Positive steps

The time I spent out of football after leaving Roma in May 2021 was the longest I’d known.

The first few months weren’t difficult, but after that I missed the game a lot. I love my profession, and I was ready to return – to find a suitable project with people who buy into my ideas.

After leaving Roma, I very nearly became Tottenham’s new manager. In the end it didn’t happen, but I still hope to coach in England one day. We will see in the future, but right now I am very happy at Lille (below).

Instead, when I left Rome, I moved to Kyiv. I have a Ukrainian wife and child, so I was actually living there when Russia invaded. We’d been following the news, of course, but we didn’t believe that the conflict would get that far and that it would happen like it did. In 2022, this shouldn’t be possible. 

The war reached Kyiv at 5am on February 24. I was at home and woken by the sounds of bombs going off. I’d struggle to describe the panic – I’d never experienced something even close to that. That was the reality we were living, which was very difficult.

We tried to find a way to leave the city, but it became impossible because everyone was trying to do the same. Traffic came to a standstill. 

Darijo Srna and Vitaliy Khlivnyuk, the director of football and team manager at Shakhtar Donetsk, one of my former clubs, invited me to go to the hotel where the Brazilian players live with their technical team and families. 

"ukrainian people are very humble and great workers. they just want to live in peace"

“It’s better you don’t leave today, because today it’s impossible,” they said. “Stay here, and let’s see what happens.”

I stayed there with my family, and my wife’s family. I then contacted the Portuguese Embassy, who provided a minibus for people to leave the country in. For 25 hours, we didn’t stop travelling. With the help of the president of the Portuguese Football Federation and the Ukrainian Association of Football, we made it through the border to Moldova, and then to Romania. Finally, we flew to Portugal. 

When I look back, what I had to endure – compared to the people still there now – was nothing. The tragedy is so big, I can’t speak about my experience – the people there are living a tragedy every day. 

The rest of the world isn’t making enough of an effort to save the children and people there fighting for their lives. That’s the most difficult thing for me in all of this. 

I also find it difficult to accept how we can be allowing this to happen. We have to do much more, or many more people – and kids – will die. They just want to live in peace.

Ukrainian people are very humble and great workers. When Shakhtar offered me the job as manager in June 2016, it was an easy decision. 

"we beat manchester city in the champions league – it was their first defeat in 29 matches"

They were used to playing in the Champions League, and I’d wanted to go somewhere I could win league titles. I’d studied them before, in 2014, when they were still in Donetsk. Since then, they hadn’t won the league. 

The club was organised very well, and had some very good players – not least the Brazilians, including Fred (below) and Bernard. I believed we could win the Ukrainian league and be competitive in Europe.

The conflict in Ukraine had meant Shakhtar being relocated to Kyiv during the week, and for those first six months having to travel to Lviv for our home games. The club then moved to Kharkiv, which is closer to Donetsk – and where many people had moved to to escape Donetsk – so we had more support there. 

For three successive seasons we had to fly in the region of 125 times, which in the beginning was difficult. It never became easy, but we became used to it.

I was also replacing Mircea Lucescu, who had been the club’s manager for 12 years. Many of the players I inherited were used to his methods, which are very different to mine. But it was easy to get the players to buy into what I was asking. They all like to play, to be important, to have the ball – and the game we were trying to play also promoted them as players.

They also wanted to win, and in style. Of course their quality was important, but they were a very open group that quickly assimilated our ideas. 

"our team manager proposed a bet – if we beat city, i would have to wear the mask of zorro"

The dressing room – mostly Brazilians and Ukrainians, with very different cultures – was also easy to manage. There was a good relationship between them, and the Brazilians had adapted very well, so we had a very strong group. The atmosphere was really good, which helped them become such a strong team. 

The club also deserves credit, because the environment was organised by them – which was shown after we beat Manchester City 2-1 in the Champions League in December 2017. That defeat was City’s first in 29 matches, and took us into the last 16.

After a previous game, a journalist had asked me what mask I wore as a kid, and my answer was Zorro. A bet was then proposed by Vitaliy, our team manager. If we beat City, I’d have to wear the mask.

It wasn’t that I didn’t believe we could – I did – but I saw the funny side of it. Football can be so serious, so it helps to have some fun to relieve it. I didn’t actually expect to see the mask before that post-match press conference – but it had been prepared, so I had to see it through (above).

By that point I’d already been a coach for 12 years. I actually stopped playing very early, at 32, because it no longer motivated me.

In the last years of my career, I had had a lot of injuries. I’d even already started studying to become a coach when the president of Estrela Amadora, where I was still a player, spoke to me about coaching their Under-19 team. 

"to finish third in the league with paços ferreira, a small club, was a historic achievement"

Starting the next stage of my career was something I was motivated by, so I spent the next two years in that position. It was a great experience, and it was very important to start at that level.

I then coached Dezembro and Odivelas, before moving to Pinhalnovense in 2009. There, we surpassed expectations by twice reaching the quarter finals of the Portuguese Cup.

The cup represents an opportunity to show your work, and the way your team plays. The second time, we played against a Porto team managed by André Villas-Boas (below). We lost, but we produced a very positive performance, and that was important. Everyone saw the game. A couple of years later, Porto offered me a job.

My next significant move was in 2012, to Paços Ferreira, and that represented another big opportunity for me. Paços is a small but amazing club. It’s like a family, and we built a very, very good, young team that year. To finish third in the Primeira Liga, behind only Porto and Benfica, was a historic achievement. It had never happened before at Paços, so it was amazing for both the club and the city – but also, of course, for my reputation.

The secret to our success was creating a big family – a courageous, ambitious team with many young players who wanted to prove themselves. When we started to win games, we started to believe that it was possible to achieve something that season. 

It wasn’t just that we finished third, though. We played very positive football, enhancing the value of those players and allowing the club to make sales and continue to grow. It was also all made possible by the dynamics of the group and the homely atmosphere we created.

"the end at porto was difficult. expectations were so high, but i also put them on myself"

At the end of that season, 2012/13, Porto offered me the job of head coach. That decision was easy. There isn’t a single coach in the position I was in who would refuse an offer from Porto. 

Maybe it was too early in my career, but it was an amazing experience. That was maybe the season where I learned and grew most – and it was so important to continue growing for the seasons that followed. It was maybe the most important year in my career.

It’s very different to compare a group of players from a club like Paços Ferreira to one at Porto. There, the players are so used to winning, to playing every game, and to a different atmosphere. Everything is different. 

But I learned how to coach a club of that stature – I learned a lot from the people I worked with, and from the players. It was a very, very important time for me. 

It’s rare in Portugal for a coach to return to a smaller club from a big one, but when I left Porto in 2014 I sought the pleasure my previous job had given me. I knew that Paços was the best place to go. I knew there were people there who could support me, and allow me to coach as I want. 

It was also important for me to go somewhere I knew I’d be backed fully. No one outside of Paços supported my decision, but it was a good move. 

The end at Porto had been difficult. Expectations there were so high, and I also put those expectations on myself. If things don’t work out, it’s normal to doubt yourself. 

"after three years at shakhtar, roma approached me. we had won everything in ukraine, so i wanted a new challenge"

Those doubts are an essential part of our profession. Returning to Paços worked to make me more sure about what I wanted from my career, and from my approach. Coaches doubt themselves every day, but I became more sure than before about what my approach needed to be. 

Moving to Braga in 2015, after that season back at Paços, was another positive step. I often make decisions with emotion, and I saw Braga as another good opportunity. I studied the team and the club, and I felt I could create something – that I could go there and win something.

We had a fantastic season. We had a good run in the Portuguese League Cup, strong campaigns in the Europa League and the Primeira Liga, and we won the Portuguese Cup (below). The previous season, Braga had lost the final to Sporting on penalties, after conceding an equaliser in added time. It had become a dream for the club and the people of Braga to win it. 

It’s really difficult for Braga to compete with Sporting, Benfica and Porto across numerous competitions, because of the investments those clubs are able to make – but that year we fought. I believed, all along, that we could deliver the cup to a club that has amazing supporters. It was an amazing season that led to my move to Shakhtar, where every year we won the league-and-cup double.

Roma approached me after three years at Shakhtar. We had won everything in Ukraine, so I wanted a new challenge – and to coach in one of Europe’s leading competitions. Serie A is one of the best – I already wanted to coach in Italy, and to continue to learn – and Roma is an amazing, amazing club.

"i am obsessed with possession. in italy, i learned not to panic when my team doesn't have it"

I learned so much during my two seasons there. Tactically, Italian football is very specific – every game is different, and very strategic. You have to study, and you have to work a lot ahead of every game. 

The Rome derby is also amazing. The atmosphere is incredible, and the supporters all dream of winning it. It may even be more important to beat Lazio than to win Serie A – the atmosphere before the game is amazing to experience.

As a coach, I can be obsessed with possession. In Italy, I learned not to panic when my team doesn’t have it. In Italy, what matters most is winning, and not necessarily always how you win. This was different for me, and meant I had to fight against the ideas I previously had. I had to adapt. 

I also had to work for eight months without a sporting director, and then deal with the football calendar being halted through the spread of Covid. 

When Friedkin Group, the new owners, came to Roma in August 2020, I understood that they wanted to start a new project with new people. It was agreed that I would leave when my contract finished at the end of the 2020/21 season.

That took me back to Kyiv, and now I am in Lille, excited about another new project in another new country.