Villas-Boas turned down PSG: “I’m second choice? No chance” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas recalled, in an interview with The Obi One Podcast, hosted by John Obi Mikel, PSG’s attempt to hire him from Tottenham in the summer of 2013. The current FC Porto president revealed how Leonardo’s frankness killed the deal before any agreement could be reached and summed up his refusal: “Forget it, no chance.”

The story found André Villas-Boas far from the pitch and in an unlikely setting: in his home garage, hands dirty and focused on one of his Dakar bikes. That was where he got the call from Nasser Al-Khelaifi, beginning an approach that quickly ran into a matter of principle.

The first phone call caught him repairing the bike’s carburetor. Surrounded by tools and parts, Villas-Boas heard that PSG were looking for a new manager and agreed to take Leonardo’s call.

“I was at home fixing the carburetor on one of my Dakar bikes when Nasser [Al-Khelaifi] called me,” he explained. “He told me Leonardo was going to call because they wanted me to be PSG’s new manager, so I could speak to him and see whether I was interested. I gave him my number and carried on working on the bike with my hands still dirty.”

The almost casual beginning contrasted with the weight of the next conversation. The Parisian interest was real, but the way the order of preference was presented to him immediately changed the course of the approach.

Leonardo was direct about the place reserved for the Portuguese coach in PSG’s plans. The honesty, acknowledged by Villas-Boas himself, ultimately made the offer unacceptable.

“Leonardo called me and said: ‘André, it’s a pleasure to speak with you… But I want you to know one thing: you will not be PSG’s first choice. I was going to be the manager, but I had that incident in the tunnel with the referee, the French Federation is going to suspend me, and they want you as my second choice,’” he recalled. “I heard that, thanked him for his honesty and immediately told him: ‘Leonardo, thank you very much, but under those circumstances there’s no chance I’m going to PSG.’”

Leonardo’s transparency did not bring the two sides closer; it had the opposite effect. For Villas-Boas, joining the project as an alternative to the then sporting director made the move pointless.

Nasser Al-Khelaifi still tried to revive the negotiations. Surprised by the reaction, he called again and tried to frame Leonardo’s words as a show of honesty meant to set up the project properly.

“Nasser called me again, almost apologising: ‘André, please, sorry, he’s just a very frank and honest person, he only wanted to clear everything up so you could start the next project well!’” he said. “And I replied: ‘But how do you expect us to start well if you’re telling me I’m the second choice behind a sporting director? Forget it, no chance.’ I put the phone down and carried on fixing the bike.”

The interest went on for weeks, there were meetings in the Bahamas, and Tottenham tried to negotiate the €20 million release clause. But the lack of alignment from the start prevailed: the road to Paris was closed, and Villas-Boas preferred stability in London.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.