A look at Fernando Diniz's latest jobs, Corinthians' new manager | OneFootball

Fernando Diniz is the new head coach of Corinthians. The club’s board reached an agreement with the coach after Dorival Júnior’s departure and quickly announced the signing on the night of last Monday. The contract runs until December 2026.

What worked in Diniz’s favor was the fact that he was available on the market. Timão’s board was in a hurry to define the new coach and believed it could reach a quick outcome with the former Vasco manager, which happened last Monday.

With that in mind, Gazeta Esportiva provides an overview of Fernando Diniz’s last four jobs.

Over the last five years, Diniz has been in charge of three clubs in Brazilian football: Vasco, Cruzeiro, and Fluminense. In addition, he also coached the Brazilian national team on an interim basis for a brief period.

Vasco (2025/2026)

Fernando Diniz’s most recent job was at Vasco da Gama. He was announced as the new coach of the Rio de Janeiro side in May 2025 and left the club less than a year later, being dismissed in February of this year. He managed 55 matches during that span, with 20 wins, 13 draws, and 22 losses, for a 44.4% success rate.

Diniz’s spell at Vasco had its ups and downs, with many inconsistent moments in the first season. In the Brazilian Championship, for example, the team even dreamed of a Libertadores spot, but ended the tournament without great expectations, in 14th place with 45 points. In the Copa do Brasil, the coach managed to lead the team to the final on merit, but ended up as runner-up after losing precisely to Dorival’s Corinthians.

(Photo: Matheus Lima/Vasco)

In 2026, the club signed reinforcements in the market and gave Diniz new options. However, the team was eliminated in the Campeonato Carioca semifinals and started the Brasileirão on the wrong foot. The coach began to be booed and criticized by the fans and saw the pressure grow. He was dismissed after the 1-0 loss to Fluminense in the state championship semifinal.

One of Fernando Diniz’s main merits at Vasco was the development of Rayan, one of the club academy’s biggest gems. Under the coach, the forward went from prospect to reality and established himself as the biggest sale in the club’s history, being transferred to Bournemouth, of England, for 35 million euros (R$219 million at the current exchange rate).

Cruzeiro (2024/2025)

Before returning to Vasco, Diniz had a spell at Cruzeiro. The coach was announced in September 2024, but did not last long in the role, being dismissed in January 2025. He left the team with four wins, seven draws, and seven losses in 18 matches, for a 35.1% success rate.

(Photo: Gustavo Aleixo/Cruzeiro)

Diniz’s only four wins in charge of Raposa came against Lanús-ARG, in the 2024 Copa Sudamericana, by 1 0; Criciúma, by 2-1, and Juventude, by 1-0, in that year’s Brasileirão; and Tombense, by 1-0, in the 2025 Campeonato Mineiro.

In addition to the poor numbers, the runner-up finish in the Copa Sudamericana at the end of 2024 also weighed against the coach. Even so, he was kept on for 2025. However, Diniz became the target of Cruzeiro fans’ protests in the 1-1 draw with Betim, which culminated in his dismissal.

Brazil National Team (2023/2024)

Diniz also had a brief spell in charge of the Brazilian national team. Still under Ednaldo Rodrigues’ administration, in July 2023, the CBF announced that the coach would take over the Seleção on a one-year deal, while also sharing duties with his role as Fluminense manager.

The coach led Brazil in only six matches, with two wins, one draw, and three consecutive defeats, totaling a 38.8% success rate. In January 2024, the CBF announced Diniz’s dismissal after the loss to Argentina in the World Cup qualifiers.

(Photo: Staff Images / CBF)

Fluminense (2022 to 2024)

At Fluminense, Diniz had his longest spell at a club, in what was perhaps the best work of his career so far. Hired in April 2022, the coach completed two years in the role and was only dismissed in June 2024.

In his first season in charge of the team, Diniz had relative success: he led Fluminense to third place in the Brazilian Championship, with 70 points, behind only Inter and Palmeiras. In the Copa do Brasil, the Rio tricolor reached the semifinals, but was eliminated by Corinthians. In the Copa Sudamericana, meanwhile, the team was knocked out in the group stage.

Diniz experienced the best moment of his career in 2023, when he helped Fluminense win two titles, one of them unprecedented: the Campeonato Carioca and the Copa Libertadores. The Laranjeiras tricolor finished the first phase as leader of its group and got past Argentinos Juniors-ARG, Bolívar-BOL, and Internacional to reach the final, where it beat Boca Juniors, one of the continent’s giants. In Série A, it also had a positive campaign, finishing in seventh place.

(Photo: MARCELO GONÇALVES / FLUMINENSE FC)

The Rio side also reached the Club World Cup final, but ended up losing to Manchester City after a 4-0 thrashing. It was in 2024 that Diniz’s work at Fluminense began to implode. The season started in a positive way, with the Recopa Sudamericana title won over LDU-EQU. However, the Laranjeiras tricolor started to show major inconsistency.

Fluminense had a terrible start to the Brazilian Championship, with only one win in the first 11 matches. It was the club’s worst start in the history of the round-robin era, and it even appeared at the bottom of the table. In the final stretch of his tenure, he began to be questioned by the fans, and the board decided to bring the coach’s work to an end.

Overall, Diniz managed Fluminense in 149 matches in his second spell, with 77 wins, 31 draws, and 41 losses, adding up to a 58.6% success rate. He was also voted the best coach in South America by the Uruguayan newspaper El País, which crowns the “King of America,” beating names such as Abel Ferreira (Palmeiras), Lionel Scaloni (Argentina), Marcelo Bielsa (Uruguay), and Luis Zubeldía (current Fluminense coach).

Corinthians’ upcoming matches

Platense-ARG x Corinthians (Libertadores first round) Date and time: 04/09 (Thursday), at 9 p.m. (Brasília time) Venue: Estádio Ciudad de Vicente Lopez, in Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Corinthians x Palmeiras (11th round of the Brasileirão) Date and time: 04/12 (Sunday), at 6:30 p.m. (Brasília time) Venue: Neo Química Arena, in São Paulo (SP)

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