With Paulo Fonseca reportedly being one of the main candidates to take the Newcastle United job, we’re pretty sure fans will want to know more about the Portuguese manager.
The Magpies’ pursuit of the coach has been getting big attention in his home country, where all the sports outlets have stories about the situation. However, none of them managed to get information on the talks, as they all credit the English and Italian media for the latest reports.
Still, there’s an interesting read in Poland, where Legia Warsaw feature an interview with Portuguese midfielder Josué. His words show what Fonseca could do for Newcastle in terms of man-management.
The 31-year-old started his career at Paços de Ferreira, managed by Paulo Fonseca. And when speaking about his old boss, the player couldn’t hide the admiration he has for him, claiming the coach ‘changed his life’.
“Definitely, before and after I met him, I’m a completely different person,” Josué told Legia Warsaw’s website.
“I even talked about it recently with our goalkeeping coach Ricardo Perreira. At Paços de Ferreira I had a lot of problems until one day Paulo Fonseca came to me and said: ‘listen, we play a game on the weekend, I’ll let you play, but until then you have to do this and that’ – and then he mentioned a few small things.”
“I said ‘okay, I will’, but during the training I didn’t show him anything more than the minimum. He came back and asked again if I wanted to play. I say that I wanted to, but with the impudence I had then, I replied: ‘if you want me in your squad, it’s cool, and if it’s not, it’s hard’. I also weighed a few extra kilos then, I didn’t care much for nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. Arrogant kid who doesn’t seem to care – that’s what I was.
“Nevertheless, the coach approached me very calmly and told me the words that I remember forever: ‘Do you want to quit? Do it. But I believe in you, I’m not going to give up on you, and I’m not going to let you go.’
“And when I heard ‘I believe in you’ it was like a button in my brain was pressed. I then realised that I had never heard anything like this from my own family. And from the moment he said those words, I changed completely. In football, apart from football, in everything, Paulo Fonseca has changed my life. It sounds pathetic, but that’s it.”
Paços de Ferreira was one of the jobs where Fonseca stood out in Portugal, later having the chance to manage FC Porto and SC Braga. He later left his country to work at Shakhtar Donetsk and Roma, and could now have his first chance in England if he does get the Newcastle United job.
