New coach at FC Porto
Tuesday, 24 May 2005 13:49FC Porto, European champions for one more day, have signed Dutchman Co Adriaanse of first division side AZ Alkmaar as their new coach on a two-year contract starting July 1.
Adriaanse, who led minnows AZ Alkmaar to third place in the Dutch league and the UEFA Cup semifinals, promised to introduce a more attacking style to Porto and win the Portuguese title next year.
"Porto is one of the best clubs in the world, for me it is a big step to go from AZ Alkmaar to FC Porto," the 57-year-old told a news conference.
Porto, who failed to win their thrid straight Portuguese league title on Sunday, losing out to Benfica, have the option to extend their contract with Adriaanse for a third season. The club gave no financial details.
Adriaanse will become the fourth coach to take the reins at Porto since Jose Mourinho left last June to take over at Chelsea.
Jose Couceiro, who took charge of Porto in February, resigned on Sunday after Porto finished the season in second place with 62 points, three fewer than Lisbon-based Benfica which had not won a title since 1994.
Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa has blamed Porto's weakness this season on a lack of player discipline and said he was drawn to Adriaanse because he believed the coach would impose rigour on the squad.
"I chose him because of his technical profile, because of the way his team played, because of the discipline he imposes and for the rigour that I know he has for everything to do with our team," he said.
Adriaanse, who has never worked outside of The Netherlands as a coach, vowed to learn to speak Portuguese within three to four months.
His contract with the Dutch club terminated at the end of this season and he had indicated in January that he was interested in moving on.
He began his coaching career in the 1990s with the youth team of Ajax Amsterdam before spending three seasons at Willem II Tilburg.
Before joining AZ Alkmaar in 2002 he briefly served as head coach of Ajax.
