René Simões

Born in Rio de Janeiro, he guided Jamaica national team to the World Cup in France in 1998. This was Jamaica's first, and to date, only appearance in the final stages of a World Cup, as well as making Jamaica the first English speaking Caribbean country to qualify for the World Cup. His squad was made up of a few English players of Jamaican parentage, and they were dubbed 'The Reggae Boyz' in the English media. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, he won the silver medal with the Brazil women's national team. He has also previously coached Trinidad and Tobago. In 2006, he was the head coach and manager of Iran U-23 national team. In 2007 Simões then returned to Brazil to coach Série B Coritiba, where he won the second division. He left Coritiba in November 2008 to accept the position as Jamaica's Technical Director for the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign. On 11 September 2008 Renê Simões was fired by the Jamaica Football Federation after just nine months in charge due to the country's poor performance in World Cup qualifiers. On 2 October 2008, he was appointed to manage Fluminense and was released on 6 March 2009. Simões then returned to Coritiba at the start of the 2009 Brasileiro but was released after four months, when the club fell to the relegation zone. He then moved to Serie B Portuguesa in São Paulo but Simões resigned in August 2009 after only two weeks as coach of second-division Portuguesa in Brazil, after saying armed men threatened the players in the locker room…