Paulo Autuori · Biography

In 1986, Paulo Autuori de Mello arrived in Guimarães as assistant to Marinho Peres at Vitória, his first step in Portuguese football. A year later, in 1987, he took his first head coaching job at Nacional, on Madeira. Born on 25 August 1956 in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian coach has managed clubs in six countries and two national teams. He won the Copa Libertadores twice, with Cruzeiro in 1997 and São Paulo in 2005, and in 2005 he also added the FIFA Club World Championship.

Education

He earned a degree in physical education at Castelo Branco University, then completed a sports administration course at PUC in Rio de Janeiro and a coaching course at UERJ. As a teenager he played futsal and hoped to become a footballer, but polio left one of his legs weakened and pushed him towards coaching. He worked in Brazilian football before crossing the Atlantic.

The Portugal years

In his first season at Nacional he won promotion to the Portuguese top flight. He stayed there until 1989, then went back to Vitória de Guimarães for the 1989-90 campaign. His longest spell in Portugal was at Marítimo, between 1990 and 1995 with a brief break, and in 1994-95 he took the club into European competition for the first time. He returned to Portugal in 1996 to coach Benfica, who dismissed him in January 1997.

Botafogo and Cruzeiro

Between those two spells in Portugal, he won the Brazilian championship with Botafogo in 1995. He took charge of Cruzeiro in February 1997 and won the Campeonato Mineiro and the Libertadores that year. The final against Sporting Cristal finished 0-0 in Lima and was settled at the Mineirão on 13 August 1997, when Elivélton scored in a 1-0 win. He then coached Flamengo, returned to Botafogo in 1998 and had spells at Internacional and Santos in 1999. A second stint at Cruzeiro followed in 1999-2000, then another at Vitória de Guimarães in 2000.

Peru

In Lima he won the 2001 Apertura with Alianza Lima and, in 2002, both the Apertura and the Clausura with Sporting Cristal. He was appointed Peru head coach in 2003 and left in April 2005 after disagreements with the federation.

São Paulo in 2005

He joined São Paulo in April 2005. In the Libertadores final his side beat Atlético Paranaense 5-1 on aggregate, finishing the tie with a 4-0 win at the Morumbi on 14 July. On 18 December, in Yokohama, they beat Liverpool 1-0 in the Club World Championship final, with Mineiro scoring the only goal. He left the club at the end of that year.

Japan, Qatar and more Brazilian clubs

He coached Kashima Antlers in 2006 and had a third spell at Cruzeiro in 2007. Later that year he moved to Al-Rayyan, apart from a break at Grêmio in 2009, and won the Emir of Qatar Cup with the club in 2010 and 2011. He then took charge of Qatar's under-23 side from 2011 and the senior national team from February 2012 to January 2013. In 2013 he coached Vasco da Gama, then returned to São Paulo and won the Eusébio Cup with them. He went on to coach Atlético Mineiro in 2014 and Cerezo Osaka in 2015.

Director and later jobs

With Atlético Paranaense he won the 2016 Campeonato Paranaense, and in 2017 he moved into the club's director of football role, a job he also held at Fluminense from December 2017. In 2018 he won the Bulgarian Supercup with Ludogorets and took over Atlético Nacional at the end of that year. He was Santos's director of football in 2019, coached Botafogo in 2020 and coached Athletico Paranaense between 2020 and 2021. In his second spell at Atlético Nacional he won the Colombian Superliga in 2023. That same year he became Cruzeiro's technical director and took charge of the team as interim coach in November. He returned to Sporting Cristal in April 2025 and stayed until March 2026. In July 2026 he was appointed Fortaleza coach in Série B, and he left the post in November 2026.