Cuca, the convicted pedophile, is no longer Athletico Paranaense’s coach.
Yesterday, June 24, the Hurricane announced via their social media that Cuca will be leaving the club. Cuca’s final game for the Hurricane was the 1-1 tie against Corinthians this past Sunday, the 23rd.
The disappointing tie at home came as the team’s third straight tie, all of which played out the same with Athletico winning and the opposition equalizing with goals in the last minutes of the game.
In Athletico’s official announcement, made via the clubs’ social media, they made it clear that Cuca was the one who asked to leave, and sources have reported that Athletico wasn’t too happy with Cuca’s early departure.
Cuca leaves with a record of 23 games and 14 wins, leaving the Hurricane in fifth position in the Brazilian league.
As surprising as it might be to see Cuca leave the only top-tier team willing to give him a chance, considering the negative backlash that comes with hiring a convicted pedophile, this isn’t the first time Cuca has left a team mid-season.
In fact, Cuca does this a lot.
The biggest exit Cuca ever had in his career was with Atlético Mineiro.
Atlético Mineiro, commonly known as Galo, is a team based in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. With Galo, Cuca did what had never been done before and took the team to continental glory, winning them a Libertadores, something the team had never done before.
As a result of the historic Libertadores win, Atlético qualified for the Club World Cup. With a team filled with stars such as world-renowned World Cup and Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldinho, and miracle-worker goalkeeper Victor in goal, Galo had everything to make a historic run at the Club World Cup.
However, Galo’s dreams of a Club World Cup were shattered as the team lost their first game. Despite the bad performance, one thing that got in the way of the team being able to play their game was the fact that Cuca announced he was leaving the team right before the game.
Doing this, announcing his departure before a very important game, is something that definitely impacted the dressing room and is said to be a key factor in Galo’s poor performance at the tournament.
Cuca has also left many winning teams in the past, showing just how unable he is to give continuity to his own work.
With Palmeiras, he won the Brazilian league in 2016 and left right after.
Douglas Teixeira from Santos, Brasil, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
A second stint at Galo saw him winning the Brazilian league and the Brazilian Cup, only to leave right after.
Even during a short period coaching Asian side Shandong Luneng, he left right after winning the Chinese Cup and the Chinese Super Cup.
With all this said, Cuca leaving out of nowhere is very common.
Cuca once again showed the world just how much of a coward he is—a man unable to finish a contract, unable to give continuity to his own work, and a man who isn’t able to take responsibility for his own actions.
I don’t know what else to expect from someone who couldn’t even show up to his court date.
Cuca’s story is a sad one, of a coach who will never be on the same level as others like Abel Ferreira, Pep Guardiola, Tite, or any other coach who has a backbone and follows through with his word.
In the end, Cuca’s legacy is one of abandonment and disgrace. He continues to follow his pattern of running away from responsibilities and leaving teams to which he had a commitment.
All of these actions are just reflections of Cuca’s true character.
Athletico Paranaense, like many before, now faces the fallout of trusting a man who prioritizes his own cowardice over the commitments he makes.
As Cuca exits yet another club in disarray, it’s clear that this is just something he does and will continue to do.
With Cuca already being speculated at Cruzeiro, only time will tell if another team is foolish enough to take another chance on such an untrustworthy coach.
It would truly be a shame to see another top-tier team hire Cuca, and hopefully, they won’t.
