Announced to succeed Argentine Gabriel Milito, fired after the runner-up finishes in the Copa do Brasil and Copa Libertadores, coach Cuca, 61, will face challenges in his fourth spell at Atlético Mineiro that go beyond the field: rebuilding his own image and overcoming mistrust .
“This invitation from Atlético moved me. I saw it as a chance to take on a job right from the beginning, in the place I know best, with which I identify most and where I have achieved my greatest longevity. It has everything to work out,” he told Sheet.
The fan from Paraná is considered by the fans as the greatest coach in the club’s century-old history for winning five titles — two state titles, one Brazilian, one Copa do Brasil and one Libertadores —, but not everything is rosy in the relationship.
A considerable portion of athletes would not like to see on their team a professional who was tried and convicted of rape — even though the sentence, almost four decades later, was annulled a year ago. And a history of asking to leave command of his teams weighs against the coach.
In 2021, after having lifted three cups, one of them the Brazilian Cup, which had not been won for 50 years, Cuca left Atlético citing family problems. He returned the following year, after seven months, but the relationship did not seem to be the same by far.
He left in November 2022, after seventh place in the Brazilian Championship, guaranteeing a place in the pre-Libertadores in a “common agreement” dismissal.
The bond signed now until the end of 2026 summarizes a personal desire to settle down in the place he learned to call home.
“I asked [um contrato maior]and the board also understood that it was a good path. In football, no one knows, but my idea is to stay at Galo for a long time, because it’s my home. And, when we stop for a while, there is a huge desire to work again. I never thought about retirement, I’m hungry,” he said.
Cuca left Athletico Paranaense in June — again, angering a club by asking him to leave. Since then, he said he talked to several teams, but didn’t feel attracted to taking on any of them.
“I was present at many games, I made many trips, I visited many countries during this period. I saw training and games in Europe, I don’t need to specify where. It was discreet, but I tried to modernize myself for this return”, he said.
It will be his second job since a troubled and very brief two-game stint with Corinthians, in April 2023, when the case of gang rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1987, in Bern, Switzerland, resurfaced.
The victim’s lawyer at the time said that she recognized Cuca as one of the attackers, and the situation at the São Paulo club became unsustainable. Shortly after leaving, the Swiss Court showed the ge website a document from the case that showed the semen from Paraná, then a Grêmio player, on the girl’s body.
On November 22, 2023, judge Bettina Bochsler accepted Cuca’s defense argument that the coach was convicted without due legal representation. As the criminal statute of limitations had already occurred, she concluded that there was no need for a new trial and ordered the annulment of the sentence and the termination of the case.
In his early days at Athletico Paranaense, the coach read a text saying that “the world is a very different place for men and women”. “I want and commit to being part of the transformation”, he stated at the time. “What you will see from me from now on will not be words, it will be actions. You can hold me accountable.”
According to Cuca, he has fulfilled his commitment.
“I have done what I promised that time, but I haven’t said anything. I paid for arbitration courses for 15 students who graduated at the end of the year. I held a meeting with the three women’s teams from Curitiba and all the bases, within the CT of Athletico-PR. We had lectures with qualified people talking about violence, getting the girls to talk. I made donations to players who needed materials and other things within my own institute,” he said.
“From that moment on, I had it in my head that I would do positive things, which would mainly regain the affection of people, which I had and which I no longer have.”
