Leão leaves Corinthians

By: Bruno Romani | April 3rd, 2007

Leão: Always Friendly

Emerson Leão is no longer Corinthian’s coach. He announced today he is leaving the club after reaching an agreement with Corinthians’ officials.

The coach, considered one of the top coaches in Brazil since he revealed Diego and Robinho to the world, keeps the decadent path of his career he took in 2005 after winning the Paulista championship with São Paulo. In that year, Leão left São Paulo during the Copa Libertadores, later won by the club, to coach Vissel Kobe in Japan having as an excuse a debt he had with a Japanese friend. He lasted just a few months and returned to Palmeiras, just to save the club from the relegation zone.

In the following year, Leão had a good start with the alvi-verde, but lost control of his players after saying that his team deserved just a grade 5. The coach left Palmeiras in the relegation zone in the Brasileirão and just before a play-off against São Paulo in the Copa Libertadores.

Leão returned to coach a big club from São Paulo few months later, and had the hard task of saving Corinthians from the relegation zone in the Campeonato Brasileiro. He did it, but also caused all the top players brought by the nebulous MSI money to leave the club. Among these are Carlos Tevez, Mascherano and Carlos Alberto.

In 2007, with no players and no money from MSI, Corinthians had a group of players with questionable skills, which left the club out of the semi-finals from the Paulista championship. For many occasions this year Leão collided with the press, reaching his peak in the occasion he invited a female reporter to go to a motel with him.

The coach leaves Corinthians after 7 months, having coached the club in 46 matches (22 wins, 13 draws, 11 losses), and percentage of 57.2% points gained.