The former captain of the Uruguayan football national team, Paolo Montero, was appointed on Tuesday as interim head coach of Montevideo’s Peñarol, after the tough loss to its archrival Uruguay’s Nacional precipitated the resignation of Jorge Fossati.
The former captain of the Uruguayan football national team, Paolo Montero, was appointed on Tuesday as interim head coach of Montevideo’s Peñarol, after the tough loss to its archrival Uruguay’s Nacional precipitated the resignation of Jorge Fossati.
“I do not come here as the hero or to sell smoke by making any drastic changes. I also have hope,” Montero said at a news conference on Tuesday during his first practice as coach of the team, a position he will hold until the end of the tournament.
The decision to choose a permanent coach will happen after the club holds a mid-December election, based on new policy.
“They said it was for three games,” Montero said, noting that he “feels shivers” to occupy that place.
A former figure with Italian Juventus, where he formed one of the most feared defenses in the 90’s, Montero, 43, was until now the coach of third division club.
Following the classic weekend in which Nacional won an agonizing 2-1 win; Peñarol closes a season to forget, 14 points below its tricolor opponent who could be crowned champion on Sunday.
Fossati, who headed the Uruguayan national team in the qualifiers to the World Cup 2006, started his second season at the helm of Montevideo’s Peñarol, after having headed Paraguay’s Cerro Porteño in his previous job.
