Antônio Carlos Zago

Antônio Carlos

Antônio Carlos in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Antônio Carlos Zago
Date of birth	(1969-03-14) 14 March 1969 (age 48)
Place of birth	Presidente Prudente, Brazil
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Centre back
Club information
Current team	Internacional (Manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1990–1992	São Paulo	64	(4)
1992–1993	Albacete	12	(1)
1993–1995	Palmeiras	58	(5)
1996–1997	Kashiwa Reysol	24	(0)
1997	Corinthians	12	(2)
1998–2002	Roma	107	(2)
2002–2004	Beşiktaş	56	(2)
2004–2005	Santos	7	(0)
2005–2006	Juventude	52	(2)
2007	Santos	1	(0)
National team
1991–2001	Brazil	37	(3)
Teams managed
2009–2010	São Caetano
2010	Palmeiras
2010	Grêmio Prudente
2011	Mogi Mirim
2011	Vila Nova
2012	Audax São Paulo
2013	AS Roma (assistant coach)
2013–2015	Shakhtar Donetsk (assistant coach)
2015–2016	Juventude
2017–	Internacional
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Antônio Carlos Zago, widely known as "Antônio Carlos" or "A.C. Zago", (born 14 March 1969 in Presidente Prudente) is a former Brazilian footballer and current coach.

Born in Presidente Prudente, a city of the state of São Paulo, also having Italian origins, began professional football in São Paulo FC, where he remained for three years and then signed to Albacete Balompié, Spain, where he stayed for only one season. He returned to his homeland, this time to Palmeiras, another team of São Paulo and a rival to his previous Brazilian team. After three years emigrated again, this time in Japan, Kashiwa Reysol, where once again remained for only one year before returning to play again in São Paulo, but this time at Corinthians, being one of the few players who have played in all the three biggest teams of the city and archrivals as well.

In January 1998 Zago moved to Rome, wanted by Zdenek Zeman to reinforce the defence line. In his game debut, 11 February 1998 (Lecce-Roma) was expelled after a few minutes of play, but with the club giallorossi improved his quality and skill, so that in 1999 he recalled to his National Assembly. At Rome Zago played for five years and was also part of the Scudetto-winning team in 2001, a fact which remains an idol to the public romanista, who called him Terminator. That year Zago formed a rocky defence well supported by his compatriot Aldair and Argentinian Walter Samuel as well.

In November 1999 Zago was the protagonist of a shocking episode, when he hit in the face Lazio player Diego Simeone during a derby. The outcome was a positive attitude towards him by the fans, who pay tribute to his action in the song "Brusco", the phrases "Zago: spits fire as a dragon" and "people can only keep their mouth shut, otherwise AC Zago will spit at them". Zago is also one of the few Brazilian players who is known with his name and surname. During the years he spent to Rome he had chosen his name on the shirt to be written in different ways, the first "ANTÔNIO CARLOS", then "AC ZAGO" then simply "ZAGO."