Roger Machado named São Paulo boss as board explains change | OneFootball

São Paulo officially announced on the afternoon of this Tuesday (10) the arrival of coach Roger Machado, aged 51, who signs a contract with the club valid until December 31, 2026. Along with him, assistants Roberto Ribas, James Freitas, and Adaílton Bolzan, physical trainer Paulo Paixão, and performance analyst Guilherme Nunes are joining.

The new coach will lead today's training, which will be held at 4 PM (Brasília time), and will be presented shortly after, at 6 PM, at the Barra Funda Training Center. He will be in charge of the team in the match against Chapecoense, for the fifth round of the Brazilian Championship, which will be played at Canindé starting at 8 PM on Thursday (12).

“I am very happy and very motivated with this opportunity. I know it is a very big challenge and I know the size of São Paulo. We arrive very confident to do a great job,” said the new São Paulo coach.

Management explains the switch from Crespo to Roger

“The arrival of Roger is the result of our conviction, of everything that, together with our football management, we observed and heard about his work. He is a coach who comes endorsed by his good work, which resulted in achievements at different clubs and immense respect from people who worked with him professionally,” explained president Harry Massis Júnior.

“São Paulo is hiring a professional of excellence, extremely dedicated and who will live the club intensely. We have great confidence in the way he thinks about football and we are sure he will do an extraordinary job with our squad,” said executive Rui Costa, directly responsible for hiring Roger.

Roger Machado's most recent work was at Internacional, between July 2024 and September 2025. The coach led the team to a 16-match unbeaten run in the 2024 Brazilian Championship, a club record in the points system era, and secured a spot in the following year's Copa Libertadores by finishing the national competition in fifth place. In 2025, he won the state title undefeated, ending an eight-year drought in the State Championship, the longest ever faced by Internacional in its history.

CAREER

Roger Machado had a successful career as a left-back. Born in Porto Alegre, he played over 400 games for Grêmio, the club that revealed him and with which he won a Libertadores (1995), a Brazilian Championship (1996), three Brazilian Cups (1994, 1997, and 2001), and four Gaúcho Championships (1995, 1996, 1999, and 2001).

After a stint in Japanese football, where he played for Vissel Kobe, he returned to Brazil to play for Fluminense and win the Brazilian Cup for the fourth time in 2007, scoring the title-winning goal. Only goalkeeper Rafael, who will now be one of his players at São Paulo, and midfielders Zinho and Arrascaeta have lifted the Brazilian Cup as many times as he has.

Roger ended his playing career in 2009 and took on the role of assistant in Grêmio's permanent technical staff in 2011, when he had the opportunity to make his debut as a coach leading a B team in a Gre-Nal played in Rivera, Uruguay, valid for the Gaúcho Championship: he won 2-1. There were seven more games as an interim until he started his solo career on the sidelines at Juventude, at the beginning of 2014.

After a stint at Novo Hamburgo, he took over Grêmio in May 2015 and led the team to third place in the Brasileirão. He chose to leave the club in September 2016, months before the Brazilian Cup victory.

From there, the coach went through Atlético-MG (won the Minas Gerais Championship in 2017), Palmeiras, Bahia (won the Bahia Championship twice in 2019 and 2020), and Fluminense before his second stints at Grêmio (won the Gaúcho Championship and the Gaúcho Super Cup in 2022) and Juventude and his move to Internacional.

ROGER MACHADO Name: Roger Machado Marques Birth: 03/04/1975, in Porto Alegre-RS (51 years old) Clubs as coach: Juventude (2014), Novo Hamburgo (2015), Grêmio (2015-2016), Atlético-MG (2017), Palmeiras (2018), Bahia (2019-2020), Fluminense (2021), Grêmio (2022), Juventude (2024), Internacional (2024-2025), and São Paulo (since 2026) Titles as coach: Minas Gerais Championship (2017), Bahia Championship (2019), Bahia Championship (2020), Gaúcho Championship (2022), Gaúcho Super Cup (2022), and Gaúcho Championship (2025). Awards: Best Coach of the Paulista Championship (2018), Best Coach of the Gaúcho Championship (2025)

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