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Luiz Felipe Scolari, ComIH (born November 9, 1948 in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), also known as Felipão ("Big Phil"), is a Brazilian football coach and is the manager of the Premier League side Chelsea. He led the Brazilian national team to victory in the 2002 World Cup. He was also the head coach of the Portuguese national team between 2003 and 2008 taking them to the final of Euro 2004 and fourth place at the 2006 World Cup. He is a very experienced club manager, having coached numerous teams on three continents.

Playing career

A defender regarded as more uncompromising than skilful (he was known as "wooden leg" among his contemporaries), Scolari followed in the footsteps of his father Benjamin, who was also a professional footballer. His playing career encompassed spells with Caxias, Juventude, Novo Hamburgo and CSA, and often captained his sides. It was with CSA that he won his only major title as a player - the Alagoano state championship.

Managerial career

Club management

Early career

Upon retiring as a player in 1982, he was appointed manager of CSA, winning the Alagoano state championship in his first season. After spells with Juventude (twice), Brasil de Pelotas and Al-Shabab of Saudi Arabia, he moved to unfashionable Grêmio, where he won the 1987 Gaúcho state championship.

Kuwait

He then had a two year stint in charge of Kuwaiti side Al Qadisiya Kuwait, with whom he won the prestigious Kuwait Emir Cup in 1989. This was followed by a brief stint as manager of the Kuwait national team, winning the 10th Gulf Cup in Kuwait. He returned to Brazil after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait during the Gulf War and coached Criciúma to the its first major national title Copa do Brasil. He returned to club management in the Middle East, managing Al-Ahli and a second spell at Al Qadisiya.

Grêmio

In 1993 he returned to Grêmio, where he was criticised by the Brazilian media for playing the ugly side of the beautiful game with his players known for getting into brawls during matches. He won six titles in only three years including the Copa Libertadores in 1995 which qualified them for the Intercontinental Cup, which they lost to Ajax Amsterdam on penalties. The following year they won the Brazilian Championship.

His team featured no real superstar and depended on workman-like players such as Paraguayan right back Francisco Arce (who he later took to Palmeiras), the tough-tackling midfielder Dinho, Paulo Nunes and centre forward Mário Jardel.

Júbilo Iwata

In 1997, Scolari became manager of J. League side Júbilo Iwata, but left after eleven games and shortly afterwards took charge of Palmeiras, one of the biggest clubs in Brazil.

Palmeiras

In three years, he led Palmeiras to the Copa do Brasil, the Mercosur Cup and their first Copa Libertadores title with a win on penalties over Deportivo Cali of Colombia. They were also runners-up to Manchester United in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup. He was named South American Coach of the Year for 1999.

Cruzeiro

In 2000 he was appointed to manage Cruzeiro, coaching them for a year. He led Cruzeiro to its third Copa do Brasil title.

International management

Kuwait

Scolari's first taste of international management came in 1990 when he coached the Kuwait national team. They won the Gulf Cup of Nations in 1990 beating Qatar in the final, but he was forced to leave the country when Iraq invaded during the Gulf War after which he went back to club management for a decade.

Brazil

In June 2001 was appointed manager of his native Brazil, who with five matches remaining were in danger of not qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. Despite losing his first match 1-0 to Uruguay, Scolari eventually guided the team to qualification.

In the build-up to the finals, Scolari famously refused to include veteran striker Romário in his squad, despite public pressure and a tearful appeal from the player himself. Brazil entered the tournament unfancied, but wins over Turkey, China, Costa Rica, Belgium, England and Turkey again took them to the final, where they beat Germany 2-0 to win their fifth FIFA World Cup title. At the end of 2002 Scolari resigned as Brazil Manager.

Portugal

Scolari took over as Portugal manager in 2003 and oversaw their preparations as host nation for Euro 2004. In the finals, Portugal got through the group stages and saw off England in the quarter finals on penalties before beating the Netherlands in the semi-finals. However in the final they were beaten 1-0 by Greece.

He managed Portugal in the 2006 World Cup in Germany where they managed to reach the semi-finals, again coming out victorious in the quarter-finals against England. But they did not reach the final due to a semi-final defeat against eventual runners-up France. Following the tournament Scolari was very heavily linked with the England managers job, but he ultimately opted to remain as Portugal coach.

Scolari took Portugal to UEFA Euro 2008 and took them into the knockout stages by winning Group A before being eliminated by Germany in the Quarter Finals. During the tournament he announced that he would be joining Chelsea FC in the 2008/09 season.

Return to club management

Chelsea

Scolari took over as manager of Chelsea F.C. on July 1 2008. This was announced shortly after Portugal's Euro 2008 match against the Czech Republic on June 11 2008. With this appointment, Scolari became the first World Cup winning manager to manage in the Premier League. Many Premier League fans will relish the confrontations between Scolari and Sir Alex Ferguson and have been warned to expect "tantrums" and more importantly "triumphs". When asked whether his decision to join Chelsea was financial he responded "Yes, that is one of the reasons". But he added "I'm 59 and I don't want to work as a coach until I'm 70. I want to retire in four or five years, so it was a financial matter but there are other things". He also said "I could offer my son the opportunity to study elsewhere. You only get this kind of opportunity once so you take it or leave it, but it was not only financial.

Scolari later said that he had turned down an offer to manage Manchester City.

Scolari's first match in charge of Chelsea was a friendly match against Chinese side Guangzhou Pharmaceutical; Chelsea won 4-0. He made FC Barcelona midfielder Deco his first signing, for a fee of around £8 million, but was subsequently frustrated in his attempts to sign Brazilian international Robinho from Real Madrid.

Scolari's career as Chelsea manager in the Premier League got off to a good start with a 4-0 victory over 2008 FA Cup winners Portsmouth.

Personality

Scolari is famous for his temper and for his histrionic "performance" by the field while the match is going on, reacting strongly to both the best and the worst moments of his team. A good example of his fierce temper was a September 12, 2007 qualifying match for Euro 2008 against Serbia when, at the end of the game, and after the referee had blown the whistle for a 1-1 draw, Scolari, after being slapped in the hand by the Serbian player Ivica Dragutinovic, grazed him in the face with a left hook . His character, however, is often seen as a good point, instead of a drawback, because he tries to keep the players (and himself) free of external pressures: he usually demands a lot more freedom than most coaches are allowed and is bent on exerting a somewhat discretionary power. Some critics mostly agree that his unique character was very beneficial to the Portuguese national team, which had a tradition of talented players but never won anything because of excessive intervention from the federation, the clubs and the player's agents, as well as a lack of a true "team spirit". However, his reputation as a "father" and big friend to his players is untouchable.

In the 2002 FIFA World Cup he gave each of his players a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC. He also gave the team recordings of Ivete Sangalo Festa videoclip, to enforce the Brazilian spirit and motivate the team engagement. In the recent 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany he used the The Art of War again to plan his team's win against England. .

Scolari also holds Italian citizenship, since his family emigrated from Veneto. He is said to be a fan of Grêmio and Palmeiras.

He is a fan of Portugese football and has attended F.C. Porto football games on several occasions.

Scolari also has a cocktail named after him. The 'Big Phil Scolari' consists of mainly dark rum and exotic fruit juices and was created by master cocktail makers Dan Sherratt and Bryn Tweedale.