Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira (born 27 February 1943) is a Brazilian former football manager who holds the record for attending the most FIFA World Cup final tournaments as manager with six appearances. He also managed five different national teams in five editions of the FIFA World Cup. He managed Brazil to victory at the 1994 World Cup, the 2004 Copa América, and the 2005 Confederations Cup. He is also the only manager to have led two different Asian teams to conquer the AFC Asian Cup.

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Carlos Alberto Parreira

Parreira as manager of South Africa in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira
Date of birth	(1943-02-27) 27 February 1943 (age 81)
Place of birth	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Managerial career
Years	Team
1967–1968	Ghana
1974	Fluminense
1975	Fluminense
1978–1982	Kuwait
1983	Brazil
1984	Fluminense
1985–1988	United Arab Emirates
1988–1990	Saudi Arabia
1990–1991	United Arab Emirates
1991	Bragantino
1991–1994	Brazil
1994–1995	Valencia
1995–1996	Fenerbahçe
1996	São Paulo
1997	MetroStars
1998	Saudi Arabia
1999–2000	Fluminense
2000	Atlético Mineiro
2000	Santos
2001	Internacional
2002	Corinthians
2003–2006	Brazil
2007–2008	South Africa
2009	Fluminense
2009–2010	South Africa
Medal record Men's football Representing  Brazil (as manager) FIFA World Cup Winner 1994 USA Copa América Winner 2004 Peru FIFA Confederations Cup Winner 2005 Germany Lunar New Year Cup Winner 2005 Hong Kong Representing  Kuwait (as manager) AFC Asian Cup Winner 1980 Kuwait Arabian Gulf Cup Winner 1982 UAE Representing  Saudi Arabia (as manager) AFC Asian Cup Winner 1988 Qatar Representing  South Africa (as manager) COSAFA Cup Winner 2007 South Africa

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He last managed the South Africa national football team.

Parreira is one of the most successful managers to have never played football himself.

Parreira supports Fluminense, and he has won two league titles for the club: The First Division Brazilian Championship in 1984 and the Third Division in 1999. About the latter title, Parreira has said that this was personally the most important trophy of his career, even more so than Brazil's World Cup triumph, as the club he loved was facing near-bankruptcy and became very close to extinction at the time^{[citation needed]}.

Parreira is one of two coaches that has led five national teams to the World Cup: Kuwait in 1982, United Arab Emirates in 1990, Brazil in 1994 and 2006, Saudi Arabia in 1998 and South Africa in 2010. The other coach, Bora Milutinović, reached this record when he led a fifth team in 2002. Parreira was also involved with the 1970 championship team for Brazil, which he claims was an inspiration for him to aspire to be a national football coach.

In 1997, Parreira coached the MetroStars of the American Major League Soccer. He also coached Fenerbahçe in Turkey and won a Turkish League Championship. Parreira was in charge of Corinthians in 2002, which gave him two of the most important national trophies of 2002: The Brazilian Cup and the Torneio Rio-São Paulo, besides being runner up at the Brazilian League.

When coaching Saudi Arabia at the 1998 World Cup in France, he was fired after two matches, one of three managers to be sacked during the tournament.

Parreira repeatedly turned down offers to coach Brazil again between 1998 and 2002 World Cups. In end of 2000, when the team was in turmoil after firing Vanderlei Luxemburgo, he refused the post, stating that he did not want to relive the stress and pressure of winning the World Cup again. There were public cries again to replace Luiz Felipe Scolari for Parreira in July 2001 when Brazil lost two matches to Mexico and Honduras in its title defense at the 2001 Copa América in Colombia, especially after last minute invitee (replacing Argentina who dropped out one day before the kickoff) Honduras defeated 2–0 and eliminated the favorite Brazil in quarter finals round on July 23, 2001. Parreira only stated that he would indirectly assist Scolari in the 2002 campaign. After the 2002 World Cup, Parreira took part in drafting a technical report of the tournament. He was named coach along with Mario Zagallo as assistant director in January 2003, with the goal of defending their World Cup title in Germany 2006, but on July 1, 2006, Brazil was defeated and eliminated 0–1 by France in the quarterfinals.

After Brazil's exit from the World Cup, Parreira was heavily criticized by the Brazilian public and media for playing an outdated brand of football and not using the players available to him properly. Parreira subsequently resigned on July 19, 2006. He coached Brazil to victory in the 1994 FIFA World Cup and was the coach of the South Africa national football team^[1] until resigning in April 2008.^[2] On October 22, 2009, it was announced he would return as head coach of South Africa. He announced a verbal agreement with the South African Football Association on October 23, 2009.^[3]

He resumed coaching South Africa in 2009 in time for the 2010 World Cup. In South Africa, his team drew with Mexico, 1–1, in the tournament opener, lost to Uruguay, 3–0, and beat France, 2–1, to finish third in Group A. After the France game, he tried to shake hands with French coach Raymond Domenech but the latter refused.^[4]

On 25 June 2010 he announced his retirement as football coach.^[5]

As of 26 September 2023

More information Team, Nat ...

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %	Ref
Ghana		1967	1968	19	10	7	2	42	29	+13	052.63
Fluminense		1974	1975	109	51	27	31	160	93	+67	046.79
Kuwait		1978	1982	62	34	9	19	108	68	+40	054.84
Brazil		1983	1983	14	5	7	2	21	12	+9	035.71
Fluminense		1984	1984	72	45	19	8	114	45	+69	062.50
UAE		1985	1988	17	8	4	5	21	16	+5	047.06
Saudi Arabia		1988	1990	26	10	9	7	18	22	−4	038.46
UAE		1990	1991	15	1	5	9	10	33	−23	006.67
Red Bull Bragantino		1991	1991	49	20	19	10	58	38	+20	040.82
Brazil		1991	1994	46	27	14	5	95	33	+62	058.70
Valencia		1994	1995	43	17	12	14	66	47	+19	039.53
Fenerbahçe		1995	1996	45	30	10	5	84	31	+53	066.67
São Paulo		18 August 1996	26 October 1996	17	4	6	7	20	22	−2	023.53
MetroStars		1 January 1997	31 December 1997	35	15	0	20	56	64	−8	042.86
Saudi Arabia		22 February 1998	18 June 1998	10	2	4	4	5	17	−12	020.00
Brazil		8 January 2003	20 July 2006	53	31	15	7	122	45	+77	058.49
South Africa		26 January 2007	21 April 2008	17	7	4	6	23	16	+7	041.18
Fluminense		7 March 2009	13 July 2009	10	2	4	4	8	13	−5	020.00
South Africa		23 October 2009	23 June 2010	15	7	7	1	23	9	+14	046.67
Total				674	326	182	166	1,054	653	+401	048.37	—

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• List of Brazil national football team managers