Vasco open talks with Portuguese coach Vasco Matos | OneFootball

Vasco’s board has opened official talks in recent days with Portuguese coach Vasco Matos to fill the vacancy in charge of the team. The preliminary contacts were used to discuss the guidelines of the sporting project set out for the Rio club’s professional football department and to understand how the coach’s tactical ideas on the pitch could fit the characteristics of the current squad.

According to reporting first brought by the Expresso 1923 channel, the in-person and remote meetings progressed into discussions about playing style and future projections, but no salary proposal has been put on the negotiating table so far. The European professional views a move to the domestic market very positively and sees Brazilian football as the ideal destination for the next step in his career.

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Negotiations with Vasco Matos

The 45-year-old manager has been completely available on the market since the end of January, when he left the coaching staff of Santa Clara in Portugal. With the Portuguese club, he completed a solid three-season spell of professional work and notably won the Portuguese second division title in 2024.

Last year, the European coach had even finalized all the details of a contract to take over rivals Botafogo, but last-minute bureaucratic obstacles derailed the deal. Aware of his immediate availability, Vasco’s top management is acting with a strong sense of urgency behind the scenes in an attempt to announce the new head of the coaching staff in the coming hours.

Transfer planning at São Januário

The club’s sporting leadership is working with a select list of approved options, while actively monitoring the names of Argentines Marcelo Gallardo and Hernán Crespo, who had already been mapped out in March. The profile outlined by management calls for a manager with excellent dressing-room leadership and the ability to improve the day-to-day atmosphere, especially by facilitating chemistry and communication with foreign players.

The internal assessment indicates that the next coaching staff will have the immediate duty of helping players currently going through a dip in form in Rio de Janeiro regain their best football. The board invested more than R$ 100 million in six major signings in the last transfer window, and the collective belief at Colina is that all of Vasco’s new players are capable of delivering a much better level of performance during the second half of the year.

Vasco Matos could be the new coach of… Vasco – Photo: Gualter Fatia/Getty Images

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