Rui Faria, an assistant to Jose Mourinho at a number of Europe’s biggest teams, has become head coach at Qatari league side Al Duhail, the club announced yesterday.
It is the 43-year-old’s first job since leaving Manchester United, as Mourinho’s number two, last year.
“The club administration has succeeded in hiring Portuguese coach Rui Faria to lead the team... during the coming period after intensive negotiations,” the club said in an announcement posted on Twitter.
It said that Duhail had beaten off several offers from other clubs to secure Faria as its coach.
“The club will present its new coach to the media in a major press conference that will be announced in the upcoming two days,” it added.
Faria was assistant for Mourinho — who is also in Qatar at the moment working as a pundit for beIN Sports — at a host of top clubs including Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid and Manchester United over 17 years.
He surprisingly called time on their partnership last year at Old Trafford after working with Mourinho.
At the time he said he wanted to “spend much more quality time” with his family before taking a new job, according to a statement from Manchester United. Mourinho’s troubled spell as Manchester United boss ended last month. Mourinho, 55, said on Thursday that he would return to top-level football after leaving the English club and was “too young to retire”.
It is the second noticeable coach appointment made by a Qatari club in recent weeks, after former Iceland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson was unveiled as Al-Arabi’s boss in December.
Duhail currently stand second in the Qatar Stars League, two points behind Al Sadd, who could be coached by Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez from next season. There are seven games left in the season for Faria to try and help the team grab its second league title in consecutive seasons.
Faria will replace Nabil Maaloul, who was the coach of the Tunisian national side at the World Cup last year in Russia, which lost to semi-finalists Belgium and England.
Maaloul abruptly left the club earlier this month after the team was knocked out of the Asian Champions League at the quarter-final stage.
Duhail were also formerly managed by Marseille player Djamel Belmadi, who is the current coach of the Algerian national team.
Rui Faria
