Brazil’s 1994 World Cup-winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has accepted the post of South Africa coach with the task of taking Bafana Bafana through the 2010 World Cup final, it was reported in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.
South Africa is hosting the 2010 tournament.
The 63-year-old agreed the deal with the South African Football Federation (Safa) on Tuesday, according to his lawyer.
”Negotiations with the federation ended on Tuesday and the former Brazil coach accepted the post of South African coach,” said the daily Lance.
According to the press, Parreira — who quit his post as Brazil coach following this year’s disappointing World Cup quarterfinal exit to France — had all his wishes granted by Safa, which saw its first offer turned down by him.
”The new offer is much more flexible because I want to spend a lot of time with my family, but the original terms of the contract remain the same,” Parreira was quoted as saying.
While no definitive financial details have been released by either party, it is believed that he will earn R100-million over four years.
Parreira, who has also coached Ghana, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, faces a massive challenge with Bafana Bafana.
Since making the 2002 World Cup finals — their second successive appearance in football’s global showpiece — they have slumped, failing to reach this year’s edition and crashing out in humiliating fashion in the first round of this year’s African Nations Cup finals in Egypt.
On Wednesday, Bafana Bafana’s Fifa ranking plummeted to a disturbing 76th in the world, and they hardly enhanced a diminishing reputation on Wednesday night with a scrappy, scrambled 1-0 victory over 137th-ranked Namibia in Windhoek.
African roots
Parreira was appointed Ghana coach in 1967. The Ghanaian government had approached the Brazilian foreign ministry with the intention of hiring a Brazilian, and the request was forwarded to Rio’s state university, the only one in the country that taught physical education. The institution recommended one of its brightest pupils: 23-year-old Carlos Alberto Parreira.
He accepted immediately. The offer was $100 a week with rent, transport and food thrown in.
”Despite the difficulties that it could have meant, it was a golden chance for me in my career and in my life,” he told journalist Ricardo Gonzales in the book Making Winning Teams. Parreira, who was never a footballer himself, had also just completed an English course, which helped his adaptation in Ghana. He remains one of the very few Brazilian coaches to speak English.
On arriving in Accra, Parreira immediately brought a change of style.
”When they took me to the hotel to meet the players I said hello to them and then sat at the table with them. They looked at me strangely. I thought I had done something stupid or broken a local tradition. It was just that it was unimaginable for them for a coach to sit with them. When I realised this, I carried on doing it — which was great as a way of getting close to them.”
He also stayed in the same lodgings as the team, instead of going to the best hotel as his predecessors had done. And he banned sex when on duty with the team — which reportedly had a great effect on the players’ on-pitch performances.
His first challenge was the 1968 African Cup of Nations — which Ghana had won in 1963 and 1965. The team did well, beating Côte d’Ivoire in the semis. In the final, however, Ghana lost 1-0 to Congo-Kinshasa (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
In addition to his duties with the national team, he was coach of Ashanti Kotoko of Kumasi. He took the team to the African Cup final, where they played Tout Puissant Englebert from Congo-Kinshasa. The first game was a 1-1 draw and the second turned into a farce.
”We didn’t win because the final was in Zaire, the stadium was packed and the ref was under lots of pressure, with the army present. Kotoko were winning 2-1 and, almost at the end of the game, my defender chested a ball, the ref said it was handball and gave a penalty.
”At the end of extra time, the ref said the winner would be decided by tossing a coin but there was a pitch invasion and it became utter chaos. The team from Zaire were declared champions but I consider myself the winner too.”
Parreira’s experience in Ghana had been character-building: ”I suffered a lot on my own, away from my family. I learned to be a man, not to fear hardships.”
Since then, Parreira has been Brazil coach three times — as well as coaching Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. ”Ghana was an important watershed in my life,” he remembers. ”Today those who worked with me during that time recognise the value of the work that I did.” — Sapa-AFP, Sapa, Guardian Newspapers 2006