	Ghana	1–0	Leandro Damião	Friendly
16	September 14, 2011	Córdoba, Argentina	Argentina	0–0		Superclásico de las Américas
17	September 28, 2011	Belém, Brazil	Argentina	2–0	Lucas and Neymar	Superclásico de las Américas
18	October 11, 2011	Estadio Corona, Mexico	Mexico	2–1	Ronaldinho and Marcelo	Friendly
19	November 10, 2011	Stade Omar Bongo, Gabon	Gabon	2–0	Sandro and Hernanes	Friendly
20	November 14, 2011	Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan	Egypt	2–0	Jonas (2)	Friendly
2012
21	February 28, 2012	AFG Arena, Switzerland	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2–1	Marcelo and Papac (o.g.)	Friendly
22	May 26, 2012	Volksparkstadion, Germany	Denmark	3–1	Hulk (2) and Zimling (o.g.)	Friendly
23	May 30, 2012	FedExField, United States	United States	4–1	Neymar (pen.), Silva, Marceloand Pato	Friendly
24	June 3, 2012	Cowboys Stadium, United States	Mexico	0–2		Friendly
25	June 9, 2012	MetLife Stadium, United States	Argentina	3–4	Rômulo, Oscar and Hulk	Friendly
26	August 14, 2012	Råsunda Stadium, Sweden	Sweden	3–0	Leandro Damião and Pato (2)	Friendly
27	September 7, 2012	Estádio do Morumbi, Brazil	South Africa	1–0	Hulk	Friendly
28	September 10, 2012	Estádio do Arruda, Brazil	China PR	8–0	Ramires, Neymar (3), Lucas, Hulk, Liu Jianye (o.g.) and Oscar (pen.)	Friendly
29	September 19, 2012	Estádio Serra Dourada, Brazil	Argentina	2–1	Paulinho and Neymar (pen.)	Superclásico de las Américas
30	October 11, 2012	Swedbank Stadion, Sweden	Iraq	6–0	Oscar (2), Kaká, Hulk, Neymar and Lucas	Friendly
31	October 16, 2012	Stadion Miejski, Poland	Japan	4–0	Paulinho, Neymar (2) and Kaká	Friendly
32	November 14, 2012	MetLife Stadium, United States	Colombia	1–1	Neymar	Friendly
33	November 21, 2012	La Bombonera, Argentina	Argentina	1–2 (win 4–3 PSO)	Fred	Superclásico de las Américas

With Brazil national under-23 team

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Goalscorers	Competition
1	July 20, 2012	Riverside Stadium, England	Great Britain	2–0	Sandro and Neymar	Friendly
2	July 26, 2012	Millennium Stadium, Wales	Egypt	3–2	Rafael, Leandro Damião and Neymar	2012 Olympic Games
3	July 29, 2012	Old Trafford, England	Belarus	3–1	Pato, Neymar and Oscar	2012 Olympic Games
4	August 1, 2012	St James' Park, England	New Zealand	3–0	Danilo, Leandro Damião and Sandro	2012 Olympic Games
5	August 4, 2012	St James' Park, England	Honduras	3–2	Leandro Damião (2) and Neymar	2012 Olympic Games
6	August 7, 2012	Old Trafford, England	South Korea	3–0	Rômulo and Leandro Damião (2)	2012 Olympic Games
7	August 11, 2012	Wembley Stadium, England	Mexico	1–2	Hulk	2012 Olympic Games

Grêmio

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série B: 2005
• Campeonato Gaúcho: 2006, 2007

Corinthians

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série B: 2008
• Campeonato Paulista: 2009
• Copa do Brasil: 2009

Cruzeiro

• Copa do Brasil: 2017, 2018
• Campeonato Mineiro: 2018, 2019

Brazil

• SuperClássico de las Américas: 2011 and 2012