Ricardo Sousa, a Portuguese coach, has guided Petrolul Ploiesti to third place in Romania's Liga 1, two points behind the leaders, despite keeping only three players from last season's squad and working with the lowest budget in the division.
Sousa's side have collected 15 points from eight matches, a run that included games against the six teams that finished highest in the league the previous season. He said reaching that position was a source of great satisfaction and pride, given the scale of the rebuilding job under way at the club.
A Major Squad Overhaul
Petrolul Ploiesti, a club based in the Romanian city of Ploiesti, competes in Liga 1, the country's top football division. Sousa said the club had gone through a very large renewal for the new season, retaining just three players from the previous campaign while operating with the smallest budget among Liga 1 clubs.
Two team talks Sousa gave to his players were made public in Romania and drew praise in the local press. He said the talks reflected his way of seeing the game and of communicating with his squads, adding that he believes every match calls for a different kind of message. He said it was the Romanian media, not himself, that chose to release the recordings.
"A Coach Who Finishes a Season Deserves a Statue"
Asked whether coaches need time and space to develop their projects, Sousa said there was no doubt about it, though he added that such stability has become rare in football. He said a coach who starts a season and finishes it deserves a statue, arguing that it is too easy for clubs to change their coaching staff and that doing so ends up being damaging.
This is Sousa's first time coaching a team in a first division outside Portugal, although he had previous experience working abroad. He said the work he had done in Portugal was what led the Romanian club to trust him with a top-flight role, and that people in Romania have responded well to his work, his communication and his focus on developing young players.
Trusting Teenagers
Sousa said his team had already given first-team involvement to five 16-year-olds this season, calling it unusual in Romanian football. He said the move had pleased people at the club, since foreign coaches tend to be more cautious about fielding such young players, a hesitation he does not share, just as he did not in Portugal.
Family Ties
Asked whether he misses home, Sousa said he does, but that his daughters were visiting him in Romania that week. He said his daughters understand that it is important for their father to keep working and to keep being happy, since he grew up playing football and watching his own father play, and he wants his life to stay connected to the game.
