Marcos Paqueta won two junior World Cups for Brazil and coached two national teams

PANAJI: FC Pune City took less than 24 hours to finalise a deal with Marcos Paqueta , the renowned Brazilian youth coach who won two World Cups for his country.

Pune City parted ways with coach Ranko Popovic on Wednesday despite the Serbian guiding Pune to the playoffs of the Indian Super League ( ISL ) for the first time in four years. Twenty-four hours later, Paqueta, 59, took a long-distance flight to Mumbai and signed on the dotted line without a moment’s hesitation.

“He is a great find for us. He has won several major trophies in his career and won two (junior) World Cups for Brazil . His penchant for youth is well-founded, and with so many of our foreign players from South America, he was the perfect fit,” a senior club official told TOI after exchanging signatures in Mumbai on Thursday.

Paqueta was only a youth coach at Flamengo in Brazil where, for 12 years, he polished exciting talents and made them eligible to play for the supremely-talented senior team. Famously, 12 of the players were promoted to the senior team in just one year, and nobody was surprised when he was handed charge of the Brazilian team at the Fifa U-17 World Championship in Finland in 2003.

Brazil won the championship with a solitary-goal victory over Spain – with David Silva and Cesc Fabregas in the team – and three months later he guided Brazil to another famous triumph at the Fifa World Youth Championship UAE 2003, scoring another 1-0 victory over Spain.

Paqueta has enjoyed remarkable success in South America and the Gulf. After winning two youth World Cups with Brazil he won five titles in one season with Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia and enjoyed a productive spell in Qatar. He also coached the national teams of Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Interestingly, Pune City’s star striker Marcelinho started his youth career in Brazil under Paqueta at Flamengo.

“The coach has won 22 trophies and has coached some of the best players in the world. He has spent 14 years in Asia and knows the conditions well. Having coached in difficult countries like Libya, Egypt and Iraq, he should be able to handle all the challenges here. We are excited to have him,” said the official.

Pune City are attempting to win their first ISL title this season, having lost out in the semifinals against Bengaluru FC last season.