Joel Santana

Joel Santana feels like pure Rio de Janeiro warmth transplanted onto the touchline. A homegrown Brazilian who went from playing to a long coaching life, he's the kind of grizzled tactician who has seen every corner of the domestic game and still managed big names like Vasco da Gama. He's perhaps best remembered abroad for his stint with South Africa's national team, where his struggles with English turned press conferences into affectionate comedy. I find that endearing rather than embarrassing. There's something deeply likable about a man who keeps bellowing passion in Portuguese, decade after decade, refusing to let the years cool his love for the game.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Joel Santana

Name (Japanese)

ジョエル・サンタナ

Reading

じょえる・さんたな

Born

December 25, 1948 (age 77)

Origin

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Occupation

association football player / association football coach

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Rat

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/joelsantanaoficial/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel%20Santana
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%8A
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q552929

Tags

• Rio de Janeiro
• association football player
• association football coach

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.