Fluminense coach turns underdogs Fluminense into Club World Cup challengers

Straits Times

2 days ago

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NEW YORK - Brazilian soccer's ultimate showman Renato Portaluppi has transformed Club World Cup underdogs Fluminense from relegation battlers to giant-killers in three months, setting up a blockbuster semi-final with Chelsea on Tuesday.
The charismatic 62-year-old, known as Renato Gaucho, has helped them defy the odds to knock out Champions League runners-up Inter Milan in the last 16 and Al-Hilal in the quarter-finals with his trademark extravagant guidance from the touchline.
Portaluppi was one of Brazilian soccer's most popular and polarising figures before taking over a Fluminense team that had barely avoided relegation in the Brazilian league last year.
Now his standing has grown stronger after guiding one of the tournament's biggest underdogs this far.
The former striker, who scored almost 200 goals in a career spanning two decades, has never been short of confidence or controversy. A textbook egomaniac, Portaluppi once declared that he was "better than Cristiano Ronaldo."
His playing heroics included scoring with his belly one of the most iconic goals in the country's history - the winner that gave Fluminense the 1995 Rio de Janeiro championship in a breathtaking 3-2 derby victory over Romario's Flamengo.
The next morning, he graced the front page of Brazil's most popular newspaper wearing a crown with a sceptre in one hand and a ball in the other under the headline 'King of Rio.'
A decade earlier, he was the hero of his childhood club Gremio, guiding them to their first Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup titles as a young player.
From humble beginnings, he bought a house for each of his 11 siblings with the bonus he received.
LIBERTADORES DOUBLE
Over 30 years later, Portaluppi became the first Brazilian to adorn his living room with a Libertadores trophy as a player and another as a coach, guiding Gremio to the South American title in 2017 after winning the Brazilian Cup the previous year, and ending a 15-year title drought for his beloved club.
But Portaluppi's career has been marked by dramatic ups and downs due to his strong personality and emotional outbursts.
He was famously excluded from Brazil's World Cup squad in 1986 for allegedly leaving the training camp to go partying, and was later kicked out of Botafogo after organising a barbecue at his home for the opposition Flamengo squad after a humiliating defeat in the final of the Brazilian championship.
A coach since 2000, Portaluppi is an exceptional motivator, which is arguably why he has experienced great success in knockout tournaments but has never claimed the Brazilian league, the big trophy that he has yet to win in his country.
Portaluppi has been a great opponent of the latest trend towards having foreign coaches in Brazilian soccer, arguing that the clubs have more patience with outsiders, giving them more time to work.
Critics say he improvises too much with his tactical schemes and does not put enough thought and study into his football.
But Portaluppi has transformed Fluminense with an attacking 4-2-3-1 system and high-pressure style that he calls "creating chaos", which has defined their campaign in the United States.
He has Fluminense playing with a grit and determination they will display against Chelsea as they try to continue their improbable Club World Cup run. REUTERS