Since his departure from OM in July 2022, Jorge Sampaoli has experienced a great void. Having passed through the benches of Seville then Flamengo subsequently, the Argentinian technician left many feathers there, to the point of being fired from his two clubs in the space of 5 months, for lack of admissible results. In a sport where the train does not run at regular times, “el pelado” has, however, allowed itself to decline tempting offers since then.
In December, less than three months after his ouster from Flamengo, Ajax and OL contacted him in order to right two teams on the verge of collapse. But not convinced of the timing, the former OM technician politely refused these two approaches. “It wasn’t the right time. I hope to start a project from scratch but it’s not me who chooses”he confided in an interview with the newspaper The Team in the month of January. A project, he could also be offered a new one in the coming days… and in a country he knows well.
John Textor’s Botafogo on file
After having already officiated on the benches of Santos (2018-2019), Atlético Mineiro (2020-2021) and therefore Flamengo, which has also earned him the reputation of an imposter in Brazil, Sampaoli is today now associated with Botafogo, club… of a certain John Textor. Although he had already tried to attract the 63-year-old coach to OL in recent months, in vain, the American billionaire did not take time off. As reported by the Brazilian media TNTsports this Friday, Sampaoli would indeed appear in a short list of names likely to take over in Rio.
5th in the ranking of the Guanabara Cup, a carioca championship organized at the start of each season, John Textor’s club is going through a worrying period. With only one victory won in the last six meetings, and a draw conceded against the Bolivian club of Aurora this Thursday in qualifying for the Copa Libertadores (1-1), which will therefore have sounded the death knell, coach Tiago Nunes was removed from office. There is no question of waiting, the club has already worked to find his successor. And at the moment, it is Sampaoli who would be on pole, although no negotiations have yet started. Carlos Carvalhal, recently fired from Olympiakos, would also be cited.
