Great hopes
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
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In an interview to Futbol channel, the FC Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov told about the appointment of Luis Castro as manager
- First of all, I want to thank Paulo for the excellent work he carried out with Shakhtar football club. We won seven trophies: three league titles, three Cups, and a Super Cup. I think we have enough reasons for saying thank you so much to Paulo and his assistants. I want to wish him good luck in Rome. We parted as good friends. We wish him good luck, hoping that he will worry about our team in the same way. It was quick and unexpected for us. But I’ve just introduced the new manager. This is a Portuguese specialist Luis Castro.
He is very responsible, very ambitious, and hard-working. Most importantly, he also coached young players. He was ready to talk to me about each player. He knew each player’s attributes. He has closely followed the performance of the football club Shakhtar for probably more than one year now. Perhaps he felt it, with his intuition telling him that once he would become the manager of our team. Meanwhile, we watched him closely. And our intuition told us that someday he would definitely become the manager of our team.
This specialist will fit our philosophy and our style of play very well. And he will make our fans happy with bright, spectacular, attacking and winning performance. He has great ideas, and he is a very strong specialist. We pin great hopes on him, and I am convinced that he will succeed.
- Changing the coach is always stressful for the club and the fans. What would you like to tell the fans now?
- No need to be nervous. That’s no stress, just some pleasant experience. The new coach, new ideas, new expectations. I am convinced that we will all rejoice at bright, spectacular, and attacking performance of Shakhtar. I think that their play will bring us pleasure and trophies.
- Thanks to Shakhtar, Fonseca fulfilled his coaching potential. Perhaps now the potential of Castro will be unlocked. What’s your take on the prospect that he might also move to some European giants over time?
- For me, it would be a big dream come true to see Europe’s and the world’s top clubs being interested in Luis Castro. Firstly, he deserves it. That this happens right at Shakhtar! Then I could imagine the line standing in front of FC Shakhtar - all the coaches will dream of joining us. Just like the players: we always give them the opportunity to prove their best sides at Shakhtar, and then the best clubs in the world get interested in them. If this happens with the coaching staff as well, it would mean that we are on the right path.
He is very responsible, very ambitious, and hard-working. Most importantly, he also coached young players. He was ready to talk to me about each player. He knew each player’s attributes. He has closely followed the performance of the football club Shakhtar for probably more than one year now. Perhaps he felt it, with his intuition telling him that once he would become the manager of our team. Meanwhile, we watched him closely. And our intuition told us that someday he would definitely become the manager of our team.
This specialist will fit our philosophy and our style of play very well. And he will make our fans happy with bright, spectacular, attacking and winning performance. He has great ideas, and he is a very strong specialist. We pin great hopes on him, and I am convinced that he will succeed.
- Changing the coach is always stressful for the club and the fans. What would you like to tell the fans now?
- No need to be nervous. That’s no stress, just some pleasant experience. The new coach, new ideas, new expectations. I am convinced that we will all rejoice at bright, spectacular, and attacking performance of Shakhtar. I think that their play will bring us pleasure and trophies.
- Thanks to Shakhtar, Fonseca fulfilled his coaching potential. Perhaps now the potential of Castro will be unlocked. What’s your take on the prospect that he might also move to some European giants over time?
- For me, it would be a big dream come true to see Europe’s and the world’s top clubs being interested in Luis Castro. Firstly, he deserves it. That this happens right at Shakhtar! Then I could imagine the line standing in front of FC Shakhtar - all the coaches will dream of joining us. Just like the players: we always give them the opportunity to prove their best sides at Shakhtar, and then the best clubs in the world get interested in them. If this happens with the coaching staff as well, it would mean that we are on the right path.