Botafogo’s new coach, Bruno Lage, is greeted with celebration by fans at the airport

In the early hours of this Wednesday (12), the new coach of Botafogo, Bruno Lage, arrived in Brazil. Lage received a warm welcome from the fans who went to Galeão airport, where he was greeted with songs from the crowd and took pictures with the fans.

_{Bruno Lages taking a photo with a fan. (Photo: reproduction/Botafogo/Jogada10)}

The technician came from Portugal and arrived in Brazil after a 9-hour flight. He came accompanied by his technical commission, which is made up of technical assistants and Carlos Cachada and Luís Nascimento, the physical trainer Alexandre Silva and analysts Diogo Camacho and Jhony Conceição.

Lage was officially announced by Botafogo last Saturday (8) and will be introduced to the team this morning, during a press conference with Jhon Textor, owner of Botafogo. The press conference will take place at the Nilton Santos stadium, at 10:30 am (Brasília time).

The Portuguese coach is 47 years old, and has a contract with the Rio de Janeiro team until the end of this season, as he does not know how he will adapt to Brazilian football. Lage has always been Jhon Textor’s main option to take over as coach, since the departure of Luís Castro, who is now in charge of Al-Nassr. Lage has already worked with two of Botafogo’s players, Marçal and Gabriel Pires.

The coach’s most recent job was at Wolverhampton, England, between the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. But he was fired from the team for poor performance. With 51 games in charge of the team, the coach had 19 wins, 9 draws and 23 defeats. Lage was also in charge of Benfica’s base until 2012, when he went to Shabab Al-Ahli, in the United Arab Emirates. In 2018 he returned to Benfica, initially in the B team, and then rose to the professional ranks in 2019.

Bruno Lage was also an assistant coach at Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea before returning to Benfica in 2018.

As a coach, Lage won only two professional titles, the Portuguese Championship 2018/19 and the Portuguese Super Cup 2019/20, both with Benfica.

Featured photo: Bruno Lage after landing in Rio de Janeiro. Reproduction/GE