Leonardo Araújo

Leonardo Araújo

Personal information
Full name	Leonardo Nascimento de Araújo
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder Left back
Team information
Current team	Internazionale (head coach)
Youth career
1984–1987	Flamengo
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–1990	Flamengo	52	(0)
1990–1991	São Paulo	44	(1)
1991–1993	Valencia	71	(6)
1993–1994	São Paulo	12	(3)
1994–1996	Kashima Antlers	49	(30)
1996–1997	Paris St. Germain	34	(7)
1997–2001	Milan	102	(22)
2001–2002	São Paulo	13	(0)
2002	Flamengo	0	(0)
2002–2003	Milan	1	(0)
International career
1990–2002	Brazil	60	(8)
Managerial career
2009–2010	Milan
2011–	Internazionale
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Leonardo Nascimento de Araújo, known simply as Leonardo (born 5 September 1969 in Niterói, Brazil), is a football manager and a former midfielder, serving as head coach of Internazionale. He played for Brazil, and formerly served as player and manager of Italian side Milan. He played in the 1994 World Cup winning side, as well as the runners up team in 1998.

Club career

Leonardo began his career with the Brazilian club Flamengo in 1987; at just 17, he was given the opportunity to play with his hero Zico plus Leandro, Bebeto and Renato Gaúcho, and to take part in winning his first Brazilian championship. In 1990, Leonardo signed with São Paulo FC, and in 1991, Leonardo, Raí, and other young talents were assembled as part of the so-called 'esquadrão tricolor' ("three-coloured squad") under the command of Brazilian legend Telê Santana, giving Leonardo his second Brazilian championship.

Later that year, he made the switch to European football, signing with the Spanish club Valencia CF. After two seasons with Valencia, he returned to Brazil for a brief stint with São Paulo in 1993, during which time the team won several titles, including the prestigious Copa Libertadores and International Cup.

In 1994, after the World Cup, Leonardo signed with the Kashima Antlers of the newly-formed J. League. Leonardo continued his success in Kashima, again playing with his idol and friend Zico. In 1996, he returned to Europe, this time signing with French club Paris St Germain, where he again proved to be successful, one of his goals helping them to oust Liverpool out of the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

At this point in his career, Leonardo had mostly stopped playing as a leftback and moved into the midfield, sometimes on the left, sometimes as a playmaker. Already in Japan, this had resulted in some spectacular goals for Leonardo, a trend which continued in Europe.

In the summer of 1997 he signed with Italian team A.C. Milan, for 8.5 million euros from PSG. With Milan he became a prominent part of a star-studded lineup. He played four full seasons, scoring 22 goals and playing 177 games for Milan, before returning to Brazil with São Paulo FC and Flamengo. He later returned to Milan and finished his career with them in 2003.

International career

Leonardo made his international debut in 1990. He was selected as a leftback for the 1994 World Cup, keeping the young Roberto Carlos out of the team, much to his chagrin. Leonardo played well in the first games but was then given a four-match suspension for elbowing the American midfielder Tab Ramos, resulting in a broken malar bone. The stricken Ramos had to stay in hospital for three and a half months afterwards. Leonardo's suspension prevented him from participating in the remainder of the competition. It was the second longest ban imposed in World Cup history, after Mauro Tassotti's eight-game suspension for breaking the nose of Luis Enrique at the same tournament.

In 1997, Leonardo was given the Number 10 shirt for the national team. He was an important member of the team that won the Copa America in 1997.

Leonardo played all seven games in his second World Cup, helping Brazil to a second-place finish. In the second opening round match against Morocco, he netted one shot and began celebrating, but was later called off-side. He was last selected to play for Brazil in the 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign and ended his career with 60 caps and 8 goals for Brazil.

Post-playing career

Since 2002, Leonardo has dedicated himself to social works with the Fundação Gol de Letra and Fondazione Milan.

Leonardo worked for BBC Television in the United Kingdom during the 2006 World Cup, as one of their Match of the Day analysts, alongside another former World Cup winner Marcel Desailly. He appeared again as a Match of the Day analyst on 1 June 2007 alongside Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer. This was the first England game at the new Wembley Stadium finishing 1–1 with Brazil.

Since Leonardo stopped playing for Milan he has become a sort of combination of scout and agent for the club in Brazil and the great respect he enjoys in his homeland has helped Milan to land several world-class players. He was instrumental in the process of getting Kaká to Milan and in July 2007 it was revealed that Leonardo had been one of the main factors in convincing Alexandre Pato to sign for Milan.

Coaching career

In December 2007, he was interviewed for the vacant position of director of football at English Premier League side, West Ham United.

Milan

In early 2008 he was appointed Technical Director of his former club A.C. Milan. Later the same year he obtained Italian citizenship, after twelve years in Italy as a resident.

After Carlo Ancelotti left Milan to become the manager of Chelsea F.C. at the end of May 2009, Leonardo was named head coach of Milan despite still lacking the required coaching badges (he was set to attend a UEFA A coaching course on June 2009). He was however exempted from requiring a UEFA Pro license, which is mandatory for Italian Serie A managers, due to being a former World Cup winner as a player. Leonardo wasted no time in declaring that he wanted his team to play attractive attacking football, even invoking the name of his old mentor, Telê Santana.

After a poor start of season, featuring a shock 0–4 loss to crosstown rivals Internazionale, that started speculation about his possible dismissal from the head coaching post at Milan, results started improving for the rossoneri under Leonardo, also thanks to the application of a 4–2–1–3 tactic (nicknamed also "4-2-fantasy" by Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani). This tactic, quite unusual on Italian football, and greatly focusing on creative players such as Ronaldinho, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf, led Milan to improved results at both Serie A and UEFA Champions League level, including a remarkable 3–2 win at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium against Real Madrid and a 3–0 away win to Juventus which enabled Leonardo's side to finish in second place at the half-way point of the season, six points shy of leaders Inter with a game in hand. However, the path to UEFA Champions League final was halted prematurely as Milan was eliminated in the first knockout round by Manchester United in a 2–7 aggregate loss (2–3, 0–4).

In the final weeks of the seasons, it was speculated that Leonardo could leave Milan at the end of the season. In April 2010, Leonardo confirmed divergences with club owner and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, defining their relationship as "difficult". It was confirmed that Leonardo would leave Milan by mutual agreement after their season ending game against Juventus. Leonardo waved an emotional goodbye to a packed San Siro, as he managed his side's last game with a 3–0 win against Juventus.

Internazionale

On 24 December 2010, after days of speculation, it was confirmed Leonardo would take over as head coach of fresh FIFA Club World Cup champions Internazionale, replacing Rafael Benítez in a somewhat controversial move, due to the Brazilian's long career with rivals Milan as both player and manager; he agreed a 18-month contract due to expire on 30 June 2012.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1987||rowspan="3"|Flamengo||rowspan="3"|Série A||18||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1988||18||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1989||16||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1990||rowspan="2"|São Paulo||rowspan="2"|Série A||22||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1991||22||1|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1991–92||rowspan="2"|Valencia||rowspan="2"|La Liga||37||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1992–93||34||3|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1993||São Paulo||Série A||12||3|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1994||rowspan="3"|Kashima Antlers||rowspan="3"|J. League||9||7||1||0||0||0||colspan="2"|-||10||7 |- |1995||28||17||3||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||31||18 |- |1996||12||6||colspan="2"|-||10||5||colspan="2"|-||22||11 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1996–97||rowspan="2"|Paris Saint-Germain||rowspan="2"|Division 1||32||7|||||||||||||||| |- |1997–98||2||0|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1997–98||rowspan="4"|Milan||rowspan="4"|Serie A||27||5|||||||||||||||| |- |1998–99||27||10|||||||||||||||| |- |1999–00||20||4|||||||||||||||| |- |2000–01||22||3|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001||São Paulo||Série A||13||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2002||Flamengo||Série A||0||0|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2002–03||Milan||Serie A||1||0|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3125||4|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 471||6|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 449||30||4||1||10||5||colspan="2"|-||63||36 Template:Football player statistics 434||7|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 497||22|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5376||89|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics end

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Managerial statistics

Statistics correct as of 6th February 2011.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Milan		1 June 2009	16 May 2010	48	23	13	12	047.92
Internazionale		29 December 2010		10	8	1	1	080.00
Total				58	31	14	13	053.45

Honours

Club honours

• Brazilian National Championship 1987, 1991
• Brazil Cup 1990
• São Paulo State Championship 1991
• South American Recup 1993, 1994
• South American Supercup 1993
• Intercontinental Cup 1993
• Japanese League 1996
• Italian League 1999
• Italian Cup 2003

International honours

• 1994 FIFA World Cup – Winner
• 1997 Copa America – Winner
• 1997 Confederations Cup – Winner
• 1998 FIFA World Cup – Runner-up