Dunga

Dunga

Dunga with Brazil in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri
Date of birth	(1963-10-31) 31 October 1963 (age 60)
Place of birth	Ijuí, Brazil
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Defensive midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1980–1984	Internacional	10	(0)
1984–1985	Corinthians	13	(1)
1985–1987	Santos	16	(1)
1987	Vasco da Gama	17	(1)
1987–1988	Pisa	23	(2)
1988–1992	Fiorentina	124	(8)
1992–1993	Pescara	23	(3)
1993–1995	VfB Stuttgart	54	(7)
1995–1998	Júbilo Iwata	99	(16)
1999–2000	Internacional	20	(3)
Total		377	(42)
International career
1983–1986	Brazil Olympic	19	(4)
1987–1998	Brazil	91	(6)
Managerial career
2006–2010	Brazil
2008	Brazil U23
2012–2013	Internacional
2014–2016	Brazil
Medal record Men's Football Representing  Brazil (as player) FIFA World Cup Winner 1994 USA Runner-up 1998 France FIFA Confederations Cup Winner 1997 Saudi Arabia Copa América Winner 1989 Brazil Winner 1997 Bolivia Runner-up 1995 Uruguay Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Team Pan American Games 1983 Caracas FIFA U-20 World Cup Winner 1983 Mexico South American U-20 Championship Winner 1983 Bolivia Representing  Brazil (as manager) FIFA Confederations Cup Winner 2009 South Africa Copa América Winner 2007 Venezuela Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri (born 31 October 1963), known as Dunga (Portuguese pronunciation:

His nickname is derived from the Portuguese translation of "Dopey", a dwarf from the Disney version of Snow White, and was given to him by his uncle due to his short height during childhood. It was believed that he would be a short adult and the nickname remained in use even after he grew up and became taller.^[4]

Playing career

Club career

Dunga was born in

International career

Internationally, Dunga played 91 times for Brazil, scoring six goals.^[6] His international career began in 1983 at the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Dunga captained the young Brazilian squad, winning the tournament against Argentina in the final. A year later, he helped Brazil to win a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Dunga then began reaching call-ups to Brazil's senior squad, winning the 1989 Copa América by defeating Uruguay at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Dunga was a starter for Brazil at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, during which he was held responsible more so than his teammates for the team's worst campaign at a World Cup since 1966, after a lackluster tournament and the squad's subsequent elimination in the second round by arch rivals Argentina. In the following years, he would be consistently targeted by Brazilian press due to his supposedly "thuggish" style of playing. This period in Brazil's football history was called "Era Dunga", as according to fans and journalists, he symbolized the less-than-thrilling, slow, gritty, direct, and defensive style that the team had adopted in favour of a more exciting attacking style.^[7] Dunga played the anchor role in midfield extremely effectively, due to his ability to break down play and subsequently start attacks with his passing. Many other players in this position lunged into tackles and put themselves about, but Dunga rarely went to ground to make a tackle, instead using his anticipation and timing to win challenges and retrieve the ball. Despite his infamous reputation, Brazil's new coach Carlos Alberto Parreira kept Dunga as one of the starting XI throughout the 1994 World Cup Qualifiers and finals.

On 24 July 2006, Dunga was named as the new national coach of the Brazil national team as a replacement for Carlos Alberto Parreira, despite the fact that he had no prior coaching experience at the professional level. Nonetheless, he made an impressive start with Brazil, winning four of his first five matches.

Dunga's first match in charge was against

In 2007, Dunga managed Brazil to their second-straight Copa América title by beating Argentina in the final 3–0, who were heavily favored to win against a weaker Brazil squad. Dunga's squad also won the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa on 28 June 2009. The team came back from a 2–0 deficit against the United States to emerge victorious from a Lúcio header in the 84th minute that made the score 3–2.

At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Brazil made it to the quarter-finals, where they suffered a 2–1 loss to the Netherlands after having led the game 1–0. After Brazil's exit from the competition, Dunga announced he would stand down as coach, but was first dismissed by CBF on 24 July 2010.^[11] Dunga's 2010 World Cup selections were criticized by many, including famous Brazilian footballer Pelé. Pelé believed Alexandre Pato and Neymar should have been selected to the squad.^{[citation needed]}

It was announced on 29 August 2011 that Dunga had signed a contract with

On 22 July 2014, Dunga was announced as the new manager of Brazil, replacing Luiz Felipe Scolari. He returned to the position for the first time since Brazil's exit in the 2010 World Cup.^[16]

Dunga's first match in his second reign as Brazil's manager was a friendly match against 2014 World Cup quarter-finalists Colombia at

Brazil started the tournament with a tight victory against Peru after coming from behind by 2–1 (with Douglas Costa scoring in the dying moments),^[23] followed by a 1–0 defeat against Colombia^[24] and a 2–1 victory against Venezuela.^[25] In the knockout stage, Brazil faced Paraguay and was eliminated after drawing 1–1 in normal time and losing 4–3 in the penalty shootout.^[26] As such, Brazil was unable to qualify for a FIFA Confederations Cup (in this case, the 2017 edition) for the first time in almost 20 years.^[27]

Copa América Centenario

Brazil began the tournament with a scoreless draw against Ecuador, with Ecuador having a goal controversially disallowed in the second half.^[28] This was followed by an emphatic 7–1 victory over Haiti, with Philippe Coutinho scoring a hat-trick.^[29] Needing only a draw to progress to the knockout stage of the tournament, Brazil suffered a controversial 1–0 loss to Peru, with Raúl Ruidíaz scoring by guiding the ball into the net with his arm.^[30] This loss, Brazil's first loss to Peru since 1985,^[31] saw Brazil eliminated from the tournament in the group stage for the first time since 1987.^[32][33][34] On 14 June 2016, he was fired by the CBF.^[3]

Style of play

During his early career and throughout his mid-twenties, Dunga alternated between playing as a holding-role midfielder and playing a box-to-box role. He was equally as effective playing either role, because he was quite a mobile player with excellent stamina, and therefore could get forward quickly to support his team's attacks, but at the same time he possessed all of the qualities associated with holding-role midfielders (vision, range of passing, solidity in the tackle, etc). However, as he developed beyond his mid-twenties, Dunga gradually became more specialized in the holding-role. His was extremely effective in protecting his team's defensive line, and extremely sure-footed when he tackled. As a defensive midfielder, his level of technique was so well developed that he could often make a tackle and play a layoff to one of his team-mates with the same touch of the ball. A defining characteristic of his play was his economy of technique - he almost always did everything as simply as possible. In a situation where other midfielders might touch the ball 3 or 4 times, Dunga would touch it only twice, a habit made possible because his first touch was so good. He believed in quick circulation of the ball to stretch the opposition's defenders and midfielders, so he passed the ball on quickly rather than dwelling on it. His short passing was almost always flawless, mainly because he was exceptionally composed on the ball when he was being pressured by opponents, and was a master at using his upper-body to shield the ball. He very rarely gave the ball away. In addition, he also showed exceptional vision and pinpoint-accuracy when he made long passes. He possessed the intelligence, the work-rate, and the athletic and technical ability to play as a midfield ball-winner and a deep-lying playmaker rolled into one. He is regarded as one of the greatest defensive midfielders of all time.

Queens Park Rangers dispute

Dunga has an ongoing financial dispute with English club Queens Park Rangers. He claims he loaned £750,000 to QPR as an investor in the club when it was under previous owners, but that the new owners are refusing to give it back. QPR have commented on this issue by saying the cheque he paid to the club bounced, and that he is aware of this fact.^[35]

Career statistics

Club

International

Coaching record

As of 12 June 2016

Honours

Player

Internacional

• Rio Grande do Sul State League: 1982, 1983, 1984

Vasco da Gama

• Rio de Janeiro State League: 1987

Júbilo Iwata

• 1997

Brazil U-20

• FIFA U-20 World Cup: 1983
• South American Youth Championship
  : 1983

Brazil

• FIFA World Cup: 1994
• FIFA Confederations Cup: 1997
• 1997
• Olympic Silver Medal: 1984
• Pan American Games Silver Medal: 1983
• 1984

Individual

• World XI: 1990, 1991^[37]
• FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1994, 1998^[38]
• J. League Most Valuable Player
  : 1997
• J. League Best Eleven
  : 1997, 1998
• FIFA XI: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000^[39]
• Venerdi's 100 Magnifici^[40]
• Golden Foot: 2010, as a football legend^[41]
• Fiorentina All-time XI^[42]

Manager

Internacional

• Rio Grande do Sul State League: 2013

Brazil

• 2007
• Olympic Bronze Medal: 2008
• FIFA Confederations Cup: 2009
• Superclásico de las Américas: 2014

Individual

• IFFHS World's Best National Coach: 2007^[43]

See also

List of Brazil national football team managers

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dunga.

• Official website (archived, 18 March 2018)
• Dunga at National-Football-Teams.com
• Dunga at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)