He subsequently became a coach and led Palmeiras, Corinthians, Cruzeiro and Santos to Série A titles, winning the tournament five times, a record total.

[1] Born in Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro, Luxemburgo played the most of his youth football for Botafogo, but made his senior debut with Flamengo in 1972; at the club, he was mainly a backup to Júnior.

Before being a first team trainer, Luxemburgo spent the rest of the 1980 campaign with Antônio Lopes' Olaria, but not being officially under contract with the club.

[2] Luxemburgo's first coaching experience occurred in 1983, with Campo Grande; he only lasted eight matches at the club, being sacked after altercations with the board.

[4] In 1984, after managing Friburguense, Luxemburgo then moved abroad to Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad; initially Joubert's assistant,[5] he was in subsequently charge of the club.

He subsequently worked at Flamengo, Guarani and Ponte Preta before being hired by Palmeiras in 1993; he led the latter club to both the state and league championships in 1993 and 1994.

When Luxemburgo left in 1995 for Flamengo, Palmeiras' performance was visibly affected, and when he came back in 1996 (after a short period at Paraná), the team won the São Paulo State championship again.

[citation needed] Luxemburgo was hired as Real Madrid's coach from Santos in the second half of the 2004–05 season when Mariano García Remón was dismissed from the job.

[8] He led Real Madrid to seven consecutive league wins, putting them back in the title race but ended up losing it four points behind FC Barcelona.

Luxemburgo signed, for the third time, a contract with Santos, leading the club to the 2006 São Paulo State Championship and in fourth place of the Série A.

He also saw Santos through the semi-finals of the 2007 Copa Libertadores, winning all the matches in the group stage and eliminating strong teams, such as Caracas in the round of 16 and América in the quarter-finals, before losing to Grêmio in the semis.

Palmeiras defeated Sport Recife on penalties in the Round of 16, but were eliminated by an away goal from Nacional from Uruguay drawing both matches, by 1–1 at home and 0–0 away.

[13] On 30 July 2013, Luxemburgo signed with carioca side Fluminense FC, that dismissed, one day earlier, Abel Braga.

On 23 July 2014, Luxemburgo was named as a new head coach of Flamengo with the mission of taking lot of an unprecedented low points record at the start of the Brazilian national league (Brasileiro).

[16] Luxa was ultimately successful in leading the club's struggle against relegation, earning important points in the tournament and taking the team to the upper half of the table.

[17] On 2 June 2015, Vanderlei Luxemburgo was named as a new head coach of Cruzeiro Esporte Clube,[18] but was dismissed after poor results on 31 August.

[25] On 31 December 2020, it was announced the return of Luxemburgo to Vasco da Gama on a contract running until the end of the 2020 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A season.