20 years missing the master, Telê Santana | OneFootball

On this Tuesday, April 21, twenty years will have passed since the death of the dearly missed Telê Santana. To honor him, the Historical Archive is publishing a special e-book and a summary of the career of the most celebrated São Paulo coach of all time.

In Itabirito, Minas Gerais, on July 26, 1931, Telê Santana was born — for many, the “Thread of Hope”; for São Paulo fans, the eternal “Master Telê.” An idol wherever he went, he consecrated the beautiful game with the Brazilian National Team, showing that merely being champion was not enough; every match had to become an unforgettable moment.

At São Paulo Futebol Clube, Telê made history by winning ten official titles and many other national and international tournaments. The trophies from the two Intercontinental Club World Championships, the two Copa Libertadores titles, and the 1991 Brazilian Championship, which raised Tricolor’s name to a level never before reached, are, however, the greatest achievements among his smaller victories: determined to restore the image that had made Brazilian football world-famous, he fought as far as he could to prove that a technical team, beautiful to watch, could also be a winning one. And he did it.

Telê arrived to make history in 1990, a year in which the team was struggling on the field. Like São Paulo’s squad, the coach was also seeking redemption, labeled by many critics as a “jinx” after putting together the beautiful — but not victorious — Brazilian national teams of 1982 and 1986.

The coach, who had already managed Tricolor for just over half a season in 1973, did not want to take over the team: “No, no, I don’t want anything to do with football.” Telê had left his previous job, at Palmeiras, under somewhat traumatic circumstances.

On the day he was supposed to travel to the state capital and negotiate with Tricolor, Telê had truly given up. Only after Carlos Caboclo, a longtime friend of the coach, threatened to go pick him up personally by car (and possibly get into an accident that would weigh on the coach’s conscience — this was the director’s persuasive argument), was Telê Santana finally convinced to at least show up at the negotiating table. More than that, he quickly “signed” with São Paulo. In quotation marks because the coach never actually finalized his contracts with the club on paper.

In any case, Telê took over the team in 10th place in the Brazilian Championship and, after going nine matches unbeaten (losing only the second leg of the semifinal against Grêmio at the Olímpico), led them to the final, finishing as runners-up. Not bad for someone who had just arrived and only intended to stay at the club for a short time.

The coach’s trademark was the discipline he imposed on his players. Everything was in pursuit of technical perfection, achieved through constant training and strict conduct. But he was also regarded by the players as a true father figure; Telê always wanted what was best for the athletes under his command, in every respect. “I wanted to guide these kids, help them integrate into society in a positive way, without that negative image of a football player. It was worth it — today you see everyone doing well, with families, and those are stories we’ll carry with us for the rest of our lives with Telê,” said one of the coach’s former players, Cafu.

Thus, he devoted himself body and soul to Tricolor: he even lived at the club’s training center. He faced violence on the pitch, poor field conditions, refereeing mistakes and neglect in Brazilian football, and fought a personal battle so that Brazilian football could find its way again on and off the field.

Step by step, Brazil and South America surrendered to the work of the perfectionist coach. Before long, the world wore three colors and belonged to Telê. In Tokyo, defeating the great Barcelona (2–1) ten years after the fateful fall of the Canarinho national team at the World Cup in Spain, Telê was crowned world champion.

But it did not stop there. In 1993, he led São Paulo to supremacy in South America by winning the continental treble: the Copa Libertadores, the Supercopa, and the Recopa. In Japan, at the end of the year, after beating another European superteam (Milan, 3–2), Telê delivered a masterpiece to the world, a work of art that became two-time world champion.

Rightly so, the fans embraced the title “Master,” chanted to this day in nostalgic reverence and admiration: he is an eternal idol of São Paulo supporters.

Forever, Master Telê!

Telê Santana

“It is difficult to achieve perfection, but it is not difficult to come close to it.”

Coach

1973 and 1990 – 1996Birth: 07/26/1931Death: 04/21/2006Official titles won at SPFC: Intercontinental Club World Champion in 1992 and 1993; Copa Libertadores champion in 1992 and 1993, South American Supercopa champion in 1993; South American Recopa champion in 1993 and 1994, Brazilian Championship winner in 1991, and São Paulo State Championship winner in 1991 and 1992.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

As a player:

As a coach:

OFFICIAL TITLES

As a coach:

AWARDS

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.