Nélson "Nelsinho" Baptista Júnior (born 22 July 1950) is a Brazilian football coach and former player who played as a right-back.
[5] He subsequently had short spells at the helm of Ponte Preta and Mogi Mirim[6] before taking over Inter de Limeira in 1986 in the place of Lori Sandri.
[8] He left the club at the end of the season, and moved abroad for the first time in his career to take over Sporting Barranquilla [es] in the Colombian Campeonato Profesional.
Sacked by the Colombian side in April 1989,[9] Baptista was named at the helm of América-SP after a short spell back at São Bento; at América, his fitness coach was Vadão.
[13] In 1992, Baptista returned to Corinthians after replacing Basílio, but was sacked in August 1993 after losing the 1993 Torneio Rio-São Paulo finals to his former side Palmeiras.
He subsequently worked abroad, managing Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia and Verdy Kawasaki in Japan, before returning to his home country in 1996 with Internacional.
After a poor performance in the 1997 Série A, he left and was named Cruzeiro head coach in August in the place of Paulo Autuori.
[15] Baptista left Cruzeiro after losing the 1997 Intercontinental Cup to Borussia Dortmund, and was named in charge of São Paulo in February 1998.
[33] Baptista was appointed Sport Recife head coach on 10 December 2007,[34] and won the 2008 Copa do Brasil with the club.