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Telê Santana
	Telê Santana holding a São Paulo F.C. jersey
Personal information
Full name	Telê Santana da Silva
Date of birth	26 July 1931
Place of birth	Itabirito, Brazil
Date of death	21 April 2006 (aged 74)
Place of death	Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Position(s)	Winger
Senior career*
Years	Team
1951–1960	Fluminense
1960–1962	Guarani
1963	Vasco da Gama
Managerial career
1969–1970	Fluminense
1970–1972	Atlético Mineiro
1973	São Paulo
1973–1975	Atlético Mineiro
1976	Botafogo
1976–1978	Grêmio
1979–1980	Palmeiras
1980–1982	Brazil
1983–1985	Al-Ahli
1985–1986	Brazil
1987–1988	Atlético Mineiro
1988–1989	Flamengo
1989	Fluminense
1990	Palmeiras
1990–1996	São Paulo
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Telê Santana da Silva, also known as Telê Santana (July 26, 1931 – April 21, 2006) was a Brazilian football manager and former player (right winger). He was born in Itabirito, Minas Gerais.^[1]

Telê was the manager responsible for putting together the 1982 and 1986 Brazil national squads. The 1982 squad in particular is remembered as one of the greatest teams in football history not to win the World Cup. It included players such as Zico, Sócrates, Falcão, Júnior and Toninho Cerezo. He was also a highly successful manager of various club teams, including the legendary 1992 and 1993 São Paulo, and was also very influential with Atlético Mineiro and Fluminense.

Telê is often mentioned by the Brazilian sports press as being one of the most relevant football managers to ever work in the country.^[2] His preferred style of play was very offensive-minded, and he believed in training athletes by using relentless repetition of elementary fundamentals of the game, such as passing the ball and set piece training.

Career

First experiences

Telê started playing for Itabirense Esporte Clube, headquartered near his home in Itabirito, and later played for América, from São João del-Rei.

Playing career

Telê played for clubs such as Fluminense, Madureira and Vasco da Gama. He was also a reserve player of the Brazil national football team. As a player, his preferred position was centre forward. However, he started his career as a goalkeeper.

Managerial career

His career as a manager started in 1967, coaching the Fluminense youth squad. Four years later, Telê led Atlético Mineiro to win its first Brazilian championship title. Regarded to have coached two of the best Brazil national squads ever in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, he failed, however, to win the tournament in both occasions.

Besides the coaching of the Brazil national team, Santana returned to club management in 1988 at Flamengo, but enjoyed his palmiest days with São Paulo between 1990 and 1996. With an outstanding team featuring Zetti, Cafu, Raí, and Leonardo (all of the aforementioned players eventually made it to the national squad in 1994), the side won the Brazilian championship title in 1991, and then the Libertadores Cup in 1992 and 1993, the first time that a Brazilian club had won it in 10 years. In those same two seasons, São Paulo also claimed the world club title in Tokyo, beating first Johan Cruyff's FC Barcelona and then Fabio Capello's A.C. Milan.^[3] The memory of this squad is still very much regarded by the fans as one of the most spectacular in São Paulo's history.^[4]^[5]

Legacy

Santana is widely credited for the re-invention of the jogo bonito ("beautiful game" in Portuguese) by the vast majority of the Brazilian press. His full-attack mentality of play was best displayed with the 1982 Brazil national squad who fell 3–2 to Italy in the Second Round of the Cup.^[6] Santana was criticized by many for refusing to switch Brazil's forward style of play versus Italy, since Brazil only needed to tie the game to reach the Semifinals due to the original World Cup setup at the time. Some pundits felt that Santana should have placed more emphasis on defence and a counterattack strategy due to circumstances of the match. Regardless of the fact that Santana never led the Brazilian squad to glory, he is still regarded as one of greatest managers and innovators in the history of Brazilian football.^[7]^[8]

With regards to role models, Santana has mentioned in one interview that he had no idols, though: "my greatest satisfaction would be to manage a team such as 1974 Holland. It was a team where you could pick [Johan] Cruyff and place him on the right wing. If I had to put him in the left-wing, he would still play [the same]. I could choose Neeskens, who played both to the right and to the left of the midfield. Thus, everyone played in any position."^[9] He said he tried to use a similar tactic strategy in 1992's São Paulo, by using versatile players in different positions according to what was required in a match.

He was once considered by the media the "last romantic of the Brazilian football",^[9] and had always been a strong campaigner for the fair play and against violence in the game.^[10]

Death

In 1996, he had to retire, after suffering a stroke.^[11] He had part of his left leg amputated in 2003 because of ischemia in his left foot. He was operated at Hospital Felício Roxo, in Belo Horizonte.^[12]

Santana died on April 21, 2006, due to an abdominal infection.^[13] His body was buried at Cemitério Parque da Colina, in Belo Horizonte.^[14] His wife Ivonete and their son and daughter survive him.

Managerial statistics

Team	Nation	From	To	Record
Team	Nation	From	To	G	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Win %
Fluminense	Brazil	1969	1969	44	23	11	10	66	40	+26	52.27
Atlético Mineiro	Brazil	1970	1972	149	76	46	27	223	117	+105	51.01
São Paulo	Brazil	1973	1973	30	11	13	6	30	24	+6	36.67
Atlético Mineiro	Brazil	1973	1975	151	82	37	32	243	125	+118	54.3
Botafogo	Brazil	1976	1976	21	11	4	6	29	17	+12	52.38
Gremio	Brazil	1976	1978	130	79	31	20	249	86	+163	60.77
Palmeiras	Brazil	1979	1980	56	30	15	11	105	51	+54	53.57
Brazil	Brazil	2 April 1980	5 July 1982	38	29	6	3	74	25	+49	76.32
Al-Ahli	Saudi Arabia	1983	1985	52	32	14	6	74	29	+45	61.54
Brazil	Brazil	2 June 1985	21 June 1986	17	11	4	2	45	12	+33	64.71
Atlético Mineiro	Brazil	1987	1988	102	52	34	11	143	72	+71	50.98
Flamengo	Brazil	1988	1989	62	37	15	10	74	39	+45	64.71
Fluminense	Brazil	1989	1989	28	9	6	13	24	35	-11	32.14
Palmeiras	Brazil	1990	1990	47	22	12	13	54	31	+23	46.81
São Paulo	Brazil	1990	1996	391	191	114	86	603	375	+228	48.85
Total				1,318	695	362	261	2,036	1,078	+955	52.73