Paulo Sousa


Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa, CavIH is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder, and the current manager of French club FC Girondins de Bordeaux.
Starting his career at Benfica, he also represented Sporting in his country, where he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 117 matches and three goals in five years. From there onwards, he competed mainly in Italy and in Germany, winning the Champions League with Juventus and Borussia Dortmund and the Intercontinental Cup with the latter side. His later career was severely hampered by injuries.
Sousa was a member of Portugal's "Golden Generation". and appeared with the national team at the 2002 World Cup and two European Championships. He took up coaching in the late 2000s, managing clubs in several countries and winning national championships with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Basel.

Playing career

Club

Born in Viseu, Sousa began playing professionally for S.L. Benfica, and was a starter from an early age. He won the Primeira Liga championship in 1990–91, and the Taça de Portugal two years later.
In the summer of 1993, Sousa signed for Lisbon neighbours Sporting CP together with his teammate António Pacheco. In one season, he partnered Luís Figo and Krasimir Balakov in midfield and the Lions did not win any silverware.
Sousa played with Juventus F.C. for two seasons after joining in 1994, leading the Turin side to the 1995–96 conquest of the UEFA Champions League. He also won the previous year's Serie A, adding the domestic cup and supercups and also finishing as runners-up in the UEFA Cup.
Sousa then moved to Germany to play for Borussia Dortmund, where he repeated the Champions League triumph the following campaign. The final was against his former club Juventus and, although he appeared in that game, his Dortmund spell was plagued with injuries, which followed him the remainder of his career.
Sousa subsequently returned to Italy to play for Inter Milan, and eventually retired in summer 2002 at the age of 31, after briefly representing Parma A.C. on loan, Panathinaikos F.C. and RCD Espanyol.

International

A member of the Portugal squad that won the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship, Sousa went on to earn 51 caps for the senior national team. His international debut came on 16 January 1991, in a friendly against Spain that ended in a 1–1 draw.
Sousa played for his country at UEFA Euro 1996, and 2000, and was a squad member at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but did not play a single match. His last appearance came shortly before the latter competition, a 2–0 friendly win over China.

Style of play

Sousa was a hard-working, tactically intelligent and versatile player, who was effective both offensively and defensively, courtesy of his anticipation and ability to read the game, although he was not known for his speed. Although he was usually classified as a hard-tackling defensive midfielder, he also possessed excellent vision and control, and was often deployed as a deep-lying playmaker throughout his career due to his passing accuracy, technique and ability to control the tempo of his teams' play; his playing style drew comparisons with Paulo Roberto Falcão throughout his career.
In addition to his skill and creative abilities, Sousa was also renowned for his leadership.

Coaching career

Portugal national teams

Sousa began working as a manager by joining the coaching staff of the Portugal national team, taking the helm of the under-16s, and in the summer of 2008 he was appointed assistant to first-team coach Carlos Queiroz, his former boss at Sporting and the Portuguese youths.

Queens Park Rangers

On 19 November 2008, Sousa was appointed head coach of Championship team Queens Park Rangers. However, on 9 April 2009, he was sacked, as the club claimed he had divulged sensitive information without permission from the hierarchy, which included Dexter Blackstock's loan move to Nottingham Forest having been agreed without his knowledge.

Swansea City

Following Roberto Martínez's move to Wigan Athletic, Sousa was offered the role as Swansea City manager on 18 June 2009. He verbally accepted the deal, signing a three-year contract, and was officially appointed on the 23rd.
During the league campaign, Sousa led Swansea to its highest league finish for 27 years, just outside the play-offs. On 4 July 2010, he departed by mutual consent, set to take the vacant managerial post at Leicester City.

Leicester City

On 7 July 2010, Sousa became the new manager of Leicester City. Owner Milan Mandarić stated that he was delighted to "acquire a manager of such great calibre", adding he was "the right man to take our club forward".
On 1 October 2010, after less than three months in charge, Sousa was fired by Leicester, after a poor start to the season, with the team having won only once in his first nine league games.

Videoton

On 15 May 2011, Sousa signed a three-year contract with Hungarian club Videoton FC, newly crowned champions of the Nemzeti Bajnokság I. He made his competitive debut in the Champions League qualifying round to SK Sturm Graz in a 0–2 away loss, followed by an insufficient 3–2 home win.
On 30 August 2012, the day of his 42nd birthday, Videoton hosted Trabzonspor in the season's Europa League last qualifying round. After the 4–2 penalty shoot-out win, he stated: "The qualification was the most beautiful birthday of my life".
On 7 January 2013, Videoton announced that they had agreed to terminate Sousa's contract due to family reasons. That same day, it was reported that he would become the new manager of the New York Red Bulls, but nothing came of it.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

On 12 June 2013, Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. officially appointed Sousa as its head coach. He won the Israeli Premier League in his first and only season in charge.

Basel

Sousa changed clubs and countries again on 28 May 2014, signing a three-year contract with FC Basel in the Swiss Super League. He left on 17 June of the following year, after again winning the national championship.

Fiorentina

On 21 June 2015, Sousa joined Serie A club ACF Fiorentina. He left on 6 June 2017, following the appointment of Stefano Pioli.

Tianjin Quanjian

On 6 November 2017, Sousa signed for Tianjin Quanjian F.C. of the Chinese Super League, replacing Fabio Cannavaro. On 4 October of the following year, he left his post.

Bordeaux

Sousa became FC Girondins de Bordeaux's third coach of the season on 8 March 2019 after Gus Poyet and Ricardo Gomes, agreeing to a three-and-a-half-year deal.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Benfica
Juventus
Borussia Dortmund
Portugal
Individual
Videoton
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Basel