Luiz Júnior de Souza Lopes (born 8 October 1981), known as Luizinho Lopes, is a Brazilian footballmanager and former player who played as a midfielder.
After retiring, Lopes was an under-20 coach at his first club América, and later worked as an assistant of Leandro Sena at Treze and Roberto Fernandes at Remo in the 2014 season.[1] He returned to América in 2015, now as an assistant, before being named head coach of Globo FC on 30 March 2016.[2]
Lopes led Globo to a first-ever promotion to the Série C in 2017, but asked to leave the club on 9 February 2018.[3] Eleven days later, he took over fellow third division side Confiança,[4] but was sacked on 24 July.[5]
Lopes returned to América on 20 September 2018, after being presented as head coach of the club for the 2019 season.[6] Dismissed the following 1 February,[7] he was named at the helm of Treze on 26 June 2019,[8] but was relieved from his duties on 18 July.[9]
On 17 February 2020, Lopes was named head coach of Uberlândia,[10] but left the club on 12 August to take over Manaus FC in the third tier.[11] He left the club on 1 December,[12] but returned on 11 March 2021, replacing Luizinho Vieira.[13]
Despite winning the 2021 Campeonato Amazonense, Lopes resigned from Manaus on 24 May of that year,[14] and was named Jacuipense head coach on 2 August.[15] He also resigned from the latter 21 days later, after just two matches,[16] and returned to Confiança just hours later, with the side now in the Série B.[17]
On 24 November 2021, despite the club's relegation, Lopes renewed his contract with Confiança for a further year,[18] but was sacked on 13 April 2022.[19] On 11 November, he was appointed at the helm of Brusque for the upcoming campaign.[20]
Lopes was sacked by the Quadricolor on 20 May 2024, following a 4–0 loss to Santos.[22] Three days later, he replaced Márcio Fernandes at the helm of fellow second division side Vila Nova,[23] but was also dismissed on 20 October.[24]
