Jorge Sampaoli and his staff are in trouble at Flamengo.
Sacked by Sevilla FC last March, Jorge Sampaoli returned to Flamengo less than a month later. This season, the Argentinian technician and his staff are rather to their advantage, second in the Brazilian elite with the Rio club, nine lengths certainly from the leader Botafogo at the approach of mid-season. This weekend, however, everything changed. And this despite a precious victory obtained on the ground of Atlético Mineiro (1-2).
On this occasion, Pablo Fernandez, the physical trainer who accompanies Jorge Sampaoli lost his temper, hitting the star of the team – international striker Pedro – in the face while the latter, unhappy not to be on the field earlier, had the audacity to shorten his warm-up to sit down on the substitutes’ bench without the approval of his coach. Injured in the mouth, the home striker immediately filed a complaint.
A hot-blooded assistant
Heard by the Belo-Horizonte police, Sampaoli’s deputy risks legal proceedings, but it is also and above all the Argentine staff as a whole who find themselves in the hot seat, the Flamengo club forming a body behind their star, credited 96 goals in 196 matches so far. In Marseille already, Pablo Fernandez had lost his nerves. After the attack on Dimitri Payet in Nice in August 2021, he rushed to the lawn to punch a Gym supporter. A gesture that had earned him a suspension until the end of the season.
