NEW YORK: Brazilian soccer's ultimate showman Renato Portaluppi has transformed Club World Cup underdogs Fluminense from relegation battlers to giant-killers in three months, setting up a blockbuster semi-final with Chelsea on Tuesday.

The charismatic 62-year-old, known as Renato Gaucho, has helped them defy the odds to knock out Champions League runners-up Inter Milan in the last 16 and Al-Hilal in the quarter-finals with his trademark extravagant guidance from the touchline.

Portaluppi was one of Brazilian soccer's most popular and polarising figures before taking over a Fluminense team that had barely avoided relegation in the Brazilian league last year.

Now his standing has grown stronger after guiding one of the tournament's biggest underdogs this far.

The former striker, who scored almost 200 goals in a career spanning two decades, has never been short of confidence or controversy. A textbook egomaniac, Portaluppi once declared that he was "better than Cristiano Ronaldo."

His playing heroics included scoring with his belly one of the most iconic goals in the country's history - the winner that gave Fluminense the 1995 Rio de Janeiro championship in a breathtaking 3-2 derby victory over Romario's Flamengo.

The next morning, he graced the front page of Brazil's most popular newspaper wearing a crown with a sceptre in one hand and a ball in the other under the headline 'King of Rio.'

A decade earlier, he was the hero of his childhood club Gremio, guiding them to their first Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup titles as a young player.

From humble beginnings, he bought a house for each of his 11 siblings with the bonus he received.