Orlando Pirates’ new head coach Jose Riveiro says he is a student of the game, having realised at a young age that he wasn’t good enough as a player.
The 46-year-old Spanish coach was unveiled by the DStv Premiership side this week, with his appointment coming something as a surprise to the Bucs supporters.
Riveiro joins the club from little-known Finnish side FC Inter Turku, while he has also worked as assistant coach at HJK Helsinki, PK-35 and FC Honka.
He began his coaching career in Spain with the Celta Vigo youth academy.
"He made Inter Turku a serious title contender..."
— iDiski Times (@iDiskiTimes) June 25, 2022
Newly-appointed Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro earned a great deal of respect during his time in Finland.https://t.co/PpOVBDt8Vi pic.twitter.com/yYaAEtrC44
In a 2019 interview with Finnish paper Ilta-Sanomat: Riveiro said: “[My team] Gran Pena played in the Spanish third level, which is roughly the number one in Finland. I realised I wasn’t going to be good, no matter how much work I did.
“I was always interested in the game. At the age of 14, I started travelling with my team’s coach to Porto [in Portugal] to see the Champions League. I also worked as a journalist for [Spanish weekly sports magazine] Don Balon, so I got into interviews and read a lot about football.”
🚨 Jose Riveiro unpacked, well almost.
— Mazola J. Molefe (@superjourno) June 28, 2022
"I think he is someone who is going to bring a lot to SA football, but as to what style he prefers I will leave that to him to talk about." 🏴☠️
Full story. #SABCSport411https://t.co/czQAaSsbaf
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Riveiro was all set to take the Celta reserve side in 2014, but he instead moved to Finland to assist Shefki Kuqi at Honka and he finally took his first head coach job as head coach at Turku in 2019.
