Nelo Vingada - Career

Career

His first steps as a professional football coach were firstly in Belenenses, and then in Académica de Coimbra in 1982–83 season, when he was assistant manager for Mário Wilson at Académica. Sintrense and Vilafranquense were his following teams as a manager.

In 1986–87 season Vingada was appointed as an assistant manager for Portugal U-20 along with Carlos Queiroz. He was the assistant coach for the Portuguese squad in the World Youth Championships of 1989 in Riyadh and 1991 in Lisbon with Carlos Queiroz as head coach, both won by Portugal.

Vingada was appointed as a head coach for Portugal U-20 and his team participated in 1995 World Youth Championship. In this tournament, Portugal U-20 was ended in the third place

Portugal Olympic football team under his management participated in 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics and after a win over Tunisia (2–0) and 1 – 1 draws against Argentina and the United States, they ended in second place in Group A with the same points and goal difference as the first-placed Argentinians (but with lesser goals scored). Then in the quarter-finals, a win over France (2–1) after extra-time assured them a place in the semi-finals. Once again they played against Argentina, but this time the South Americans won 2 – 0. For the bronze medal match, they faced a strong Brazil full of world stars such as Bebeto, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, among others. Portugal was heavily defeated by 5 – 0. This participation remains to this day as their best ever ending with the fourth place.

In 1996–97 season, Vingada became the manager of the Saudi Arabian national team, winning the Asian Cup in 1996, and qualifying for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, before being sacked from his position prior to the World Cup.

In 1997–98 and 1998–99 seasons, Vingada worked as an assistant manager for top Portuguese club Benfica, along with Graeme Souness as principal manager.

Between 1999 and 2003, Vingada was the manager of Marítimo, a Portuguese team from Madeira, and helped the team stay in the Portuguese Liga and qualify once to the Portuguese cup final.

In 2003, New Portuguese Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz proposed Vingada as assistant coach on 27 June. But Carlos Queiroz's proposition was not accepted.

In 2003–04 season Vingada became the manager of Egyptian club El Zamalek. He helped the team win the Egyptian premier league, the Saudi-Egyptian Super Cup, and the African Super Cup against Wydad Casablanca, all in one season. He was later dismissed from his position at the club due to disagreements from the club board with his controversial managing policies and his continuous conflicts with top players at the Egyptian club.

In 2004–05 season he became the manager of Académica de Coimbra.

In 2005 he became the head coach of the Egyptian national U-23 football team. The team failed to reach the Olympic Games which are being held in Beijing in 2008, which was the main target of his signing. Although the Egyptian Football Association wanted Vingada to continue coaching the team, he decided to resign from his position.

In summer 2007, Vingada signed for Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca. Only six weeks after he had assumed the new position he surprisingly resigned from his position. The main reason was that he had been approached by the Jordan Football Association to replace the newly resigned Mahmoud El-Gohary. Vingada accepted the offer to coach Jordan national football team and signed a 16-month contract with Jordan Football Association. Vingada later took on the mission to prepare the Jordanian team for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. After failing to pass the first round of the qualifiers, Vingada decided to resign from his position.

On February 9, 2009, Vingada was officially appointed as head coach of Iranian football side Persepolis.

On June 17, 2009, just after 5 days of signing with Al-Ahly he resigned from his position due to familiar problems.

On June 24, 2009, he was named as head coach Vitoria S.C. in his homeland Portugal and on 7 October 2009 the Coach has quit Vitoria Guimaraes after four months due to poor results, a replacement has not been named yet.