”Let me do my work and after that you can talk about Mr Santana.”
So says the new Bafana Bafana coach, Joel Natalino Santana, when asked what he makes of criticisms directed at him since his appointment as coach of the senior national team.
Santana is not deterred by his many detractors in South Africa who have been at his throat since his appointment, which followed a recommendation from his predecessor and compatriot, Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Santana was in high spirits on the night I spoke to him. Nothing brings him down. He is signing a contract that will tie him to South Africa until the end of the 2010 World Cup and his team had just beaten city rivals Botafogo 1-0 in the first leg of the Rio State championships.
A language barrier stands in the way of our communication. His English and my Portuguese make for murky exchanges. He says he will correct this handicap within two months of starting his stint in South Africa.
But, despite the language problem, there is no confusion about what he wants. And it is not about money. He does not need it, he says. He already lives in one of Rio’s most affluent suburbs. He has sent his children to schools and universities in Europe, where one of them has just graduated as a doctor.
The coach, known in the Brazilian football fraternity as the Miracle Man of Rio, is expected in South Africa late next week.
Santana performed a miracle for Flamengo three years ago and South Africans are hoping he will do the same for the country, now ranked 69th in the world. Flamengo, 19th in a 20-team league when he was hired, got to third place by the end of the season.
Santana has coached all four of Rio’s top teams: Botafogo, Flumenense, Vasco da Gama and Flamengo, which he is quitting for Bafana.
Born on Christmas Day 59 years ago, Santana (his middle name is Portuguese for Christmas) does not claim to be the messiah South African football has been waiting for. He will not commit to what he will do, he prefers his work to speak for itself. ”I work. After that, you can ask Mr Santana about that,” he says.
His football philosophy is as simple: ”Let’s stop them from scoring before we can think about scoring.”
In Brazil nobody seems to be bothered by his lack of international coaching experience. Those who understand Brazilian football never miss an opportunity to tell visitors that Flamengo is not a club — it’s a nation. With 30-million fans, the club is one of the most popular in the world.
Santana’s departure is bittersweet for Rio football fans. Asked for comment, one staff member at the hotel responds tersely: ”Good riddance”. But it turns out the man is a Botafogo fan.
For Juan Maldonado Jaimez Junior, the Flamengo defender who signed up at English club Arsenal in 2001 and later had a brief spell with Millwall before returning to Brazil, Santana is irreplaceable — a feeling that reverberates across Rio.
Junior’s English skills make him a natural spokesperson when I accept Santana’s invitation to the club’s training session.
He says all the players at the club are sad to see their coach go but they are happy that his career is moving to a higher level. Flamengo players love him because he is a player’s coach, always putting the interests of the players ahead of management’s.
But he keeps his distance and brooks no slacking from any of the players, says Junior.
The work-like attitude at training the day after the Botafogo game seems to vindicate Junior’s view.
Santana divides his team into two groups: those who played the night before and those who didn’t. Then he holds what seems to be an impromptu meeting with members of his coaching staff before he stands back to allow his assistant to bark orders.
But it is Parreira who is most reassuring. ”Coaching Flamengo is constant pressure and Santana understands that pressure. So I believe he will deliver.”
Matlhomola Morake is a senior football journalist for the South African Broadcasting Corporation