Vojvoda, the coach who changed medicine for the Argentine football school

São Paulo, October 26 (EFE). – Argentine Juan Pablo Voevoda, who spent three seasons at the helm of Fortaleza, the surprising Brazilian runner-up of the Copa Sudamericana, changed football medicine and with the coach’s specialty arrived in Brazil in 2021. .

Two years later, the company is on the verge of establishing its presence in South America.

Much more than he achieved as a defender during his 17-year career, which began at Newell’s Old Boys and was little more than a secret.

He went to medicine, but left his studies in 2002, leaving his country to try his luck in modest clubs in Spain such as Compostela.

After retiring from playing in 2012, when he was a player for Argentine club Sarmiento, Vojvoda returned to medical school and in 2017, 90 days after his mandatory clinical residency ended, a phone call changed the direction of his life.

In parallel with his studies, Vojvoda temporarily coached Newell’s Old Boys for ten matches in 2016, but an offer to coach Defensa e Justicia ended his medical career.

Two other traditional teams, Talleres and Huracan, signed the coach who in 2020 accepted his first challenge abroad to coach Unión La Calera in Chile, with whom he finished second and qualified for the Copa Libertadores for the first time.

A successful season in Chile put him on Fortaleza’s radar, with Vojvoda winning three Sirens titles, and one in the North-East Cup.

But the proximity to maximum achievement is without precedent. This is the title of the twenty-second edition of the Copa Sudamericana, scheduled for next Saturday in Uruguay against Liga de Quito.

The Croatian coach is 48 years old and has six compatriots in the Brazilian national team: Emanuel Preetz, Gonzalo Escobar, Tomas Pochettino, Emanol Machuca, Juan Martin Lucero and Silvio Romero.

Vojvoda trained as a player and with his first steps as a coach in the youth categories at Newell’s Old Boys, he mostly used a 4-2-3-1 formation, although sometimes it changed to a 4-4-2, with two positions. straight ahead. Evie

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