Antônio Carlos Zago

Antônio Carlos

Antônio Carlos in 2010
Personal information
Full name Antônio Carlos Zago
Date of birth (1969-03-14) 14 March 1969
Place of birth Presidente Prudente, Brazil
Height 1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in)
Playing position Centre back
Club information
Current team
 Juventude (Manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1990–1992 São Paulo 64 (4)
1992–1993 Albacete 12 (1)
1993–1995 Palmeiras 58 (5)
1996–1997 Kashiwa Reysol 24 (0)
1997 Corinthians 12 (2)
1998–2002 Roma 107 (2)
2002–2004 Beşiktaş 56 (2)
2004–2005 Santos 7 (0)
2005–2006 Juventude 52 (2)
2007 Santos 1 (0)
National team
1991–2001 Brazil 37 (3)
Teams managed
2009–2010 São Caetano
2010 Palmeiras
2010 Grêmio Prudente
2011 Mogi Mirim
2011 Vila Nova
2012 Audax São Paulo
2013 AS Roma (assistant coach)
2013–2015 Shakhtar Donetsk (assistant coach)
2015– Juventude

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Antônio Carlos Zago, widely known as "Antônio Carlos" or "A.C. Zago", (born 14 March 1969 in Presidente Prudente) is a former Brazilian footballer and current coach.

Club career

Born in Presidente Prudente, a city of the state of São Paulo, also having Italian origins, began professional football in São Paulo FC, where he remained for three years and then signed to Albacete Balompié, Spain, where he stayed for only one season. He returned to his homeland, this time to Palmeiras, another team of São Paulo and a rival to his previous Brazilian team. After three years emigrated again, this time in Japan, Kashiwa Reysol, where once again remained for only one year before returning to play again in São Paulo, but this time at Corinthians, being one of the few players who have played in all the three biggest teams of the city and arch rivals as well.[1]

In January 1998 Zago moved to Rome, wanted by Zdenek Zeman to reinforce the defence line. In his game debut, 11 February 1998 (Lecce-Roma) was expelled after a few minutes of play, but with the club giallorossi improved his quality and skill, so that in 1999 he recalled to his National Assembly. At Rome Zago played for five years and was also part of the Scudetto-winning team in 2001, a fact which remains an idol to the public romanista, who called him Terminator. That year Zago formed a rocky defence well supported by his compatriot Aldair and Argentinian Walter Samuel as well.[2]

In November 1999 Zago was the protagonist of a shocking episode, when he hit in the face Lazio player Diego Simeone during a derby. The outcome was a positive attitude towards him by the fans, who pay tribute to his action in the song "Brusco", the phrases "Zago: spits fire as a dragon" and "people can only keep their mouth shut, otherwise AC Zago will spit at them". Zago is also one of the few Brazilian players who is known with his name and surname. During the years he spent to Rome he had chosen his name on the shirt to be written in different ways, the first "ANTÔNIO CARLOS", then "AC ZAGO" then simply "ZAGO."[3]

In 2002 he left Rome and after a year of inactivity went to Turkey and signed with the Beşiktaş, before returning to Brazil in August 2004 to Santos. In 2005 and 2006 played in Juventude. He closed his career in 2007 with Santos.[4]

International career

Zago debuted with the Brazil national team on 30 October 1991 against Yugoslavia (3–1) and remained within the national squad until 1993. After a period of light and shadows, only after moving to Rome again he managed to stand out, and then he returned to the national team, where between 1998 and 2001 he collected 26 caps and scored two goals, and was part of the squad that won the 1999 Copa América. In total, he made 37 appearances for Brazil, scoring three goals.

Club statistics

[5]

Club performance League
Season Club League Apps Goals
Brazil League
1990São PauloSérie A211
1991211
1992222
Spain League
1992/93Albacete BalompiéLa Liga121
Brazil League
1993PalmeirasSérie A181
1994211
1995201
Japan League
1996Kashiwa ReysolJ1 League240
199700
Brazil League
1997Corinthians PaulistaSérie A122
Italy League
1997/98RomaSerie A120
1998/99280
1999/00272
2000/01280
2001/02120
Turkey League
2002/03BeşiktaşSüper Lig312
2003/04250
Brazil League
2004SantosSérie A70
2005JuventudeSérie A301
2006221
2007SantosSérie A10
Country Brazil 19511
Spain 121
Japan 240
Italy 1072
Turkey 562
Total 39416

National team statistics

Brazil national team
YearAppsGoals
199120
199231
199360
199400
199500
199600
199700
199830
1999120
2000102
200110
Total373

Honours

Club

Brazil São Paulo

Brazil Palmeiras

Brazil Corinthians

Italy Roma

Turkey Beşiktaş

Brazil Santos

National team

Managerial career

In June 2009, after an unsuccessful experience as technical director at Corinthians,[6] Zago signed a deal as a manager with São Caetano.

As a coach, he had a promising start in the 2010 Paulista Championship and enjoyed a historic win against his former team Palmeiras at Parque Antarctica.[7] The feat brought him close to the traditional Palmeiras leaders and on 18 February 2010, he signed with Parque Antarctica club.[8]

However, issues with the squad and criticism against Palmeiras' poor performances motivated his resignation three months later.[9]

In January 2013 he returned to AS Roma, this time as an assistant coach. On 16 October 2013, he was appointed by Shakhtar Donetsk as their new assistant manager joining his former Beşiktaş coach Mircea Lucescu.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.