The Palmeiras coach says he has no plans to return to national soccer and highlights the difficulties associated with coaching in Portugal, especially for his family.
Upon arriving at Porto airport, Abel Ferreira was asked about a possible return to Portugal. The Palmeiras coach assures that he is only thinking about “being with his family” and emphasizes that “being a coach in Portugal, being Portuguese, is not easy”.
Would you like to return to Portuguese soccer soon? “No, what I really want is to be with my family. That’s what I want. Being a coach in Portugal, being Portuguese, is not easy. Not for me, but for my family, because unfortunately we live in a very media-driven world and people can’t separate the coach from the person, or the manager from the person. That’s what scares me most about soccer today. Sometimes I have conversations in Brazil with some people, and if they can understand that one thing is Abel the coach, and another thing is Abel the person. Son, father, husband. There’s a very big tendency these days to show everything. For example, I gave an opinion on our pitch and received a message from someone responsible for it. I replied: ‘Are you talking to Abel the coach or Abel the person? Abel the coach, yes. He’s demanding, he wants things to be good, perfect. With Abel the person, you can count on me for whatever you want. Now, when people mix the two, it’s dangerous, and that’s what I don’t want.”
“Expectations are so high, so high, that nowadays a coach, player or manager needs to take a specialized course to know how to deal with you (the media). I’m not saying you’re bad, but you need a course to know how to deal with the press, with the media, to deal with praise and criticism. Fortunately, things have gone very well for me, but it’s good for people to understand that in my short 10-year career as a coach, I’ve spent six of them in professional soccer and four without reaping any rewards. The only thing I say to any coach in the world is to believe and do the best you know and can. Work hard and go home with a clear conscience, that’s what I try to do. For me, success doesn’t lie in titles, but in being able to go home, lie down and know that in my conscience I’ve done the best I could with the resources I have. That, for me, is success,” he emphasized.
