Renato Paiva on Almost Joining LAFC, Getting Fired After Beating PSG, and the Ups and Downs of Being a Manager | OneFootball

Portuguese manager Renato Paiva has experienced a well-traveled career, with notable stops in Brazil, Mexico, and Ecuador. We spoke with him to discuss the highs and lows of his days as a manager, and just how close he was to signing with LAFC in 2022. 

On June 19, Botafogo did the impossible. After beating the Seattle Sounders in their opening match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, the Brazilian side traveled to Pasadena to take on a Paris Saint-Germain side that was fresh off a dominant treble-winning season, which included a 5-0 decimation of Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League final.

The hands-down favorites to win the Club World Cup, all signs pointed to Les Parisiens ripping Botafogo apart at the seams.

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Instead, it was Botafogo who took the lead before the break via Igor Jesus and held on for a shock 1-0 victory at the Rose Bowl, after which owner John Textor interrupted manager Renato Paiva’s post-match interview and kissed him on the cheek. It seemed that Paiva was here to stay at Botafogo…or so he thought.

“Nobody was betting on us qualifying,” said Paiva in an exclusive Urban Pitch interview. “PSG and Atlético were the overwhelming favorites, but we went and beat Seattle with a good first half and a bad second half, before that famous win versus PSG. Those who don’t like Renato Paiva say, ‘No, that was a victory for the players,’ but anyone who understands football understands the huge difference between Paris Saint-Germain and Botafogo. The players’ will alone isn’t enough.

“The coach, the tactics, and then the players, the quality of the players, their ability to believe in our strategy and put it into practice, it was a great team effort and a great job for me. I had three days to prepare for this game, and I watched four full matches against different opponents to understand how Paris Saint-Germain played against more defensive teams and against teams that pressed them. I studied them very well, and then it was the players’ ability and quality to put that strategy in practice.”

After losing 1-0 to Atlético Madrid in their final group stage match, Botafogo would head east for Philadelphia, where they met Brazilian rivals Palmeiras. In an even-keeled grudge match between two sides that were all too familiar with each other, it was Palmeiras who prevailed as Paulinho’s 100th-minute goal sealed a 1-0 win and a place in the quarterfinals. It was Paiva’s eighth defeat since taking charge at the start of year (all by a 1-0 margin), and for Textor, it was one too many. The following day, Paiva learned that he had been sacked for the first time in his life.

Humble Beginnings in Portugal

Born on March 22, 1970 in Pedrógão Pequeno, Portugal, Paiva was soccer-obsessed from day one and like many, dreamed of becoming a professional player. But he was forced to put those dreams on halt after turning 17 and being forced to choose between going to school or training in the morning. Nevertheless, Paiva did not stray far from the beautiful game, playing in his local amateur divisions and collecting soccer magazines like Onze Mondial, and pursuing a career in coaching. Eventually, these ambitions came to fruition after being hired by Benfica’s youth setup in 2004.

At the time, Benfica were in the midst of an expensive reboot of their academy, with Paiva joining in on the ground floor and often having to drive all across Lisbon in order to coach different age groups. He and the other youth coaches oversaw the planning progress and instructed the engineers and construction workers to build it based on their own coaching vision. It finally opened in 2006, and two decades later, it’s safe to say that it’s been worth the investment.

A recent study by CIES shows that Benfica boasts the most profitable academy in world football, having generated €516 million in transfer revenue from youth products over the past decade, well above second-placed Ajax (€376 million). Paiva proved essential in Benfica’s youth resurgence, coaching across all age levels and helping to mold future Champions League players like Bernardo Silva, João Félix, Renato Sanches, Gonçalo Ramos, Ederson, João Cancelo, and Rúben Dias before making the jump to Benfica B in January 2019, where he got his first taste for professional football in the Portuguese second tier.

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Whenever he received an offer to coach a Liga Portugal team, Benfica president Luís Filipe Vieira dissuaded him by pointing to his long-term contract and promising him the chance to coach the first team. But when Vieira hired Jorge Jesus as the new Benfica manager in the summer of 2020, Paiva saw the writing on the wall. On December 25, 2020, Paiva decided to call it quits on his Benfica adventure and join Ecuadorian side Independiente del Valle. At 50 years of age, Paiva was going to be living outside of Portugal for the first time in his life.

“It was a huge risk, leaving Europe for South America, and a lot of people told me, ‘Stay with Benfica’s B team because you’ll be coaching the first team one day,’ but I didn’t want to anymore. I felt that this project was for me, and it came at exactly the right time.

“Independiente del Valle is an oasis of organization, a structure with high-quality human resources. The directors are fantastic humans who truly believe in what they’re doing. Independiente’s results are clear, with years and years of winning, including two Copa Sudamericana titles, so it was a very beautiful adventure. Going to Ecuador really brought everything together; they really liked us, and we really liked what we found.”

Making the Move to South America

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Paiva didn’t take long to make an impact, helping to form future stars like Willian Pacho (PSG), Joel Ordóñez (Club Brugge), and Jhoanner Chávez (Lens). More than anything, though, he was able to successfully challenge Ecuador’s Big Three of Barcelona, Emelec, and Liga de Quito for supremacy, and lead Independiente to their first and only league title.

These stellar displays attracted the attention of MLS side LAFC, with Paiva coming close to taking charge, only to opt to remain in Ecuador, eventually departing in May 2022 for Liga MX side León.

“We became champions in December 2021, which is when LAFC general manager John Thorrington contacted me and started negotiating the move,” Paiva said. “I went to Los Angeles to meet the club’s owners, who presented me with an excellent contract. Things started to evolve and I was all set to sign for LAFC, but then news started to emerge that I might leave, and I started receiving messages from my players, who said, ‘Professor, don’t leave us, let’s play in the Libertadores and fight for our second championship. My agent told me to join LAFC because the contract was very good; my heart was telling me to stay because of my players. Meanwhile, Independiente had also said that they would reinforce the team to play in the Libertadores and to win the championship for the second time.”

“I ended up not going to LA. It was tough for John, who fought very hard for me to become the LAFC coach and had a lot of meetings with my agent and took me to Los Angeles. If I owe anything to anyone in the world of football to this day, it’s John. John was naturally upset, but I’m very grateful for everything John did for me. In those six months, Independiente didn’t sign the players to make us stronger, some players started to leave, and the team became more fragile.”

Being Sacked for the First Time

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After just three months in León, Paiva handed in his resignation. He was out of work for just a few days before taking charge of Brazilian side Bahia, who he led to the 2023 Campeonato Baiano, before stepping down after nine months at the helm. He was back after just a few months, returning to Mexico and taking charge of Toluca. Over his year in charge, Paiva helped to sow the seeds for Toluca’s future dominance, before parting ways with the club and returning to Brazil with Botafogo.

Paiva was able to shake off a turbulent start to his reign and inspire new life in Botafogo, helping spur gutsy performances like a 1-0 victory in a must-win match at Universidad de Chile to qualify for the Copa Libertadores knockout round, despite playing down a man for 70-plus minutes.

The biggest win in Paiva’s tenure with the club was of course the upset against PSG, yet he’d be fired not even two weeks after the marquee victory.

Four months later, Paiva still can’t bring himself to specifically mention Textor, the man who fired him, by name.

“The owner of Botafogo believed that Botafogo shouldn’t have been eliminated by Palmeiras,” Paiva said. “He questioned my playing style and said I was too defensive and ended up firing me seven days after he kissed me. I received calls from journalists in Egypt, Hungary, China, Russia, Portugal who were all in a state of shock, asking, ‘How does someone kiss you on the cheek live on camera for a huge victory, the biggest victory of the Club World Cup, and then, 10 days later, he fires you?’

“We were nine games unbeaten in the Brasileirão, six points behind league leaders Flamengo, we were already experiencing this very strong growth as a team, and it’s through this growth that we’ve managed to win the Club World Cup matches that we’ve won. And then someone fires you because you don’t win a game.”

Paiva said that Textor, who has a complicated reputation in the world of football, often meddled in his day-to-day activities, which led to some frustration and tension within their relationship.

“[Textor] constantly interfered in my decisions, wanting me to play two or three defensive midfielders. He considered Allan a defensive midfielder, which says a lot about his understanding of football.”

Plotting the Next Step

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After less than a fortnight out of work following his Botafogo dismissal, Paiva took charge of fellow Brazilian side Fortaleza. He nearly kicked off his tenure with a win, only for Bahia to snatch a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw, before winning 3-1 against Red Bull Bragantino.

However, things would unravel from there, with Fortaleza losing five out of their next six league matches, and exiting the Copa Libertadores in the round of 16. After just 10 matches at the helm, Paiva’s Fortaleza adventure had gone up in flames.

“When I arrived at Fortaleza, the situation was very difficult, having won two of their last 19 matches. I can’t consider Fortaleza an experience for me, because it was a month and professionally, you can’t put your ideas into practice. We signed three or four players, including a talented striker from Botafogo’s academy, Kayke. They believed in my assessment, and just one week later, they fired me. I was at home, watching the TV, and seeing them talk about my dismissal. The media knew about my dismissal before me, which says a lot about how the people operated.”

Paiva has spent the past two months living in Rio de Janeiro with his Brazilian wife, rejecting coaching offers from Egypt, Colombia, Paraguay, and Portugal and instead choosing to take the time to reflect on a tempestuous year that saw him get sacked for the first and second time in his life. At 55, he knows that it’s only a matter of time before he’s back on the touchline, but for now, he’s focused on resting, recovering, and planning for the next step.

“I want a demanding environment that forces me to be better, to win, and to make the team play well,” Paiva said. “But a demanding environment with respect. An environment, when someone wants to fire me or give me a raise or extend my contract, they know what they’re talking about, they understand the game. They understand training, they’re not inventing three defensive midfielders when they know absolutely nothing about football. This business of winning titles doesn’t mean you know football.

“There are many club owners who win titles and don’t understand football, but they’re surrounded by people who understand football and listen, and these people don’t act like petty dictators. That’s what I want: a project where they respect me, where they respect my ideas, where they evaluate me well and then they make their decisions based on my decisions. That’s what I’m going to choose in the future.”