The Portuguese-Brazilian soap opera is over. Flamengo has made official the hiring of Paulo Sousa as the new coach for the next two seasons: 2022 and 2023. The 51-year-old Portuguese coach has been dismissed from the position of Poland coach and will arrive in Rio de Janeiro next week to start planning the preseason.
The vice-president of soccer of the ‘Fla’, Marcos Braz, accompanied by the executive, Bruno spindel, had traveled to Portugal to try to convince Jorge Jesus to return to Rio Negro, where he won five titles (including the Copa Libertadores de América) between 2019 and 2020.
However, the ‘mister’, as he is known in Brazil, did not want to resign as coach of Benfica and Flamengo did not wait for him. His dismissal, after a detriment with the incarnate staff, did not change the roadmap of the Brazilians, who did not want to break the verbal pact with which they had arrived with Paulo Sousa.
At the same time, the former Espanyol player had already taken the step of resigning as Poland coach, which made the Polish federation very bad, taking into account that in March there is the dispute against Russia of the first round of the play-off to go to the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Paulo Sousa is the new coach of Mengão. The Portuguese, 51, assinou signed as Rubro-Negro for two seasons. O treinator was not in command of Seleção da Polônia. #CRF pic.twitter.com/isM9Pq0ICw
– Flamengo (@Flamengo) December 29, 2021
“This is a message for the biggest ‘crooked’ in the world. With great pride and satisfaction I will represent a club with the incomparable greatness of Flamengo. It is time to work hard to bring joy, titles and get even closer: the 40 million fans with the whole team. We will play together. Greetings rubronegros “, Has expressed Sousa in a video broadcast by Flamengo on social networks.
Sousa’s main challenge will undoubtedly be knowing how to deal with the long shadow of Jorge Jesus, something that all the technicians who passed through Flamengo have had to do after their goodbye … and even more considering that the Benfica coach could end up signing for At. Mineiro, current champion of the Brasileirao and the Copa do Brasil, after the scare of Cuca.
