Paulo Autuori de Mello (born 25 August 1956), known as Paulo Autuori, is a Brazilian football executive and coach. He is the current technical director of Coritiba.
Early life
A football fan since early childhood and a futsal player, Autuori had to give up his dream of becoming a professional footballer after contracting poliomyelitis in his teens.[1] The disease left him with an atrophied leg and a permanent limp on his walk, which prevented him from playing. However, he did not give up his dream of being part of the footballing world, and decided to learn other aspects of the game, specifically becoming a manager.[2]
In 1989, after achieving promotion in his first year and a 10th-place finish in his second, Autuori returned to Vitória, now being appointed manager of the side. He left the club on 25 September 1990, after a 0–0 draw with Gil Vicente,[4] and took over fellow top tier side Marítimo shortly after.
Autuori left the Leões do Almirante Reis in June 1993, but returned to the club in December, replacing compatriot Edinho. On 12 July 1995, shortly after leaving Marítimo, he returned to Botafogo as the head coach of the club,[5] and led them to the 1995 Campeonato Brasileiro title.
On 26 December 1995, Autuori left Fogão and agreed to a contract with Benfica for the 1996–97 season.[6] After officially taking over on 11 July 1996, he only lasted 23 matches before being sacked on 19 January 1997.[7]
On 12 March 1998, Autuori resigned from Flamengo, being replaced by Joel Santana,[10] and returned to Botafogo fifteen days later.[11] He left the latter on 26 September,[12] and took over Internacional ahead of the 1999 season.
After resigning from Inter on 3 August 1999, Autuori replaced Émerson Leão at Santos twenty days later.[13] On 24 November, however, he left the latter to return to Cruzeiro,[14] but resigned from the club on 23 April 2000.[15]
On 6 May 2000, Autuori returned to Portugal and Vitória,[16] but resigned on 19 November following a 4–0 home loss to Benfica.[17] On 3 July 2001, after a brief spell at Peruvian side Alianza Lima, he returned to Botafogo for a third spell,[18] but also resigned on 13 October.[19]
On 14 January 2002, Autuori returned to Peru after being appointed Sporting Cristal manager.[20] On 6 January 2003, he was announced as the manager of the Peru national team.[21]
Despite winning the opening match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (4–1 over Paraguay), Autuori left the nation on 25 April 2005, with the reasoning being that he declined to declare in front of a Congress, due to the Peru national team scandals.[22][23] Four days later, he replaced Leão as head coach of São Paulo back in his home country.[24]
Autuori resigned from Cruzeiro on 29 April 2007, after a 4–0 loss to rivals Atlético Mineiro in the first leg of the 2007 Campeonato Mineiro finals.[28] He later moved to Qatar to manage Al-Rayyan,[29] leaving the club in May 2009 after not renewing his contract.
On 14 May 2009, Autuori returned to his homeland after being announced as head coach of Grêmio.[30] On 12 November, however, he left the club,[31] and returned to Al-Rayyan nine days later; with the latter side, he resigned during the half-time of a match in February 2010,[32] but opted to stay after a meeting afterwards.[33]
Shortly after leaving Qatar, Autuori was hired by Vasco da Gama as their head coach on 23 March 2013.[38] He resigned on 9 July 2013,[39] and returned to São Paulo two days later.[40]
On 9 September 2013, Autuori was sacked by São Paulo after a 2–0 loss against Coritiba, a result that kept the club in relegation zone of the 2013 Série A, and was replaced by Muricy Ramalho.[41] On 20 December, he was announced by Atlético Mineiro's president Alexandre Kalil as the new head coach of the club for the 2014 season.[42]
Sacked by Galo on 24 April 2014,[43] Autuori returned to Japan on 20 December, after being announced as manager of Cerezo Osaka.[44] After departing the club on 17 November 2015,[45] he was named Atlético Paranaense head coach on 7 March of the following year.[46]
On 23 May 2017, Autuori became a director of football at Furacão, after the club appointed Eduardo Baptista as head coach.[47] He left the club on 28 November 2017, as his contract was due to expire,[48] and joined Fluminense in the following month, also as a director; he left the latter on 28 May 2018.[49]
On 5 June 2018, Autuori was announced as the new Director of football in the Bulgarian champion Ludogorets Razgrad, but on the next day he was presented as the new manager of the team, since Dimitar Dimitrov wanted to leave the club.[50] He stepped down from his position in October 2018, citing personal reasons.[51]
On 2 November 2018, Autuori moved to Colombia and was appointed manager of Atlético Nacional.[52] He resigned the following 24 May,[53] before becoming a director of football at Santos in July 2019.[54]
After leaving Peixe at the end of the 2019 season, Autuori returned to coaching duties on 13 February 2020, after being presented back at Botafogo.[55] Sacked on 1 October,[56] he returned to Athletico on 22 October; initially a technical director, he was later named head coach for the remainder of the season.[57]
Back to his director role in February 2021, Autuori was an interim head coach in September 2021, after the departure of António Oliveira. On 24 February 2022, he was presented at Goiás as technical coordinator,[58] but left on 24 March as head coach Bruno Pivetti was sacked.[59]
On 26 March 2022, Autuori returned to Internacional, now as technical coordinator.[60] He left the club on 3 October, after returning to Atlético Nacional as manager.[61]
Autuori resigned from the Verdolagas on 6 July 2023,[62] and returned to Cruzeiro on 4 August, as technical director.[63] On 14 November, he was named head coach of the club until the end of the season,[64] and managed to narrowly avoid relegation before returning to his previous role.
On 28 April 2024, after the sale of Ronaldo's shares of Cruzeiro's SAF, Autuori left the club.[65] On 9 May, he joined Coritiba as technical director.[66]
