São Paulo officially announced on the afternoon of this Tuesday (10) the arrival of coach Roger Machado, 51 years old, who signs a contract with the club valid until December 31, 2026. Joining him are assistants Roberto Ribas, James Freitas, and Adaílton Bolzan, fitness coach Paulo Paixão, and performance analyst Guilherme Nunes.
The new coach will lead today’s training session, which will take place at 4 p.m. (Brasília time), and will be presented shortly after, at 6 p.m., at the Barra Funda training center. He will be in charge of the team for the match against Chapecoense, in the fifth round of the Brazilian Championship, which will be played at Canindé starting at 8 p.m. on Thursday (12).
“I am very happy and very motivated by this opportunity. I know it’s a huge challenge and I know the size of São Paulo. We arrive very confident to do a great job,” said the new São Paulo coach.
Board explains the switch from Crespo to Roger
“Roger’s arrival is the result of our conviction, of everything that, together with our football board, we observed and heard about his work. He is a coach who comes highly recommended for his good work, which resulted in achievements at different clubs and in immense respect from those who have worked with him professionally,” explained president Harry Massis Júnior.
“São Paulo is hiring an excellent professional, extremely dedicated and who will live the club intensely. We trust a lot in the way he thinks about football and we are sure he will do an extraordinary job with our squad,” said executive Rui Costa, directly responsible for hiring Roger.
Roger Machado’s most recent job was at Internacional, between July 2024 and September 2025. The coach led the team to a 16-game unbeaten streak in the 2024 Brazilian Championship, a club record in the points system era, and secured a spot in the following year’s Copa Libertadores by finishing the national competition in fifth place. In 2025, he won the state championship undefeated, ending an eight-year drought in the State, the longest ever faced by Internacional in its history.
CAREER PATH
Roger Machado had a successful career as a left-back. Born in Porto Alegre, he played more than 400 matches for Grêmio, the club that developed him and with which he won a Libertadores (1995), a Brazilian Championship (1996), three Brazilian Cups (1994, 1997, and 2001), and four State Championships (1995, 1996, 1999, and 2001).
After a stint in Japanese football, where he played for Vissel Kobe, he returned to Brazil to play for Fluminense and win the Brazilian Cup for the fourth time, in 2007, scoring the title-winning goal. Only goalkeeper Rafael, who will now be one of his players at São Paulo, and midfielders Zinho and Arrascaeta have lifted the Brazilian Cup as many times as he has.
Roger ended his playing career in 2009 and took up the position of assistant on Grêmio’s permanent technical staff in 2011, when he had the opportunity to make his debut as a coach by leading a B team in a Gre-Nal played in Rivera, Uruguay, valid for the State Championship: he won 2-1. There were seven more matches as interim coach before he started his solo career on the sidelines at Juventude, at the start of 2014.
After a spell at Novo Hamburgo, he took over Grêmio in May 2015 and led the team to third place in the Brasileirão. He chose to leave the club in September 2016, months before the Brazilian Cup victory.
From there, the coach went on to Atlético-MG (won the state championship in 2017), Palmeiras, Bahia (won the Bahia state championship in 2019 and 2020), and Fluminense before returning for second spells at Grêmio (won the state championship and the Recopa Gaúcha in 2022) and Juventude, and then moving to Internacional.
ROGER MACHADO
Name: Roger Machado Marques
Date of Birth: 03/04/1975, in Porto Alegre-RS (51 years old)
Clubs as coach: Juventude (2014), Novo Hamburgo (2015), Grêmio (2015-2016), Atlético-MG (2017), Palmeiras (2018), Bahia (2019-2020), Fluminense (2021), Grêmio (2022), Juventude (2024), Internacional (2024-2025), and São Paulo (since 2026)
Titles as coach: Campeonato Mineiro (2017), Campeonato Baiano (2019), Campeonato Baiano (2020), Campeonato Gaúcho (2022), Recopa Gaúcha (2022), and Campeonato Gaúcho (2025).
Awards: Best Coach of the Campeonato Paulista (2018), Best Coach of the Campeonato Gaúcho (2025)
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.
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