FC Pune City ropes in Brazilian Paqueta as head coach

Indian Super League (ISL) club FC Pune City today announced Brazilian Marcos Paqueta, who guided Saudi Arabia in the 2006 World Cup, as their new head coach. The Brazilian, who has close to 30 years of coaching experience across youth, club, and national teams, will make his managerial debut in the 2018-19 season, said the club in a media release. After successfully managing youth teams of top Brazilian clubs for over a decade, Paqueta took reins of Brazil U-17 and U-20 national teams.

Under Paqueta, the team won three titles each, including the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Cup and 2003 FIFA U-20 World Cup. After his spell with Selecao youth sides, he shifted base to Middle-East joining Al-Hilal Saudi Football Club. In his time with the club, he led them to win Saudi Premier League (2004-05), Saudi Crown Prince Cup (2004-05), Saudi Federation Cup (2004-05) and King Fahd Cup (2004-05). His tremendous run with Al-Hilal got him the job to coach the Saudi national team at the 2006 World Cup.

He came back to Al-Hilal helping them win another Saudi Premier League title in 2006-07 season. Later, Paqueta coached Al-Gharafa (2007-09) and Al Rayyan (2009-10) with great success. Libya then roped him as their head coach and in two years (2010-2012) he managed to catapult the Libyan national team from 115 to 37 in world rankings. He then went on to coach Al-Shabab and Al-Gharafa in Oman and Qatar. In 2016, he went to Egypt and coached Zamalek FC to a runner-up finish. Last season, he coached Al-Shorta in Iraq and his team finished 3rd in the league.