Maurício Copertino
Maurício de Almeida Copertino, known as Maurício Copertino, is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He is the current head coach of Santo André.
Playing career
Born in Santos, São Paulo, Copertino joined the youth categories of Santos FC in 1984. He made his senior debut while on loan at Jabaquara in 1990, later serving another temporary spells at Tupã and Oeste before returning to his parent club for the 1993 season.In 1996, after another loan spell at Caxias, Copertino joined Coritiba. In 1997, after representing Portuguesa Santista, he moved abroad and joined Saudi club Al-Ahli.
Back to his home country in 1998, Copertino played for Ferroviária and Inter de Limeira before again moving abroad in the following year, with Panachaiki in Greece.
In 2003, Copertino signed for Chinese side Henan Construction. After a period at União São João, he announced his retirement on 10 December 2005, aged 35.
Coaching career
After retiring, Copertino went on to take his coaching licenses and was named head coach of Serrano in 2006, but was dismissed soon after. In 2007, he worked as an assistant of Nenê Belarmino at Sertãozinho and Botafogo-SP, before joining Alexandre Gallo's staff at Internacional in April of that year, under the same role.Copertino continued to work as Gallo's assistant in the following years, at Figueirense, Atlético Mineiro, Bahia, Santo André, Náutico, Al-Ain, Avaí and the Brazil national under-20 team. In 2016, after a period as head coach of the under-20 team of Portuguesa, he joined Vanderlei Luxemburgo's staff at Chinese side Tianjin Quanjian, also as an assistant.
On 1 December 2016, Copertino was appointed manager of China League One side Zhejiang Yiteng for the upcoming season. Sacked the following 28 May, he returned to Brazil and became an assistant of Preto Casagrande at Bahia, before being again named at the helm of Zhejiang on 2 January 2018.
Again dismissed by the Chinese side on 24 September 2018, Copertino reunited with Luxemburgo in 2019, being his assistant at Vasco da Gama. Another spells in the same role at Palmeiras and Cruzeiro followed, and he was later announced as head coach of ASA on 17 April 2022.
On 17 May 2022, Copertino resigned from ASA after receiving an offer from the United Arab Emirates, later revealed to be the under-23 side of Baniyas. In May 2023, he returned to Brazil and Corinthians, again as Luxemburgo's assistant.
On 31 January 2024, Copertino was appointed head coach of Ferroviário. On 7 May, however, he was sacked after a 5–0 loss to São Bernardo.
On 27 April 2025, Copertino returned to his first club Santos, as head coach of the under-20 team. He was dismissed on 22 August, and was announced as head coach of Santo André on 6 October.