Philosopher leaves São Paulo club’s presidency and becomes his coach

“There has never been a great intelligence without a streak of madness.”

The phrase of the Greek thinker Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) is carried as a kind of personal mantra for Geraldo Márgelo de Oliveira, 61, known as Dado. The manager is an unorthodox case in football.

President of Academia Desportiva Manthiqueira, a team from Guaratinguetá that plays in the fourth division of São Paulo, the philosopher by training decided to leave the club’s top position to venture out as coach at the edge of the field.

“I’ve always been called crazy around here. Now they’ll call me stupid too. You can talk freely because if there’s one thing I don’t feel, it’s pressure. I do something I believe in,” he tells leaf.

To start the new adventure, Dado transferred the management of the club temporarily to his son Márgelo, 33. The idea came about due to difficulties in hiring a name with the desired profile for 2022.

“We practically work without a technician [no Paulista da Segunda Divisão, nome da quarta divisão], and it was very difficult to find someone who suited our way. I consulted the federation about the possibility of changing the presidency. They gave the approval, so I decided to take over,” he says.

“I have very clear knowledge and ideas, but it’s only in practice that I’ll know what I’m actually capable of delivering,” he adds.

There are no impediments in the FPF (São Paulo Football Federation) regulations for coaches who do not have licenses in the state’s last division and in the São Paulo Football Junior Cup.

He has an assistant hired this year, who says he has worked for some years with Otacílio Pires de Camargo, Cilinho (1939-2019), a folklore coach with spells in São Paulo, Corinthians, Ponte Preta and other big clubs.

Dado gained national recognition by betting on the hiring of a woman coach, Nilmara Alves, in 2012, and sponsored her for many years in the position. She couldn’t take over this time.

In the same period, it opened to the public a booklet on good football with mandatory requirements for those who want to play for the club. It prohibits the player from simulating fouls, complaining to the referee or benefiting from any other questionable move.

“Prohibited trickery” says in the first of seven key items. “When a foul occurs (hand on the ball), the athlete must advise the referee of the intentionality of the fact.”

The team that wears orange is inspired by the 1974 Dutch Carossel, by Rinus Michels, and the 1982 Brazilian team, directed by Telê Santana. The coaches who work with Dado do not sing plays on the edge of the lawn so as not to inhibit the athletes’ creativity. The team captain wears shirt 1, and the goalkeeper wears 11.

“My idea is simple: I do with others what I would like them to do with me. This is the ethics of [Immanuel] Kant. I don’t want to lose or win with a stolen penalty kick,” he explains.

“I’m romantic, there’s no such thing as a team of workers. Football is made for artists, it needs art even though it’s not at the highest level. And, for that, you need to give technical freedom to the athlete,” he adds.

The first official test as a coach will take place from this Tuesday (4). The team will debut in the Copa São Paulo against XV de Piracicaba. Also in the key, headquartered in Guaratinguetá, are Vitória and São José-RS.

Already in the first practices, he says that he surprised the players by doing an unusual team effort: without the ball. “Plato said that our thinking is perfect, it doesn’t make mistakes. Errors come from our attitudes.”

Dado divided two teams of 11 players, wearing green and red vests. Players pretended to have the ball and, when they passed, shouted their teammate’s name as if they were receiving it. There was even the scoring of goals and stolen balls.

“I did this to raise their heads, look and better understand the spaces. Players in this division we are in have a habit of just looking at the ground,” he says.

The work was the target of jokes by his own wife, a psychologist by training and now the team’s cook. She compared the activity to a scene from the movie “Bicho de Sete Cabeças”, starring Rodrigo Santoro, which narrates the trajectory of a young man admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

“Dado is an amazing guy, but unconventional. He brings what he believes is right and is well respected by everyone. There are funny things, I’ve never seen anything like this training. This has helped to improve the quality of passes a lot. of the team”, says defender Guilherme Figueiredo.

Oliveira claims that his madness already gave the team an access, in 2017, when he won the division title and moved up to Serie A3.

“I’m considered crazy, a sucker, naive, but I’m going to believe until the end that we can build a winning team and play clean football. We went up without cai-cais, playing fair,” he insists.

Last year, the president also became a cook. He gave up the house he lived in out of debt to live with his wife at the club’s training center. With the difficulty, he had to dismiss the cook who was hired and took over the post.

“For me, the important thing is to be happy within my universe. Becoming a coach is a necessity for the moment and yet another achievement”, he concludes.