Luiz Felipe Scolari unveiled as next Brazil manager

Luiz Felipe Scolari has been named as Mano Menezes’ replacement as Brazil manager and will lead the team in the 2014 World Cup, the Brazilian Football Federation have confirmed.

Scolari said: “I’m not feeling under pressure, but very happy,. When the FA president called me last Tuesday and confirmed that I was the chosen one, I thanked him a thousand times.”

The Brazilian boss will replace Mano Menezes, who was sacked last Friday. It will be a return to a post that Scolari occupied previously, after he guided Brazil to their last World Cup success in 2002, and now he will have the opportunity to manage his nation as they host the World Cup in 2014.

Despite that record, there will be doubts over his appointment, as he has achieved little of note since: his highest-profile job was a short and disappointing reign at Chelsea in the Premier League, and recently he was largely culpable for the relegation of Palmeiras in Brazil. A discussion in Brazil about whether the time was right to appoint a foreign boss was met with a host of former greats stating that it should be a Brazilian to manage the team, however, something that will have worked in Scolari’s favour.

During his 30 months in charge, Menezes’ record is impressive but not spectacular -- a 64 percent win rate is excellent, but there were no major scalps or even particularly impressive games he could point to as emblematic of his reign. In that regard, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Brazil are desperate to win on home soil in 2014, and nothing in Menezes’ resume indicated that that was particularly likely to happen. In line to replace him is, apparently, former coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who won the World Cup in 2002. We won’t know any details until January, however, so let the speculation begin.