Atlético Mineiro is rushing to convince coach Cuca, 59, to return almost seven months after he left, in December of last year, alleging family problems. This Friday (22), the club fired Argentine Antonio “Turco” Mohamed from the position.
The return of the champion coach of Mineiro, the Copa do Brasil and the Brazilian Championship in 2021 goes directly through a meeting scheduled between the parties, headed by football director Rodrigo Caetano.
“Caetano is taking care of this. I can’t talk about names, everything gets in the way, but I say that we want to make this sacrament even today [sexta-feira]. We idealized it to be as fast as possible”, he told Sheet businessman Rubens Menin, the club’s main financial supporter
Behind the scenes, Menin is seen as the main enthusiast of Cuca’s third visit to Belo Horizonte, despite the names of Renato Gaúcho and Odair Hellmann also being on the agenda.
He heads the group that became known as “4 Rs”, name given by the initial letter of the four entrepreneurs responsible for most of the investments in recent years: Renato Salvador, from Materdei, Ricardo Guimarães, Banco BMG, in addition to Rafael Menin and Rubens Menin , both from MRV.
Gaucho should turn the focus in case of a new refusal by Cuca. He became the club’s main target shortly after the departure of Argentine Jorge Sampaoli, in early 2021, but chose to renew with Grêmio. Four months later, he was fired from the club.
Cuca, in turn, says he plans to return to football only in 2023, justifying his focus on opening the institute that bears his name, scheduled to open next month, in partnership with the city of Curitiba.
People closest to the coach, however, say that he has analyzed in recent days the feasibility of an immediate return.
“I am imbued with this [projeto social]. Of course there are speculations [para voltar ao futebol], but that’s just speculation. There’s nothing truthful above these speculations,” he explained to Sheet on June 7, when his name was linked to Flamengo.
In early July, when asked about a possible interest from Boca Juniors, speculated by the Argentine press, he was emphatic: “I continue as I agreed at the beginning of the year. This year I don’t work”.
At the end of his second spell at Atlético, the club confirmed the version given by the coach, explaining that it tried to dissuade him from the idea, seeking a path in which it was possible to reconcile private issues with work, and said that Cuca had committed himself not to work in any another team in 2022.
“Everything was done in a very professional way by him, there are no regrets between Cuca and Atlético. The possibility of him not continuing was old, it has been going on for about three months”, Menin argued.
Last year, in the midst of the most pressure suffered by Cuca, Menin publicly paid for his stay in an interview with the website Superesportes, claiming that he never considered hiring Renato Gaúcho.
“I’ll speak as a fan: I never wanted Renato Gaúcho, I always wanted Cuca. From the moment Sampaoli left, Cuca, for me, was the best thing about him. And I still think that. Judging a coach for two , three weeks of work, it’s a joke. The problem with Brazilian football is that the crowd charges, the club gives in and fires the coach”, defended the businessman at the time.
Cuca faced difficulties on arrival for the second spell at the Minas Gerais club. When quoted, most of the mentions of his name on social media were rejection. Spearheaded by a mobilization of Atlético fans, the hashtag “CucaNão” became a viral term at the time.
A 1987 police case, while a Grêmio player, on a tour of the Rio Grande do Sul club in Bern, Switzerland, when he and three teammates –Eduardo Hamester, Fernando Castoldi and Henrique Etges– were arrested and convicted of sexual violence against a minor 13 years old, reverberated with force, especially in feminist collectives of the Atletico fans.
He had to go public to swear his innocence alongside his family. The Minas Gerais club, in turn, treated the matter as “overcome”, saying they believed in the coach’s word. Afterwards, he left the club with the even greater status of an idol – in his first spell he had already won the Libertadores in 2013.
Turco Mohamed fell a day after the 1-1 draw against Cuiabá, away from home, in a match valid for the 18th round of the Brazilian.
Despite the titles of Mineiro and Supercopa do Brasil, the Argentine was under pressure since the elimination to Flamengo in the round of 16 of the Copa do Brasil.
In the period, there were 45 games, 27 victories, 13 draws and five defeats, an advantage of 69.6%. In addition, Atlético have not lost in nine games in the national competition.
While he does not define a successor, permanent assistant Lucas Gonçalves will lead the team against Corinthians, on Sunday (24), at Mineirão.
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