THE Paulo Fonseca’s imminent departure from Lyon to take over as coach of Sporting is not going down well in France and there are several voices critical of the Portuguese coach’s decision. Christophe Dugarry, former France international and world champion in 1998, did not mince words when attacking the future coach of the green and whites.
Speaking on the podcast ‘Rothen s’enflamme’, on the French radio station RMC Sport, he admitted that Paulo Fonseca’s attitude disgusts him.
“I think this is terrible for football in general. In fact, it disgusts me, it disgusts me. For a long time we said that the players were mercenaries and only thought about money. Now it’s the coaches. The team was built for you and by you and you’re worried about the extra eight months? You’re eight months away from the end of the championship… Can’t you finish the season? I don’t understand the idea”, began by saying Christophe Dugarry.
“You have young players who need you to help them reach their maximum potential. What is a coach? He is someone who leads a group to maturity, who helps players to progress and is happy to see them in training every day in training. There is a sharing, a passion. A coach is a leader, a guru, a prophet, someone remarkable in a career and in a club. It is different from a player”, continued the former player.
Christophe Dugarry also spoke about Paulo Fonseca’s attitude at the end of the duel between Lyon and Angers, which ended in victory for the home team. The coach, remember, did not contain his tears in what was his last game with Les Gones.
“I’m shocked by this. Of course we’ll have to get used to it, but it’s terrible for football and for Lyon fans. It’s not a correct attitude on Fonseca’s part, he could have stayed. I don’t believe, at all, his crocodile tears, because if he hurt you that much, you would have stayed. Nobody forced you to leave”, said Dugarry.
In closing, the former player recalled the six-month suspension that Paulo Fonseca received for touching his head against a referee, calling the Portuguese coach “fake”.
“You were suspended for six months for something that went beyond the limits, the club continued to support you while you were away, everything went well and everyone rolled up their sleeves. You showed a desire to dedicate yourself and now it turns out that all of that was false”, he concluded.
Éric Di Meco also analyzed Fonseca’s departure
Also on the RMC Sport antenna, but on the Super Moscato Show, Éric Di Meco, who is a former French footballer, highlighted that Paulo Fonseca’s departure from Lyon to Sporting shows that Ligue 1 needs to undergo remodeling.
“We can have a desperate competition in Ligue 1. So, what’s more desperate? Lyon losing its coach because it needs money or Marseille signing zero players… This doesn’t exist. I’ve never seen a club not sign even a guy who passes by on the street, someone sees that he made a lot of touches. Not even that! Ligue 1 is desperate! And that’s how it is, I assume that coaches are very important. They are increasingly important in sport, I have the impression, and in football in particular. But don’t forget that it’s better to have a good squad and have to choose a coach than the opposite: to have a great coach and an average squad”, he said.
