Explosive and controversial, but loved by athletes: the Portuguese describes the profile of Sá Pinto, probably Vasco’s new coach | Basque

+ Vasco advances in negotiations and advances agreement with Ricardo Sá Pinto

And precisely because it is not well known to the southern hemisphere, the give decided to listen to those who closely followed Sá Pinto’s career, as a player and coach. We spoke to Portuguese journalists, who spoke about his career, tactical issues and the 48-year-old’s extrafield.

It is a complete package. Although Sá Pinto is not on the first shelf of Portuguese coaches, he is undoubtedly a great character in local football. The recent job in Braga, his latest job, is a good reference. Energetic performance on the edge of the field, offensive playing style and explosive temper are also cited by all.

+ Liedson fights with sporting director after League Cup match

Sá Pinto collects confusion. As a player, he even attacked the coach of the Portuguese team who left him out of a squad and, during the manager’s days, exchanged blows with Liedsonremember the case). Reports, however, show that, despite being explosive, Sá Pinto tends to be very close to his players. Charge, but win the locker room.

Sá Pinto nominated the Basque today for Standard Liege, from Belgium

Although he never worked in Brazil, Ricardo Sá Pinto will meet a former commander. In fact, an athlete who indicated for one of the teams he trained. After midfielder Carlinhos stood out in 2017 with Estoril, Portugal, Sá Pinto, then coach of Standard Liège, Belgium, asked to be signed. The Brazilian had a sequence with the Portuguese and scored three goals and gave three assists during the season.

In an interview with the Portuguese newspaper “A Bola” in December last year, Vasco revealed today that Sá Pinto’s call was essential to move from Portuguese to Belgian football. At that time, Benfica and Braga also wanted to sign him.

– There were contacts (from Benfica). I spoke with the coach (who at that time was running Benfica), Rui Vitória. He called me, and Bruno Gomes and I were going to go, who was also in Estoril. But Benfica only wanted both, and Bruno ended up not going. During that time, I received a call from Sá Pinto to transfer to Standard Liège and ended up leaving Portugal – Carlinhos told “A Bola”.

Whether or not it will work is too early to tell. But Vasco is close to hiring a great character, a figure who will radically change the day-to-day of the club and will bring many spots to Colina.

See the testimonies of journalists about Sá Pinto

João Almeida Moreira, correspondent for A Bola in Brazil

“It is a convulsed career. In Portugal, he trained a somewhat decadent historical club called Belenenses. Let’s try to compare: it is a kind of Portuguesa-SP or América-RJ. A club with a lot of tradition, but that has not obtained many results” and he was not very successful in Belenenses.

Then he trained Braga, which was his last job. It is a club that tries to be the fourth strength of Portuguese football. Club that even dreams of being a national champion, and was not very successful either.

And he worked for Sporting, which is one of the biggest and the club with which he has a sentimental connection. He was a historic player for the club. At Sporting he managed to reach the final of the Portuguese Cup, the equivalent of the Brazilian Cup. But they lost to Académica, which is an inferior club.

He made it to the semi-finals of the Europa League, which was a feat, a sign of a job well done, but it did end with the bitter taste of not reaching the final. That was in the debut year (2012) and it ended up coming out with poor results.

Abroad, he traveled through unusual markets, spent some time in the Arab market. He was in Poland, in Serbia, where he coached the Red Star, which is the biggest local club. It started well, but came out in conflict with the leaders.

He was also in Belgium, where he had played a bit. He ended up winning a Belgian Cup, which was considered perhaps his greatest success as a coach.

Of course, I’m not going to say it’s a failed career, but I can’t say it’s a successful coaching career either. It is a busy career. Now in Vasco let’s see if there will be a revival.

His playing career is stronger. He played about 50 games with the Portuguese national team, he is a Sporting idol. He was never considered an ace, but, for dying on the field and for being a forward capable of giving way on the defensive field, he always won a lot of love from the Sporting fans.

Not only from the Sporting fans, but from all the clubs he went through. I think he will soon be a Basque fanatic. This is a characteristic of him. This way of being with him also brings many problems. The best known of all was on March 26, 1997, shortly after the call of Artur Jorge, who was the coach of the Portuguese team.

His name did not appear, so far so good, only that on the first day of training for the national team a news item appeared in the newspaper that he had not been cited for alleged indiscipline in a previous game.

See everything He missed Sporting training and went to training for the national team, which was close. The Sporting stadium is about 20 minutes from the National Stadium. And he hit Artur Jorge. He hit Artur Jorge twice before training started. That was an incredible scandal, he was suspended for a year from Portuguese footballI had to go to Real Sociedad.

Another detail to see his connection with Sporting is that Juventude Leonina, Sporting’s main organizer and one of the main ones in Portugal, was going to watch his matches in Spain just to support him.

He was not an ace, but he gained a great connection to the club. He also had problems with Liedson, who was an idol of Sporting, Corinthians and Flamengo. He wanted to hit a penalty, he took the ball out of Liedson’s hands.

When he was coach of Sporting, he had confusion with Liedson. It seems there was an exchange of blows. And there are other cases in which the hot blood of Sá Pinto brought him problems. But, if all goes well, the Basques can be sure that they will have another Basque to support Vasco. Even more to cheer than to train“.

Pascoal Sousa, journalist for A Bola

“In Braga, the last club he coached, he had a sensational campaign in the Europa League, in a very difficult group, he made the best score in the history of the club in the Europa League. He also had a very good campaign in the League Cup. The problem was that, because they made a lot of effort in the Europa League, Braga did not do well in the Portuguese Championship, they had difficulties to score points, especially against teams that played close, when Braga had difficulties to impose their game

As for the tactical system, Sá Pinto always plays 4-2-3-1. It is a model that he likes best, it changes over time, but it is rare. He likes to wear a 10 jersey, a more offensive midfielder, which is rare here. Likes to play with open ends. From what I saw of Vasco against Flamengo, I think they are a team that is doing well, but they will have to work on defense, especially in the position without the ball. In this it is quite demanding.

In Braga he had the merit of betting on Trincão, which is a player who ended up sold for 31 million euros to Barcelona. With Ricardo Sá Pinto, Trincão began to play more regularly in Braga.

FIiipe Dias, journalist from O Jogo

Sá Pinto is an important name in Portuguese football, he was a great player and he is a coach who I think has quality. But things have always eclipsed a bit both when he was playing and now when he has been training for some time. instability, controversy and being very emotional.

That was when I was a player. And when he was director of Sporting, he had serious problems that cost him a lot to recover his own image.

He’s had a tough career, but with some cool stuff too. As a coach, he won a Belgian Cup for Standard de Liége, he did a good job.

Last year he was in Braga and had a good start to the season. In the Portuguese Championship things were not going very well, but he was having a good European campaign. His firing was a bit surprising. It was perfectly clear that the president of Braga wanted more.

Sá Pinto, to my knowledge, thought his career as a coach was threatened. Now he has an opportunity in Brazil. As we know, it is not very common among Portuguese coaches in Brazil. We had Jorge Jesús, who came to break this barrier a bit.

Sá Pinto is not a coach with as much experience as Jesús. He is much younger, but who knows, could this be an interesting opportunity to relaunch his career?

There is something that seems obvious to me. People are not good to be from here or there, but the truth is that the Portuguese coach is highly valued. And the presence of Brazilian coaches (here in Portugal) is no longer felt, as was the case in the 70s, 80s and 90s. The Brazilian coach lost charisma, weight and strength in the world market. And the Portuguese coach is a bit fashionable.

I will be very curious to accompany you if I hit Vasco. It has technical and tactical qualities. He was already a player, and he was a very good player. Now part of the unpredictability of his temperament. But Sá Pinto is good people. He has good character. He vibrates a lot with things, but he’s not a bad person. It is inappropriate.

The headquarters of Sá Pinto goes through everything that it already was as a player. Besides being a good player technically, he was extremely competitive, tough and aggressive. Aggressive in the field, but not violent. It was intense, it was a fighter. The Sporting fans fell in love quickly because they did not give away a ball, they were tireless on the field.

He likes to have a solid and compact defense. Especially in the center of defense he likes to have good constables. He likes having a close-knit midfield, but above all he likes supportive teams that make good offensive transitions. And that they are, above all, aggressive and incisive ”.