49-year-old Fabiano Soares is the only Brazilian coach in charge of a team from the first division of a relevant national league in Europe.
The coach is in charge of Estoril Praia in Portugal, the club owned by Brazilian sports marketing company Traffic, and currently sits eighth in the Portuguese league championship. Formed at Botafogo, Fabiano spent most of his playing career at Celta Vigo and Compostela in Spain, and that’s where all his training as a coach happened. He told UOL Esporte: “The Spanish Federation was offering a course for players in first-division who wanted to become coaches, and I applied. A player thinks he knows everything, but doesn’t have any training. You need to study, participate in various courses. And that’s what I did.”
Fabiano led the youth team of Bergantiños and worked in the third and fourth divisions of Spain with Compostela and Estradense. In 2011, he was invited to work as an assistant at Estoril, and took over as first team coach a year ago. Interestingly, while Fabiano aims to help other Brazilian coaches to settle in Europe, he also doesn’t want to develop their career exclusively in the continent. He added: “Everyone says it’s crazy to work as a coach in Brazil, but I want this. I dream about it. I would like to feel the pressure that everyone talks about and train a team of just Brazilian players.”
49-year-old Fabiano Soares is the only Brazilian coach in charge of a team from the first division of a relevant national league in Europe.
The coach is in charge of Estoril Praia in Portugal, the club owned by Brazilian sports marketing company Traffic, and currently sits eighth in the Portuguese league championship. Formed at Botafogo, Fabiano spent most of his playing career at Celta Vigo and Compostela in Spain, and that’s where all his training as a coach happened. He told UOL Esporte: “The Spanish Federation was offering a course for players in first-division who wanted to become coaches, and I applied. A player thinks he knows everything, but doesn’t have any training. You need to study, participate in various courses. And that’s what I did.”
Fabiano led the youth team of Bergantiños and worked in the third and fourth divisions of Spain with Compostela and Estradense. In 2011, he was invited to work as an assistant at Estoril, and took over as first team coach a year ago. Interestingly, while Fabiano aims to help other Brazilian coaches to settle in Europe, he also doesn’t want to develop their career exclusively in the continent. He added: “Everyone says it’s crazy to work as a coach in Brazil, but I want this. I dream about it. I would like to feel the pressure that everyone talks about and train a team of just Brazilian players.”
