Obituary: Carlos Amadeu, a teacher who taught football and took Bahian...

After Gabriel Menino was summoned, I looked for the coach – an authentic Bahian, because of his temperament, good humor in Salvador – to talk a little about the memories I had of this player. He started with him in most of the matches of the South American U-20 in 2019, in Chile, which I followed directly from Rancagua. Amadeu answered me on Skype, late at night, in the hotel room where I lived. We talked for a while.

Always serene, with a peace of mind even to talk about that last team he led in the selection. I reminded him that Gabriel Menino, Tetê, Emerson, Igor Gomes and others were the highlights of their teams and were so contested in that competition. In the same conversation, he approached players outside the field, trying to pass on knowledge about what makes an athlete take “to burst”.

With an easy smile, Carlos Amadeu was an educator at the head of young teams in Brazilian football – Photo: Mauro Neto / Sejel Amazonas / CBF Disclosure

Read this profile about Carlos Amadeu

In August, Amadeu accepted Al-Hillal’s proposal and went to work in the under-20 in Saudi Arabia. The news was published this afternoon by the newspaper “O Globo” and confirmed by the Arab club. Amadeu suffered a heart attack and died at the residence where he lived in the Arab country.

In the last few days, he published the good results he had been obtaining for the club, with a sequence of eight unbeaten matches. Always with a wide smile, almost always wearing a mask, taking care of the new coronavirus. He leaves his wife Dora and children Ricardo and Matheus.

“The club’s board of directors, chaired by Mr. Fahad Bin Saad Bin Nafel, and the club’s employees offered sincere condolences and expressed their sympathy to the family of Al Hilal U-19 Brazilian coach Carlos Amadeu, who died on Sunday after of a heart attack at his home in Riyadh. Al Hilal offered heartfelt condolences to CBF and its managers, players and coaches. “

In the 1998 Brazilian champion team it was a reserve. Evaristo de Macedo joked with him: “My side who only takes a ball in the back” – Photo: Reproduction

With a calm manner, Amadeu remained calm in moments of greater pressure, as happened in the South American under-20, which ended up culminating in his resignation from CBF. He coached the Under-17 and Under-20 National Teams until February 2019.

In 2012, Amadeu discovered a deficiency in one ear. Good-natured, he said that he was useful in some moments of the games. He used a device to minimize the impact. He told the laughs that story that I reproduce below.

Amadeu on the left side in Bahian football times – Photo: Reproduction

– Sometimes it’s a big advantage (laughs). When things are getting up there, I hang up here and I’m at peace. There was a game (in preparation) in Minas and the fans were very nervous behind me. It felt like it was banging in my ear. (Makes the gesture in the ear) I hung up, I was at peace. So good (laughs), tranquility – the coach joked.

The coach has worked with training athletes, in the field or in the hall, since 1992. At Vitória, he trained Vampeta, the late Alex Alves, among others. In the selection, recently, he was with Vinicius Junior and Paulinho. He worked in the selection with numerous professionals, such as Odair Hellman, who was his assistant at CBF and defined him once for the profile I wrote: “professor in the sense of the word”.

Amadeu was undefeated South American champion in 2017 and third place in the World Championship. Before that, he directed Vitória for almost six years – he was champion of the Brazil Under-20 Cup in 2012 – and was also coach of Bahia. At both clubs in Bahia, he had short periods in the professional field.

Amadeu and Odair in the under-17 team – Photo: CBF