Dorival Junior, leader of Sao Paulo FC, will replace Fernando Diniz as coach of the Brazilian national team, the club said on Sunday. Diniz was sacked after a losing streak for the five-time world champions.
“It’s a personal dream come true,” the 2023 Copa do Brasil-winning coach said in a statement shared by Sao Paulo on X, previously Twitter, after days of speculation about his potential appointment to coach Brazil’s troubling national team.
Confederation of Brazilian Football (CBF) officials were slow to acknowledge the news.
Before joining Sao Paulo, where he proceeded to win trophies, 61-year-old Dorival guided Flamengo to two major wins in 2022: the Copa do Brasil and the Copa Libertadores, the South American version of Europe’s Champions League.
At a tough time, he takes over Brazil, a football superpower.
Diniz oversaw Brazil’s dismal World Cup qualifying record, which included a 1-0 home defeat to archrivals Argentina in November. The Brazilians had lost three in a row.
The “Selecao” have been hit hard by injuries recently, with star player Neymar missing time after leaving a 2-0 defeat to Uruguay in October due to a ruptured knee ligament.
To qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, South American teams must finish in the top six, with Brazil holding the lone automatic slot for the region.
In the interim, the CBF has been involved in a contentious leadership dispute in the courts, with a judge this week reinstituting president Ednaldo Rodrigues after a court removed him in December.
Interim, when Carlo Ancelotti, the leader of Real Madrid, extended his contract with the Spanish giants, Rodrigues’s attempt to get him as Brazil’s coach failed.
‘Guardiola of Brazil’
Last July, Diniz, 49, was appointed to the position in Brazil. He managed Fluminense, a team based in Rio de Janeiro, to the 2023 Libertadores championship.
His style is characterized by an emphasis on improvisation and innovation; fans were hoping that, after two consecutive quarterfinal losses at the hands of longstanding coach Tite, his team would return to the exciting “samba football” for which Brazil is known.
However, Diniz was criticized for spending too much time with both the club and national team, since he failed to maintain Fluminense’s offensive prowess while coaching both teams.
Dorival brings a completely new flair to the table; he is the nephew of the famous Palmeiras player Dudu.
In 2015, the seasoned manager—who has worked for almost 20 different clubs—took a break to study the coaching styles of Chelsea, Roma, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich in Europe.
He spent a month at the latter school studying under the tutelage of coaching behemoth Pep Guardiola, whose “positional play” is said to be Diniz’s style’s polar opposite.
“He’s the Brazilian Pep Guardiola,” said Thiago Maia, a midfielder who had the opportunity to play under Dorival from Santos.
Bayern was a major source of motivation for him. He gained experience via an apprenticeship and then used it here.