PAULO Jorge Silva might have misrepresented his coaching credentials to get a job at Dynamos and probably to the authorities when applying for a work permit.
HENRY MHARA
The Portuguese, who last week was exposed in NewsDay Weekender for his lack of coaching experience he claims to have, hit back the following day in our sister paper the Standard, claiming to have worked for numerous clubs around the world in different capacities.
His claims could have done more damage to his reputation, as further investigations into his coaching career have exposed some inconsistencies.
Silva, who arrived in the country in January, just three months after he had been unveiled as coach of Nigerian side COD United, claims to have worked with several high-profile teams, including German’s VfB Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Greuther Furth and Aalen.
He says he has also worked with Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon, Al-Sharjah FC in the United Arab Emirates, and an unnamed club in Albania as well as Austrian Bundesliga sides FC Admira and SV Grödig.
He also claims to have previously worked for African giants Esperance of Tunisia, Ghana’s Hearts of Oak and Nigeria’s Enyimba.
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But after we published an email from Stuttgart on Saturday, who denied having ever worked with him, Silva insisted that he worked with the team’s Under-21 squad.
The Bundesliga does not have an Under-21 category.
Their most senior youth teams are the Under-19s, which participate in the Bundesliga Under-19 league.
Stuttgart wrote to NewsDay Sport again this week, trashing Silva’s claims.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything more about Jorge Paulo Silva. The persons in charge for our centre for junior players don’t know him and as you already know, there is no-Under 21 (team) at our club,” the club’s media and communications officer, Laura Steinacher wrote.
Silva told the Standard he started his coaching career at Sporting Lisbon, coaching the team’s Under-17 team in 2012, the same year he retired from playing professional football, before moving to Albania as an assistant coach.
He said he got his first job as a coach at Sharjah FC before moving to FC Admira and SV Grödig in the 2013/14 seasons in similar capacities.
But an online search on that coaching history only yields his short-lived stint with COD United.
Information from the Sporting Lisbon website suggests that their junior team was under Telmo Moura Costa in 2011, before he was replaced by Jose Lima the following year. The team is currently coached by Joao Couto.
Evidence also shows that Silva never coached at FC Admira and SV Grödig in the years 2013-2014.
FC Admira was under the tutelage of Toni Polster, who took over on June 2013 and was in charge of the team for just four games in a space of 54 days.
He was replaced by Waller Knaller, who was dismissed in April last year for Ernst Baumeister, who is currently in charge of the team.
Oliver Lederer was the assistant coach of the team from 2013 to 2015 when Michael Horvath took over.
The SV Grödig club website shows that the team was coached by Adi Hutler from 2012 to 2014, the time Silva claims was there, before Michael Bouer took over for one season and was also replaced by current manager Peter Schottel.
Silva might also have fibbed on his history with Al-Sharjah FC, as it was under Brazilian Jorvan Vieira in the 2011/12 season, before Romanian Valeviu Tija took over briefly and was replaced by another Brazilian, Paulo Bonamigo, who is still the club’s coach.
What is not questionable though is his playing career, as he featured for top Portuguese clubs FC Porto, Braga and Benfica, winning the league title with the latter in the 1993-4 season, although he played just one minute throughout the season, which came in the final game.
The 43-year-old former goalkeeper was called to the Portuguese national team once as a cover at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, but spent the whole tournament on the bench.
