Bordeaux (AFP)
Bordeaux and its Portuguese coach Paulo Sousa, under contract until 2022, have separated by mutual agreement, the Girondins announced on Monday, who appointed Jean-Louis Gasset in his place.
Sousa, 49, arrived in Gironde in March 2019, had expressed desires elsewhere at the beginning of the summer because of broken promises, differences with his management and an upcoming austerity cure imposed by the majority shareholder King Street.
After long negotiations, the two parties reached a financial agreement to separate amicably, thanks to the intervention of an American fund manager, Daniel Ehrmann. Sousa's severance pay would be between 2 and 2.5 million euros according to several media.
The Portuguese technician was replaced by Jean-Louis Gasset, 66, already passed through Bordeaux as assistant to Laurent Blanc from 2007 to 2010. In three seasons, the duo had won a league title, a League Cup, two trophies champions and reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
"The prospect of returning to a club where I have had so many good times and great moments gives me great joy," Gasset said in a club statement.
The former coach of Saint-Etienne, who signed for two years, brings in his luggage two of his assistants in the Forez, Ghislain Printant and Fabrice Grange, in charge of the goalkeepers.
In addition, the Girondins have confirmed the arrival of their former international defender Alain Roche as sports director to replace the Spaniard Eduardo Macia, dismissed from his post on July 24 following "malfunctions within the Football Directorate ".
Roche, 52 years old, who will meet in Bordeaux several leaders known in the capital as the financial director Thomas Jacquemier, who already held this function for several seasons at Paris SG before the arrival of the Qataris.
© 2020 AFP