Juca

Juca

Personal information
Full name	Júlio Cernadas Pereira
Date of birth	13 January 1929
Place of birth	Lourenço Marques, Mozambique
Date of death	11 October 2007 (aged 78)
Place of death	Lisbon, Portugal
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
?–1949	Sporting Lourenço Marques
1949–1958	Sporting CP	145	(6)
National team
1952–1956	Portugal	6	(0)
Teams managed
1961–1963	Sporting CP
1964–1965	Sporting CP
1967–1968	Vitória Guimarães
1969–1972	Académica
1973–1974	Barreirense
1975–1976	Sporting CP
1976–1979	Académica
1977–1978	Portugal
1979–1980	Belenenses
1980–1982	Portugal
1982–1983	Braga
1987–1989	Portugal
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (goals)

Juca may also refer to Juliano Roberto Antonello.

Júlio Cernadas Pereira (13 January 1929 – 11 October 2007), commonly known as Juca, was a Portuguese football midfielder and coach.

Most of his career was associated with Sporting, as both player and manager.

Playing career

The son of Portuguese parents who had settled in Mozambique, Juca was born in Lourenço Marques, and started playing professionally with local Sporting de Lourenço Marques, as a goalkeeper.^[1] In 1949 he returned to the land of his ancestors and joined Sporting Clube de Portugal, where he would remain nine years until his retirement at the age of only 29 – due to a knee injury^[1]– helping the Lions win five national championships and the 1954 domestic cup.

During nearly four years, Juca gained six caps for Portugal. His first game was a 1–1 draw with Austria on 23 November 1952 in a friendly match in Porto, and his last appearance was in another exhibition game, against Hungary (9 June 1956 in Lisbon, same result).

Coaching career

Shortly after retiring in 1960, Juca started a career in management, his first job being with main club Sporting's under-19. He was promoted to head coach of the first team the following year, being in charge for three and a half of the following five years and winning the 1962 and 1966 leagues (he was only in charge for four matches in the latter campaign however) and the 1963 Portuguese Cup.

After spending the following years with three clubs, mainly Académica de Coimbra, and some periods of inactivity, Juca returned to Sporting for 1975–76, being fired after the team could only finish 5th, 12 points behind champions S.L. Benfica.

In his second spell with the Coimbra side, Juca accumulated and worked for the first time as coach of the Portuguese national team – in 1968 he had already worked in Otto Glória's staff^[2]– winning three games during the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and finishing second to Poland in its group, but faring worse in the 1982 edition (fourth position);^[3] both campaigns ended in failure to reach the final stages.

Juca was again in charge of the national team for the 1990 World Cup qualification, missing it by just two points in the favour of Czechoslovakia. After being dismissed he returned to Sporting Clube de Portugal, working until 2004 as director of football and youth coordinator.^[1] He died at the age of 78.

Honours

Player

• Portuguese League: 1950–51, 1951–52, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1957–58
• Portuguese Cup: 1953–54

Manager

• Portuguese League: 1961–62, 1965–66
• Portuguese Cup: 1962–63

References

1. Biography and stats; Wiki Sporting (Portuguese)
2. O primeiro na casa dos 40 jogos (First to reach 40); Portuguese Football Federation (Portuguese)
3. Portuguese national team coaches; at RSSSF

External links

• Juca at footballzz.co.uk
• Juca profile at ForaDeJogo
• Juca manager stats at ForaDeJogo
• Portugal stats at Eu-Football