Parreira supports
Fluminense, and he has won two league titles for the club: The First Division
Brazilian Championship in 1984 and the Third Division in 1999. About the latter title, Parreira has said that this was personally the most important trophy of his career, even more so than Brazil's World Cup triumph, as the club he loved was facing near-bankruptcy and became very close to extinction at the time. Parreira is one of two coaches that has led five national teams to the
World Cup:
Kuwait in
1982,
United Arab Emirates in
1990, Brazil in
1994 and
2006,
Saudi Arabia in
1998 and
South Africa in
2010. The other coach,
Bora Milutinović, reached this record when he led a fifth team in 2002. Parreira was also involved with the
1970 championship team for Brazil, which he claims was an inspiration for him to aspire to be a national football coach. In 1997, Parreira coached the
MetroStars of the
American Major League Soccer. He also coached
Fenerbahçe in Turkey and won a Turkish League Championship. Parreira was in charge of
Corinthians in 2002, which gave him two of the most important national trophies of 2002: The
Brazilian Cup and the
Torneio Rio-São Paulo, besides being runner up at the
Brazilian League. When coaching Saudi Arabia at the
1998 World Cup in France, he was fired after two matches, one of three managers to be sacked during the tournament. Parreira repeatedly turned down offers to coach Brazil again between 1998 and 2002 World Cups. In end of 2000, when the team was in turmoil after firing
Vanderlei Luxemburgo, he refused the post, stating that he did not want to relive the stress and pressure of winning the World Cup again. There were public cries again to replace
Luiz Felipe Scolari for Parreira in July 2001 when Brazil lost two matches to
Mexico and
Honduras in its title defense at the
2001 Copa América in
Colombia, especially after last minute invitee (replacing
Argentina who dropped out one day before the kickoff) Honduras defeated 2–0 and eliminated the favorite
Brazil in quarter finals round on July 23, 2001. Parreira only stated that he would indirectly assist Scolari in the 2002 campaign. After the
2002 World Cup, Parreira took part in drafting a technical report of the tournament. He was named coach along with
Mario Zagallo as assistant director in January 2003, with the goal of defending their World Cup title in
Germany 2006, but on July 1, 2006, Brazil was defeated and eliminated 0–1 by
France in the quarterfinals. After Brazil's exit from the World Cup, Parreira was heavily criticized by the Brazilian public and media for playing an outdated brand of football and not using the players available to him properly. Parreira subsequently resigned on July 19, 2006. He coached
Brazil to victory in the
1994 FIFA World Cup and was the coach of the
South Africa national football team until resigning in April 2008. On October 22, 2009, it was announced he would return as head coach of South Africa. He announced a verbal agreement with the
South African Football Association on October 23, 2009. He resumed coaching South Africa in 2009 in time for the
2010 World Cup. In South Africa, his team drew with Mexico, 1–1, in the tournament opener, lost to Uruguay, 3–0, and beat France, 2–1, to finish third in Group A. After the France game, he tried to shake hands with French coach
Raymond Domenech but the latter refused. On 25 June 2010 he announced his retirement as football coach. ==Style of management==