Samba football could be coming to St Mary’s Stadium in Kitende after Vipers appointed Brazilian tactician Leonard Martins Neiva as their head coach on a two-year contract.

Neiva is the third Brazilian gaffer to take charge of the Kitende-based club in the last two years after Robertinho Oliveira who spent one and half seasons at the club, and Beto Bianchi’s ill-fated seven-game spell in which Vipers failed to find the back of the net even once, culminating in his sacking after 58 days.

Neiva replaces double-winning coach Alex Isabirye who spent only three months in the role before resigning earlier this month in rocky fashion.

It was an unusual unveiling as the club chairman, George Mulindwa, presided over the function, something that has long been done by the club proprietor himself, Lawrence Mulindwa.

Neiva’s immediate tasks are to retain the Uganda Premier League, and the Uganda Cup, and take Vipers back into the CAF Champions League group stages where they were last season.

He comes with huge experience from Brazil, Asia and Africa where he worked at different clubs and national teams winning trophies and playing in continental competitions.

On the African continent, he guided Young Africans of Tanzania to the league title and the Tanzanian Super Cup in the 2014-2015 season, he also worked at Sudan’s Al-Merrikh for a short spell which was his last job.

Elsewhere, he worked at clubs such as Rakhine United, Associação Atlético Francana, Montego Bay United, Yadanarbon, Thai Honda, and Clube Atlético Itapemirim.

Speaking to the club’s in-house media, Neiva expressed his delight to work and associate with a club of such magnitude and promised to build on the current success to achieve more.

“I am incredibly proud and excited to represent Vipers SC’s interests. This is a fantastic club. I am very excited to be here and I look forward to meeting and working with the exciting group of players and to develop a team and culture that our amazing fans can be proud of,” the 45-year-old tactician noted.

He is expected to work with Lukusa Kayembe Raoul and Richard Wasswa as his first and second assistants respectively.

Vipers have already signed two Brazilian players in Luiz Otavio Santos de Araujo and Giancarlo Lopez Rodriguez.

The influx of foreign coaches and players for the coming season is on the rise with KCCA who already hired Portugal’s Sergio Traguil and two Brazilian players while SC Villa have Serbian tactician in Dusan Stojanovic.