Flamengo Announces New Coach

Flamengo, the current champion of the Brazilian League and the Libertadores Cup, announced on Friday that Spanish coach Domenec Torrent, who was Pep Guardiola's assistant for many years, will be their new coach until the end of 2021, according to a video released by the club.

"Hello, I'm Domenec. I'm very happy to be part of this great nation. We will fight to win titles. See you soon. Thank you very much," said the Spanish coach in a video shared by the Brazilian team with their partners through social networks.

In the video presentation, Flamengo stated that "The new coach of the 'Most Beloved' team is Catalan Domenec Torrent. The new commander of the two-time Libertadores Cup champion and seven-time Brazilian champion signed until the end of 2021 and will be presented soon."

Minutes later, on their Twitter profile, the popular Rio de Janeiro team wrote in Spanish "Bienvenido Domenec Torrent" (Welcome Domenec Torrent).

Torrent met with Flamengo's vice president, Marcos Braz, and the club's executive director, Bruno Spindel, on Thursday. They had been in Lisbon for the past week, looking for a replacement for Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus.

However, according to local media, small details prevented the announcement the day before, and it was only on Friday that the contract with the coach who will replace the acclaimed Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus, who left the Brazilian team to take over Benfica, was finalized.

The Brazilian directors arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday night and immediately traveled to Girona, after leaving Portugal, where they failed to sign Portuguese coach Carlos Carvalhal from Río Ave, and Madrid, where they met Spanish coach Fernando Hierro and also failed to reach an agreement.

Together with Torrent, assistant coach Jordi Guerrero and performance analyst Jordi Gris were also hired, while the fitness coach, also Spanish, will be announced in the coming hours.

At 58 years old, Torrent played for several Catalan teams and began his coaching career at Palafruguell in 1994. He then coached Palamós, and in the 2005-2006 season, he was on the bench for Girona.

In 2008, he joined Guardiola's coaching staff at Barcelona and stayed with him when they moved to Bayern Munich in 2012.

Between 2016 and 2018, Torrent accompanied Guardiola at Manchester City in England and then accepted an offer from New York City in the United States, which he left in November of last year.