Brazilians believe Felipao is right man to bring hosts a sixth World Cup

Scolari brings sense of practicality and determination to nation devoted to beautiful football

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, right, gestures to midfielder Luiz Gustavo during a 2014 World Cup Group A match against Cameroon at the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia on June 23, 2014.Show more

PORTO ALEGRE // The caller, clearly ecstatic to have been put through to his local radio station, is being asked if, amid all the pressure and the political problems, Brazil can lift the 2014 World Cup. He responds without pause, his answer unequivocal.

“Of course,” he says, displaying what seems to be a typical bullishness around these parts. “We have Felipao.”

Ask anyone here about the current national team manager and the reaction is the same. In Porto Alegre, home to Gremio and Internacional, Luiz Felipe Scolari transcends the big-club rivalry, for his is a story of the local boy who came good.

Born in Passo Fundo, 200 kilometres to the city’s north, Scolari followed his father in becoming a professional footballer, but he was one of modest ability. A defender, he quickly became known for his leadership qualities rather than his technical talent. At 20, he captained a local state club.

It was with his last side, CSA, that he was convinced to try his hand at management. It proved an inspired move. A journeyed early coaching career, which took him around Brazil and then to the Middle East, led Scolari back to Porto Alegre and to a second stint with Gremio. It always was going to.

Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, is unlike any other in the country. With its large European immigrant community and its proximity to Argentina and Uruguay, it promotes a resolutely un-Brazilian vibe.

It distances itself from the unrestrained revelry to the country’s north. Hard work, courage and dogged determination are emphasised, instead.

This is Gaucho terrain and the people are proud of it. It translates to their football.

“I grew up with the Gaucho style,” Scolari said in an interview with The Guardian last year.

“We are organised and like possession, but we never really forget to defend as well. It’s not for me to say that my attacking players shouldn’t forget to actually be creative.”

It was at Gremio that Scolari cemented his reputation as a pragmatist. Football should at first be effective; succeeding is everything.

“Felipao does not play pretty football, like they do in Sao Paulo or Rio,” says Respaulo, a lifelong Gremio fan and Porto Alegre native. “He plays champion football. You can see that with what he did here. We were the best.”

They had not been for so long. When Scolari arrived for a second stint in 1993, Gremio, one of Brazil’s oldest clubs, were flagging. They had no money and little motivation, yet Scolari instilled a belief, a never-say-die attitude that has become his trademark – the Gaucho spirit.

Within three years, Gremio were the strongest side in South America and respected across the world. During that time, they secured six trophies, including the Brazilian championship, the Brazil Cup and the Copa Libertadores.

Take a trip to the Estadio Olimpico Monumental now and it appears rather dilapidated. The team bus stands next to the club shop, which still services the trickle of fans coming through its front gates.

The training pitch, where Scolari ground in his philosophy, and where a teenage Ronaldinho honed a talent that would later make him the finest footballer on the planet, sits empty, the grass still lush, if a little worn in patches.

That “O Monumental” looks this way is natural. Gremio relocated to a new stadium in December 2012 and their old home will soon be bulldozed, replaced by a residential development. The old bricks and mortar will be gone, but Scolari’s standing is built on solid foundations.

“Where Felipao is today fills us with a lot of pride,” says Zelio Wilton Hocsman, a member of the Gremio board during Scolari’s time there. “There is a big tie between Gremio and Felipao, so much so that we say he was born here. It was here he started the journey to the man he is now.”

Hocsman paints a vivid image of his former employee, describing Scolari as a very responsible man, straight in everything. He did, though, possess a strong temper that could sometimes clear a room.

Scolari also had a magnetic personality, forever with friends and colleagues in Porto Alegre’s churrasco restaurants, talking football, life and religion. He would help the club financially, too, when required, and he still acts as a sounding board, often offering advice and assistance.

“He’s a help, always,” Hocsman says. “Even with people who have left the club and come back, people who he still feels have a relationship with the club. He is always advising Gremio, because Gremio has a place in his heart.”

Big Phil’s big heart is a common theme, but at times his determination to succeed knew no bounds.

Hocsman loves telling a story of how, during the home leg of a crucial tie against Palmeiras, one that would decide the Brazilian championship, Scolari searched the city for ball boys of a certain stature.

He told them to parade the space in front of the away dugout, obstructing the view of the opposition coach, Vanderlei Luxemburgo. Gremio won the match 4-1.

Yet Scolari had an inherent understanding of how to get the best from his players. He has firm values, based on an unwavering faith in his religion, which he would use to counsel the Gremio squad through the good and the bad.

Scolari could be stubborn, but he was sensitive, too. Hocsman labels him a “sheep in wolf’s clothing”.

Scolari would shed his Gremio coat and prosper again in the Copa Libertadores, this time with Palmeiras in 1999. Three years later, he had guided Brazil to an unprecedented fifth World Cup crown after he built a solid defensive base to maximise the attacking threat of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo.

Even with that explosive impromptu talent – players embodying the jogo bonito – Scolari practised the practical approach.

It is evident again now, 12 years on, as Brazil go in search of a sixth title. There is an acknowledgement among his compatriots that Scolari has not been dealt the strongest hand; that this Selecao side had to be built on persistence and perspiration.

But that is the manager’s way.

Even with Neymar, Brazil's focus is on teamwork and the collective, with Scolari at its tip. It has formed the cornerstone of his career, although it was also the cause of an ill-fated seven months with Chelsea in the English Premier League. At Stamford Bridge, stars such as Petr Cech, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba exercised too much influence.

“A few players did not agree with the decisions I had to make for the good of the team,” Scolari told The Guardian.

“I heard them complaining and saying: ‘I don’t play in this or that position’.”

So he retreated, eventually via Bunyodkor in Uzbekistan, back to where he belongs, back to where he is celebrated and adored, to where people understand him most.

He has spoken about instilling within the national team an organisation usually adopted by European sides, traced all the way to those Rio Grande do Sul roots.

It is the place Scolari grew up listening to his first World Cup matches on radio, visualising the exploits of Vava, Zico, Garrincha and Pele.

Now he is the one commanding the airwaves, the controller of his country’s destiny. Faith in him is almost as strong as his in his footballing beliefs, his rock-solid principles.

Around these parts, Felipao is the key to Brazil’s next World Cup.

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