Comments on the possible resignation of Paulo Sousa from the position of national football team manager of Poland are in progress. His agent denied media reports that the coach had signed an initial contract with Brazilian club Flamengo. The President of PZPN (Polish Football Association – editor’s note), Cezary Kulesza, did not hide his surprise at the whole situation. – We gave ourselves two days with Paulo Sousa. We will return to our conversation with the selector,” he said in an interview with TVP Sport.
Brazilian daily “O Dia” reported last night that Sousa had signed a contract with Flamengo, with the club’s management agreeing to let him take the training staff he worked with to Rio de Janeiro. As “O Dia” journalist Vene Casagrande has learned, the agreement between Sousa and Flamengo did not provide for the Brazilian club to pay compensation to the Polish Football Association for the early termination of the contract by the Portuguese. Such compensation, the newspaper says, is €300,000 and would be paid for by Sousa himself.
Sousa would start at the Rio de Janeiro club in early January 2022.
Hugo Cajuda, Paulo Sousa’s agent, in an interview with the Polish Press Agency, stated that the coach “has not yet initialled a contract” with Flamengo and “there is not even a verbal agreement yet”.
The President of the Polish Football Association, Cezary Kulesza, does not hide his surprise at the whole situation. He tweeted on Sunday afternoon that he had “firmly refused” when Sousa approached him that he “wanted to terminate his contract with the Polish Football Association by mutual consent due to an offer from another club”.
In an interview with tvpsport.pl, Kulesza said that several days ago, during the conversation, Sousa did not bring up the topic of “wanting to terminate the contract”.
“This situation isn’t about securing Paulo Sousa’s contract because it’s not a free-for-all. It cannot be that we accede to every request. PZPN is too big and also respected football federation. We gave ourselves two days with Paulo Sousa. We will return to our conversation with the selector,” the President of the Polish Football Association said.
TVP Sport portal speculates that Sousa’s departure is expected to be a foregone conclusion, with one of the candidates to succeed him being… Adam Nawałka. It was to “give consent to the talks”. Nawałka was the national team selector from 2013 to 2018.