The vacancy at Portugal leads to speculation with leading roles for Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho. The AS Roma trainer seems to be the main candidate.
After the departure of Fernando Santos, the Portuguese federation is looking for a new national coach. Louis van Gaal has announced that he is open to a discussion about the vacancy in the country where he has a home.
The question remains how serious Van Gaal is in the picture. But for the Portuguese Record it was reason to come up with a portrait of the 71-year-old Dutchman: ‘Louis van Gaal, talented, stubborn, controlling and unpredictable’.
However, the arrows of the Portuguese federation seem to be aimed at Jose Mourinho. The Special One is still associated with AS Roma, with whom he practiced against RKC Waalwijk on Thursday. But he would be interested in the position of national coach of Portugal, whether or not in combination with his work at Roma.
The messages have also arrived at the Italian club. “Jose is a great coach. Everyone wants him,” said striker Tammy Abraham after the 3-0 exhibition win over RKC. “It is also honorable that a great country like Portugal wants him. But I’m sure his focus is on Roma. We also read the messages, but we don’t talk about them. We are all focused on Roma.”
In any case, Mourinho will stay in his own country for Christmas and will also exchange ideas with federation president Fernando Gomes, A Bola knows. The question remains whether AS Roma also wants to agree.
RKC Waalwijk 3-0 AS Roma
In related news, RKC Waalwijk lost 3-0 to AS Roma in a friendly game on Thursday afternoon. Mats Seuntjens missed a penalty kick for his new club, Rick Karsdorp participated in a half with the Romans.
Karsdorp came on after the break for Stephan El Shaarawy, who had given Roma a 2-0 lead in the nineteenth minute on a pass from Nicolò Zaniolo. With Tammy Abraham’s opening goal in the third minute, El Shaarawy provided the assist.
With Karsdorp in the team, Zaniolo also made it 3-0 shortly after the break. Now Abraham was the man who prepared the goal. The fact that the Dutch right back participated in a half makes it clear that he fully counts again at Roma after he was previously in a conflict with the club.
It remains to be seen whether Karsdorp will stay with Roma after Mourinho’s swipe. At RKC, Seuntjens was a player who recently switched clubs. The attacker, who came over from Fortuna Sittard, could have scored his first unofficial goal, but saw his penalty kick stay out of the goal via the crossbar.
