About the latter title, Parreira has said that this was personally the most important trophy of his career, even more so than Brazil's World Cup triumph, as the club he loved was facing near-bankruptcy and became very close to extinction at the time[citation needed].

Parreira is one of two coaches that has led five national teams to the World Cup: Kuwait in 1982, United Arab Emirates in 1990, Brazil in 1994 and 2006, Saudi Arabia in 1998 and South Africa in 2010.

In end of 2000, when the team was in turmoil after firing Vanderlei Luxemburgo, he refused the post, stating that he did not want to relive the stress and pressure of winning the World Cup again.

There were public cries again to replace Luiz Felipe Scolari for Parreira in July 2001 when Brazil lost two matches to Mexico and Honduras in its title defense at the 2001 Copa América in Colombia, especially after last minute invitee (replacing Argentina who dropped out one day before the kickoff) Honduras defeated 2–0 and eliminated the favorite Brazil in quarter finals round on July 23, 2001.

He was named coach along with Mario Zagallo as assistant director in January 2003, with the goal of defending their World Cup title in Germany 2006, but on July 1, 2006, Brazil was defeated and eliminated 0–1 by France in the quarterfinals.

After Brazil's exit from the World Cup, Parreira was heavily criticized by the Brazilian public and media for playing an outdated brand of football and not using the players available to him properly.