Alexandre Guimarães
Alexandre Henrique Borges Guimarães is a Brazilian-Costa Rican retired footballer, who played in 1990 FIFA World Cup for Costa Rica and is currently the manager of América de Cali.
He was the Costa Rica national football team head coach in Korea-Japan 2002 and Germany 2006, and had successful runs with teams like Al Wasl in United Arab Emirates, Tianjin Teda in China and Deportivo Saprissa in Costa Rica. His son Celso Borges currently plays for Göztepe in Turkish Süper Lig. He represented Costa Rica nationally, despite being born and raised in Brazil. He managed Indian Super League club Mumbai City FC between 2016 and 2018.
Club career
Born in Maceió, Alagoas, in the northeast of Brazil, Guimarães moved to Costa Rica in 1971 at the age of twelve and became a Costa Rican citizen in 1980. He played basketball for Asturias but as a football player, Guimarães started his career at second division side Durpanel San Blas where he became the league's goalscorer with 16. He then played for top flight clubs Municipal Puntarenas, Deportivo Saprissa, and Turrialba.He was national champion three times with Saprissa in 1982, 1988 and 1989 and scored 95 goals in 377 official matches.
International career
Guimarães made his debut for Costa Rica in a March 1985 friendly match against Canada and earned a total of 16 caps, scoring 2 goals. He represented his country in 5 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and played in three matches in the 1990 FIFA World Cup.His final international was a in that World Cup's Round of 16 match against Czechoslovakia.
International goals
| Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | |
| 1. | 8 September 1985 | Estadio Tiburcio Carías Andino, Tegucigalpa, Honduras | 1–1 | 1–3 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification | |
| 2. | 7 February 1989 | Estadio Nacional, San José, Costa Rica | 1–1 | 2–4 | Friendly match |
Managerial career
After retiring as a player, he became one of the most successful coaches in Costa Rica's history. He started coaching Belén, then moved to Herediano in summer 1996, where he achieved good results with both teams. He was hired by Saprissa, where he worked for several years, winning three national tournaments with them. His last Costa Rican team was Cartaginés, whom he joined in June 2003, a stint that was catastrophic, ending with his dismissal in November 2003 as the team was almost relegated to the second tier and in financial troubles due to high salaries on players that did not show their quality. He has also coached several teams internationally, such as Comunicaciones of Guatemala, Irapuato and Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico.He is best known for his great achievements as a member of Costa Rica's national squad, and as a head coach, leading them to an almost perfect qualifier for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Not having advanced to the second round, Guima was replaced as the head coach of the national team. Later he would regain his position, but was handed a National squad in a poor state. Still, he led Costa Rica's team to the 2006 World Cup, after which he quit from the squad, given the team's poor performance in the tournament.
On November 7, 2006, on his 47th birthday, Guimarães was chosen as the head coach for the Panama national football team but he was dismissed in June 2008.
In April 2009, he has moved to the Middle East to start a new challenge coaching the famous United Arab Emirates Club, Al Wasl FC, starting from the 2009/2010 Season. With Al Wasl he managed to win the Gulf Clubs Championship in a final against Qatar SC, the first and only international honour for this club. Then he moved on to Al Dhafra in 2010. In May 2011 he returned to Saprissa for a one-year spell.
On 1 June 2012, Chinese Super League side Tianjin Teda announced that they had officially signed Guimarães as new Head Coach after Croatian coach Josip Kuže was sacked, completing the first season with excellent results, emerging from the bottom of the table to near the first positions. Before his second season, the club suffered a sanction with -6 points due to irregularities in the mid-2000s years and the team had to battle for finishing in a comfortable position, which finally happened. Guimaraes didn't come to an agreement to renew the contract for the next season.
On 19 April 2016, the Indian Super League franchise Mumbai City FC signed Guimarães as their new head coach, replacing French international Nicolas Anelka. He left the role in August 2018.
On 17 June 2019, he was appointed manager of América de Cali. This same year he took América de Cali to win their 14th Colombian Championship, on December 7, 2019. The final was held over a 2-game tie against Junior de Barranquilla. The first leg was a no goal tie in Baranquilla. The 2nd leg was played in Cali, and saw America win 2–0.