Just outside the picturesque Brazil’s tourism capital of Rio de Janeiro stands the 98-foot-high imposing statue of Jesus Christ with both hands outstretched protectively looking over the city. Its official name is Cristo Redentor, which is Portuguese for ‘Christ, the Redeemer’.
Standing at the foot of the statue gives one an awesome view of the city. If you are blessed with good eyesight and are in plenty of luck, you might just get to watch bronze skinned Brazilian beauties playing beach volleyball at the iconic Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.
If, on the other hand, you woke up on the wrong side of the bed and fate dealt you a bad hand plus a rotten luck you will never get to see the beauties. Nor the beaches. But whatever luck you are riding you will sure see the majestic Maracana Stadium, which has been lovingly given the moniker the Mecca of Football by aficionados.
It is an article of faith among young Brazilian boys that you can only know you have reached some form of self-actualisation if you get to play football at the Maracana. So was the case with the coach of Kenya’s leading football club Gor Mahia, Leonardo Neiva.
As a bona fide Carioca (as Rio citizens proudly call themselves), Neiva grew up with the historic stadium hovering in the horizon. He knew in his heart of hearts that he would one day play there, as has generations of brilliant Brazilian football stars, especially his all-time hero, Zico.
One of the world’s best players of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Zico is regarded as one of the best play-makers and free kick specialists in history, able to bend the ball in all directions. As stated on goal.com, Zico is the player that scored the most goals from direct free kicks, with 101 goals.
Neiva also has warm words for another of his compatriots, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho or simply Ronaldinho, who played as an attacking midfielder or winger. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he won two Fifa World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon d’Or.
The Gor tactician also believes that Nigerian wizard JJ Okocha was in this class of players who played from the heart and had a love affair with the ball. It is an open secret that each of the three players was an artist using the ball as the brush and the pitch as the canvas to produce a “magnum opus”, a masterpiece.
Is there any player still active who is of that calibre, I ask Neiva.
“Yes. Neymar (Junior) of Brazil and (Lionel) Messi,” he responds instantly.
Which is quite something. For a Brazilian to praise an Argentinian then the person being praised must be exceptional.
Think of Hezbollah and Israel. Well, not with the same intensity exploding pagers and all, but you get the drift. Born on 10 December 1977, Naiva started his career in futsal at Fluminense FC.
He soon migrated to field football where he played for the Bonsucesso FC. Still other experiences in the grassroots categories took place at Jacarepaguá FC and Juventude-RS.
For the professional, the attacking midfielder defended the EC Nova Cidade, club of the city of Nilopolis, in the State of Rio de Janeiro. He also accumulated stints for other clubs such as Portuguesa Santista and Vilanovense FC, from Portugal.
“It was important to me that after hitting my mid 20s and I was not where I had envisaged to be professionally, that I made a drastic decision and that is how I enrolled for a degree course in Physical Education which I finished and got a coaching qualification,” he says.
Neiva started his career as an assistant coach for América FC (Rio de Janeiro) in 2007. Then he accepted the invitation to take over the Platinum Stars FC (Royal Bafokeng) Academy in South Africa, which would be the first of eight countries outside of Brazil.
After this experience, the coach returned to Brazil in 2010 to lead the Bonsucesso-RJ team, where he was the head coach of the Senior team and also of the U-20.
Then, Léo had the opportunity to take over Yadanarbon FC, where he had a lot of prominence in the work with young players. A large number of them reached the U-20 National Team that participated in the U-20 World Cup for the first time in history in New Zealand (2015).
This achievement put him in the spotlight in the country. His work was recognized and he had the opportunity to lead the Senior team of Rakhine United. At the time, he was the youngest coach to work in the Myanmar National League, at just 34 years old.
After the end of the contract with the Asian club, Léo again had the chance to return to Brazil, where he worked in Francana’s team in the A3 Series of the São Paulo’s Championship.
The coach only returned to command a Brazilian club in 2019, when he accepted the challenge of commanding Clube Atlético Itapemirim, a team of Espírito Santo Championship. Between those comings and goings in the home country, Neiva also attended the courses of CBF/Conmebola and Pro Licenses.
He has accumulated an important international experience in his career, mainly outside his native country. The coach has worked on four continents (Asia, Africa, North America [Caribbean] and South America). He recently spent a stint in Asia, in the Thailand Premier League. The invitation came after an excellent job done in his second stint at Yadanarbon FC, club of Myanmar.
In North America, Neiva coached Jamaica’s Montego Bay United FC League, having contributed to the National Title of the season (2015/2016). In Africa there were two passes, the first in South Africa by Platinum Stars FC, where he won the Nelson Mandela Cup in 2009. Later, in Tanzania, he achieved the remarkable achievement of the National League of Tanzania and the Super Cup in 2014/2015 with Young African SC as an assistant coach.
His journeys have finally brought him to Kenya and he is glad that he landed at Kenya’s glamour club, Gor Mahia where he says the players and the fans are, use the current in season term, just the bomb.
Hold on to the ball, check where you are then pass accurately, he declares. He says he has a bunch of eager and talented players at Gor Mahia who execute his instructions to the letter.
“They are good players. Very good,” he says with the pride of a parent talking about his child’s impressive end of term exam results.
“It is never a good thing to be predictable and that is why I am always switching my players and changing the formation,” he says.
Finally our chat docks at the shore of the recent 3-0 drubbing of Gor by Egyptian giants Al Ahly. Neiva is the first to admit that Al Ahly is a bigger team than Gor. He, however, is proud of his charges for not getting scared by the pedigree of the Arabs, but choosing to take the battle to the opponents’ doorstep instead.
“I am very proud of my boys because they gave as much as they received. We went with them toe to toe and were it not for the early two goals that rattled our players, I am sure the results would have been different,” he says.
Anyone who was at Nyayo National Stadium that Sunday afternoon will agree that Gor displayed finesse that is not common in our neck of the woods and that they gave a good account of themselves especially in the second half.
Neiva says that he is intentional on building a juggernaut out of the current squad, producing a team that will be a menace not only in Kenya but continentally.
“If we can improve our rankings we will soon be paired with teams from countries like Botswana, Uganda and such like. Against such we would easily prevail thus giving us a good chance of playing in the group stages in continental competitions,” he says.
It is this attitude that Neiva -- and his players -- are carrying with them to Cairo for the reverse tie against Al Ahly on Saturday.
