Santos closed the hiring of Argentine coach Juan Pablo Vojvoda. The parties came to a verbal agreement on Thursday (21), and the club awaits the coach at Vila Belmiro to sign the contract and make the official announcement.
He arrives at the club after the 6-0 defeat suffered against Vasco on Sunday (17) in Morumbi, which resulted in the fall of Cleber Xavier, having the mission to push the team away from the relegation zone in the Brazilian Championship.
The coach had been free in the market since the end of July, when he was fired from Fortaleza after a series of nine games without victory.
Former Tite, Xavier was at the head of the team in his first experience as a coach for only 15 matches, with five wins, three draws and seven losses, 33%.
He left the club 15th in the Brazilian classification table, with two points of advantage over Vitória, the first team in the relegation zone.
In 19 rounds played so far, Santos has six wins, three draws and ten losses, with 20 goals scored and 29 conceded.
The Portuguese Pedro Caixinha, between January and April, and the assistant César Sampaio, who took over for two weeks, had already passed by Banco do Santos in the first half.
In the next appointment, Santos travels to Salvador to face Bahia, on Sunday (24), at Fonte Nova.
For the confrontation, the team will not be able to count on Neymar, who received the third yellow card against Vasco and fulfills suspension.
At the head of Fortaleza, the 50 -year -old Argentine coach won the three -time Cearense championship between 2021 and 2023, and was two -time champion of the Northeast Cup in 2022 and 2024.
Under their command, the team played three times the Copa Libertadores and was runner-up of the South American Cup, losing on penalties to Ecuador’s LDU in 2023.
There were 310 games with Fortaleza, with 145 wins, 77 draws and 88 losses, 55%.
Defender revealed at Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys base, Vojvoda began his career as a coach in 2015. He passed the Argentines Newell’s Old Boys, Defensa Y Justicia, Talleres and Huracán and also commanded Chile’s Unión La Calera before landing in Brazil.
He will be the sixth Argentine coach to command Santos in history. Before him, they passed the Abel Picébéa Allero Club (1946/1947), Ramos Delgado (1977/78), Jorge Sampaoli (2019) – that was consulted by the board to return, but did not come to an agreement – Ariel Holan (2021) and Fabián Bustos (2022).
