#Quique #Setién #candidate #lead #Botafogo #Brasileirao #Libertadores
The coaching market in Brazil remains more than active days before the start of the Brasileirao and, after the confirmation of the arrival of Gabriel Milito at Atlético Mineiro in recent days, another coach with an outstanding career could arrive in Brazilian football to also coach in the Libertadores Cup. The thing is that Botafogo wants the Spaniard Quique Setién, with a past in Barcelona.
Setién, 65 years old and who led Leo Messi’s Barcelona for a few months during 2020 – from the departure of Valverde in January to the humiliating 2-8 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League – has been out of work for a few months, when Villarreal fired him in September of last year, after the bad start to the season.
John Texor, the American magnate who owns Botafogo, has already made progress in negotiations and wants to close it as soon as possible so that he can have a few days of work before the start of the two main objectives of the year: the Brasileirao and the Libertadores. The Rio club has had an interim coach for more than a month now, since the departure of Tiago Nunes.
Botafogo comes from a quite unusual 2023: halfway through the Brasileirao, it was a comfortable leader with a 15-point lead but lost its coach, the Portuguese Luis Castro, who left to coach Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, and ended up in fifth position : It was enough for him to get into the Libertadores just enough and he overcame the two playoff phases to play in the group phase.
For Quique Setién it would be the first time directing outside of Spain: his career as a manager includes stints at Racing de Santander, Poli Ejido, Logroñés, Lugo, Las Palmas, Betis, Barcelona and Villarreal. Will it be another European directing in South America?
What Setién had said about his relationship with Messi in Barcelona
In November 2020, Quique Setién gave his first interview after being dismissed as Barcelona coach and took aim directly at Lionel Messi and said that “he is difficult to manage” and that, “even though he doesn’t talk much, he makes it known what he wants.” “.
After his poor time as coach of the culé team, in an interview with Vicente Del Bosque for the newspaper El País, Setién confessed: “Messi is difficult to manage, but who am I to change him.” However, the criticism of the Argentine star did not stop there. “There is another facet that is not that of a player and it is more complicated to manage. Much more. Something inherent to many athletes. You see things that you do not expect,” he continued.
