The leaders of Flamengo went to Portugal with the aim of rehiring Jorge Jesus. They returned with Paulo Sousa. The 51-year-old coach was announced this Wednesday (29) as the new coach of the rubro-negro club.
He’s signed on for two years and starts leading the cast for the new season’s appearance in January. The agreement was defined and announced a day after Jesus agreed to his contractual termination with Benfica.
“Hello, Brazil. This is a message for the biggest fans in the world: great pride and satisfaction in representing a club with the incomparable greatness of Flamengo. It’s time to work hard to bring joy, titles and bring more than 40 million fans together around the team. We’ll play together,” stated Sousa.
The idea of Marcos Braz (soccer vice) and Bruno Spindel (director) was to reach an agreement with Jorge Jesus, the Portuguese Brazilian and Libertadores champion of 2019 for the team and who lives until today in the imagination of the Flamengo fans. There was a salary agreement, but it was unclear whether he would be able to terminate it with Benfica.
Managers began to look for alternatives among professionals in the country, such as Carlos Carvalhal, for example. The most viable name became Sousa, mainly because President Rodolfo Landim was pressing for a solution.
Jesus is now an option for Atlético-MG, which received a resignation from Cuca on Tuesday (28). Before going to Flamengo in 2019, the Portuguese was almost set to lead the Minas Gerais team.
To manage the rubro-negro club, Paulo Sousa rejected the chance to go to the World Cup. He left the Polish team that will compete in the UEFA playoffs in March. On the 24th, visit Russia. If he wins, he will decide his place at the World Cup in Qatar at home to Sweden or the Czech Republic.
It could be a redemption in the tournament for the Portuguese who, as a defensive midfielder, was called up for the tournament in 2002, in Korea-Japan, but did not take the field once.
His move to leave Poland with three months to go before the playoffs surprised international star striker Robert Lewandowski.
“He is surprised and shocked by Sousa’s decision,” the gunner’s adviser told a Polish newspaper.
The president of the local federation was outraged and called him “irresponsible”. Another country’s daily published a photo of the Portuguese man on the cover with the headline: “Desertor”.
At Gávea, he will have the mission of putting Flamengo back at the top of South American football. He will be the replacement for Renato Gaúcho, who was eliminated in the semifinals of the Copa do Brasil, lost the Copa Libertadores decision and finished second at the Brazilian Nationals.
To convince him to accept the position, the board of directors of the rubro-negro club agreed that Sousa would arrive in Brazil accompanied by six other professionals to compose the technical committee.
In the number of titles conquered in his career, Paulo Sousa’s trajectory is more expressive as a player. He won two Champions League in consecutive years and for different teams. In 1996, he raised the cup with Juventus (ITA). The following season, he did the same, but for Borussia Dortmund (ALE).
As a coach, he won the 2012 Hungarian League Cup with Videoton, the 2014 Israeli Championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv and the 2015 Swiss Superliga in charge of Basel.
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