Dunga hails Scolari's appointment as Brazil coach

Many former Brazilian players, in Kolkata to play a friendly, welcomed the dual appointment of World Cup-winning coaches Carlos Alberto Parreira and Luiz Felipe Scolari at the helm of the country's football affairs again.

Scolari, who led the selecao to their last world title in 2002, besides helping Portugal to the last four stage four years later, was officially unveiled as Brazil's new coach on Thursday.

At the same time, the Brazilian confederation (CBF) also announced the appointment of Parreira, who ended the side's 24-year wait for a fourth title in 1994 and also won the Copa America (2004) and the Confederations Cup (2005), as the team's technical director.

With Brazil hosting the 2014 edition of the quadrennial event, the two appointments are being looked at as significant steps, more so because Brazil, following a series of poor results, dropped out of the top 10 in the FIFA rankings for the first time this July, and by October slid further to 14th, their worst ever ranking since the system was introduced in 1993.

The drop cost Mano Menezes his job, and the authorities opted to hand the task of winning a sixth world title (first on home soil) to two trusted, and proven, veteran coaches who had experienced the feeling before.

"Scolari is the perfect recipe for Brazil," declared Dunga, who won the World Cup as captain in 1994, before (as a coach) guiding them to the quarter-finals in 2010, when they lost 1-2 to the Netherlands.

"He will take Brazil to great success," added the former captain, who is expected to return to coaching next year, at the helm of former Copa Libertadores champions Internacional of Porto Alegre.

Dunga is in Kolkata as part of the NVD Brazil Masters team, scheduled to play a friendly match against an All Stars XI, led by former Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita, at the Salt Lake stadium on Saturday.

There were quite a few who concurred with him.

"It is a great development," said Juninho Paulista.

"The real coach will be Scolari. He will look after the team while Perera, as the technical director, will take care of the arrangements," added the much-travelled player.