Veteran Portuguese coach Renato Paiva has had a solid career which Mexico had been a part of with his spells in Leon but more famously in Toluca. He sat down recently for an interview with Zach Lowy for RG Media where he made a number of controversial statements about his recent spells in Botafogo, Fortaleza and Liga MX. Paiva, who was known in Mexico for his statements as well as the level of work he did in club, continues being a very honest person, who “goes for it” as the interview shows.
The
Zach Lewy interview is in the following link and it’s very revealing of Paiva’s career, where he is now and how he’s sees his future.
Renato Paiva’s interview centers more on his time with Botafogo. After leaving Toluca, Paiva would become the head coach of Botafogo, the current Copa Libertadores champions. After his countrymen Artur Jorge left the club to coach in Qatar, Paiva took the helm where he would manage Botafogo in the FIFA Club World Cup. With Botafogo he would get THE result of the group stage after defeating UEFA Champions League winners PSG by a 1-0 score. They would qualify to the Round of 16 where they would be eliminated by Palmeiras by a 1-0 score in extra time which would end with Paiva getting fired. In the interview, Paiva flat out accuses owner John Textor of making the decision to fire him because of the result and his “betrayal” of how he was working. He also accuses Textor of trying to get into his training decisions, all of which are heavy accusations that the press will likely ask the owner for a response to the controversial decision.
TOLUCA
While there was great information out of the Brazil club drama as well as his early history with football, his talk on his time with Toluca is the one we are covering here as he made some very interesting remarks. Paiva was the coach of the current Liga MX champions prior to Antonio Mohamed getting to the club and wining the title. Paiva’s time with the club was the one where the current club was being slowly build but it was a controversial tenure. Paiva had some great moments where Toluca was a contender but he also had disappointing results as he was eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions Cup by Costa Rica’s Herediano club after losing a 2-0 lead at home and losing the match by a 3-2 score. Then in the Apertura 2024, Toluca ended up in 2nd place only to lose out in the first Liguilla series against Club America.
Off the spell, Paiva mentions:
“When Toluca won the championship, several Mexican journalists, several Toluca players and directors, as well as the president, sent me messages about their first title in 15 years, telling me ‘It’s very much yours.’ Even the coach Antonio Mohamed said that when he arrived in Toluca, he found excellent work. When we got to Toluca, Toluca was in thirteenth place, out of the playoffs, and in six months, we managed to put them into third place. We lost 1-0 to Chivas in the Liga MX quarterfinals, a match where we needed to score at home, we massacred them and couldn’t score a goal, and if we had played today, we still wouldn’t have beaten the post and the goalkeeper – who was the best player on the pitch – and scored the decisive goal.”
Source: RG.org
While it’s noticeable that Paiva mentions the Liguilla in the Clausura 2024, where they were maybe unfairly eliminated by Chivas after dominating the return leg and doesn’t mention the Apertura 2024 where America was overly superior in both games, he does have a good view of the situation especially of the improvement of Toluca. That being said, it was not only coaching that made the improvement as the team had a lot of important signings.
“There is no doubt that it was a year in which we left the seeds of football in that team. I watch Toluca play today, and I don’t see much difference from my Toluca. Mohamed was smart because he took advantage of what was already done there and obviously added his own coaching ideas, building on the foundation that was laid there.
Source: RG.org
In the more controversial statement about Toluca, Paiva says he doesn’t see much difference between Mohamed’s Toluca and his team, in a very “Lavolpian” statement. While it’s true that Paiva’s Toluca was very offensive, it was a matter of change from Mohammed as Toluca had to improve a lot in the final stages. Paiva failed to win a single Liguilla series with Toluca while Mohamed had to win three series to be crowned champions.
That’s not out of vanity, but out of conscience, from everything I hear from people: that title started there that first year. That’s when we began to build the title that Toluca won, because it was largely due to our work, not only in the way the team played, but also in the squad we managed to build, signing several quality players like Alexis Vega, Paulinho, Jesús Gallardo, and Luan.”
Source: RG.org
Finally Paiva closes out with his statement that he was key in making Toluca a winner with the key idea that he brought the players and how the team played. This is key because he is absolutely correct in him being the one who brought Paulinho. It is less so about the Mexican players, especially Alexis Vega, who came out of Toluca before going to Chivas and was already a product of Toluca. While still being true that he had an impact, it might dismissive for him to claim it was because of him, especially since Mohamed’s record in the Liguilla was a lot better than Paiva’s.
Renato Paiva’s an interesting coach which a very explosive way of expressing himself. Zach Lowy’s article is a very interesting read about how his career started and what happened during his spell in Brazil that now has him awaiting a new job but also in stand by as he continues being a very imposing presence.
Once again to check the RG Article, here is the link.
