Vinícius Bergantin

Vinícius Bergantin (born 31 July 1980) is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who is the current head coach of Ferroviária. A central defender, he spent most of his playing career with Hannover 96.

Playing career
Vinícius was born in Salto. He began his career at the academy of Ituano Futebol Clube in 1998 and signed a professional deal at the club in 2000 after impressing the coaching staff there. His first and only season at the club was very successful, as he impressed many with his ability to make forward runs and finished the season with three league goals in twenty-four appearances. This good form attracted the interest of other clubs, including Associação Desportiva São Caetano, who signed him in 2001.

However Vinícius rarely featured for São Caetano, making just two league appearances and scoring once. In 2002, he was signed by Sociedade Gama. Here he regularly made appearances for the club, taking part in nineteen games in the league without scoring. He was showing a lot of potential and European clubs began to show an interest.

Gama agreed to loan Vinícius out to German Bundesliga outfit Hannover 96 for the 2002–03 season. He made seventeen appearances, scoring twice during this loan spell and impressed the manager at the time. Hannover signed Vinícius for £700,000 in 2003. Vinícius had a spinal disc herniation and so he could not play from 2008 to 2010. Hannover 96 did not extend his contract because of his injury, but he remained at the club to keep in shape.

Three months after being without a club following his departure from Hannover, he joined the Americana Futebol in January 2011.

Coaching career
After his retirement, Bergantin started working as an assistant manager in his first club Ituano in 2017, being appointed manager later in the same year. He resigned from Ituano on 6 June 2021, after nearly four years in charge of the club.

Bergantin subsequently worked at Inter de Limeira and Santo André in his native state, before being named head coach of CSA on 21 February 2023. He was sacked by the latter club on 21 June.

On 30 January 2024, after a short period at Retrô, Bergantin was appointed in charge of Ferroviária.