Multiple press reports in Portugal suggest Lyon coach Paulo Fonseca is about to leave the French club and return to his homeland, to take over Lisbon giants Sporting.
Current Sporting coach Rui Borges has been under fire in recent weeks after a string of poor performances. Wins away at Braga and Lens after the international break seemed to have steadied the ship, but successive home defeats against LASK Linz and Académico de Viseu severely undermined his position, despite two victories in the two most recent games since then.
On Sunday evening Sporting issued a statement saying that negotiations were ongoing to rescind the contract with Rui Borges and that B-team coach Tiago Fernandes would take over first-team coaching duties on an interim basis.
Rumours in recent days that Paulo Fonseca has been identified as Sporting’s Number One target to replace Borges were firmed up this Sunday, including the usually reliable MaisFutebol website, who stated that “Paulo Fonseca is on his way to Sporting as Rui Borges negotiates his rescission”.
Managerial career
Paulo Fonseca gradually worked his way up the football ladder, starting out at lower league clubs in Portugal, landing his first job in the top flight at Paços de Ferreira in 2012/13. He worked miracles at the Mata Real, leading the “Castores” to their highest ever finish of third place in the Primeira Liga, which meant a place in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League.
The achievement earned him a shot at FC Porto, but after one unhappy season at the Estádio do Dragão he was let go by the Blue and Whites. He returned to Paços where he again oversaw a highly positive campaign, just missing out on guiding the club to Europe again.
Braga president António Salvador had seen enough and hired Fonseca, who duly steered the club to their first Portuguese Cup triumph in 50 years.
In the summer of 2016 Fonseca began his career abroad which has encompassed highly successful spells at Shakhtar Donetsk, Lille and Lyon, and more modest results in Italy at Milan and Roma.
Style of play and emphasis on youth
Paulo Fonseca’s teams are known for playing easy-on-the-eye, flowing, attacking football, while being tactically smart and able to adapt to the opposition. He has made a point of sticking to his beliefs in a wide variety of environments and with squads of varying degrees of talent.
He has also built a reputation of working wonders with young players, turning several talented footballers at the start of their career into elite performers that have gone on to earn their clubs huge transfer fees.
Diogo Jota, Mykhailo Mudryk, Riccardo Calafiori, Carlos Baleba, Leny Yoro, Rayan Cherki, and more recently Tiago Santos and Afonso Moreira are some examples of youth players Fonseca developed brilliantly.
This facet of his management ability should make him a good fit at Sporting. In Gameweek Two of the current league phase of this season’s Champions League, the Lisbon club fielded the youngest team in the entire competition, not to mention the fact Sporting are known throughout the world for the production line of talent coming out of their Alcochete Academy.
Season goals
Although Sporting have not given up on the league title, a 9-point gap to leaders FC Porto almost one third of the way into the season makes fighting for the championship a tough ask. Targeting silverware in the domestic cups may be a more realistic goal, while Sporting will also strive to continue their recent strong displays in Europe.
Last season the Lions reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, losing narrowly (1-0 on aggregate) to eventual runners-up Arsenal, holding the Gunners to a goalless draw at the Emirates.
Ironically, Sporting’s next match is in the Champions League is against one of Fonseca’s former clubs, Shakhtar Donetsk, which will be played on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge in London.
