AFP
Rui Faria, an assistant to Jose
Mourinho at a number of
Europe’s biggest teams, has
become head coach at Qatari
league side Al Duhail, the club announced yesterday.
It is the 43-year-old’s first job since
leaving Manchester United, as Mourinho’s number two, last year.
“The club administration has succeeded in hiring Portuguese coach
Rui Faria to lead the team... during the
coming period after intensive negotiations,” the club said in an announcement posted on Twitter.
It said that Duhail had beaten off
several offers from other clubs to secure Faria as its coach.
“The club will present its new coach
to the media in a major press conference that will be announced in the upcoming two days,” it added.
Faria was assistant for Mourinho
— who is also in Qatar at the moment
working as a pundit for beIN Sports —
at a host of top clubs including Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid and Manchester United over 17 years.
He surprisingly called time on their
partnership last year at Old Trafford
after working with Mourinho.
At the time he said he wanted to
“spend much more quality time” with
his family before taking a new job, according to a statement from Manchester United. Mourinho’s troubled spell
as Manchester United boss ended last
month. Mourinho, 55, said on Thursday that he would return to top-level
football after leaving the English club
and was “too young to retire”.
It is the second noticeable coach appointment made by a Qatari club in recent weeks, after former Iceland boss
Heimir Hallgrimsson was unveiled as
Al-Arabi’s boss in December.
Duhail currently stand second in the
Qatar Stars League, two points behind
Al Sadd, who could be coached by Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez from
next season. There are seven games
left in the season for Faria to try and
help the team grab its second league
title in consecutive seasons.
Faria will replace Nabil Maaloul,
who was the coach of the Tunisian national side at the World Cup last year
in Russia, which lost to semi-finalists
Belgium and England.
Maaloul abruptly left the club earlier
this month after the team was knocked
out of the Asian Champions League at
the quarter-final stage.
Duhail were also formerly managed
by Marseille player Djamel Belmadi,
who is the current coach of the Algerian national team.