Flamengo chief blames Jorge Jesus for Abel's Palmeiras success | OneFootball

José Boto said Portuguese coaches must be grateful for what Brazil provides

The 2026 Brasileirão began with nine foreign coaches among the 20 clubs in the top flight. For José Boto, the number of foreigners in Brazilian football is a side effect of Jorge Jesus, since Portuguese coaches without an established career in Europe were able to grow in South America.

– He opened up (Jorge Jesus) clearly opened doors and opportunities for Portuguese coaches. You have a number of coaches here — and this is not criticism of those coaches, quite the opposite — who built their careers here in Brazil -, said the executive, who added:

– They are coaches… you go to Portugal and many people would not even have considered them top coaches, and today they are coaches who built very good careers here in Brazil and who have to be grateful for what Brazil provided them so they could reach this point -, Boto told Portugal’s A Bola.

Who is José Boto referring to?

In the interview, the Mengo football director made it clear that this is not the case for Jorge Jesus or Leonardo Jardim, who had already built their reputations on the Old Continent. However, the executive said that many of his compatriots got jobs in Brazil because of Fla’s 2019 team.

One of the most successful after ‘Mister’ was Abel Ferreira, at Palmeiras. That is because the Portuguese coach had managed teams such as PAOK (GRE) and Braga (POR), clubs outside Europe’s elite. At the São Paulo club, however, he won everything except the Club World Cup.

What did Jorge Jesus do at Flamengo in 2019?

The Most Beloved was performing poorly under Abel Braga, who resigned midway through the season. Then, Jorge Jesus arrived and went on to win the Brasileirão and the Libertadores in 2019. The manager left Mengo with more titles than defeats.

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