Ricardo Sá Pinto
Ricardo Sá Pinto left the technical command of Esteghlal, from Iran, and, a week later… war broke out. Admitting that in Portugal people do not know this (or other) information, the coach states that this was a predictable scenario.
On February 20, Esteghlal announced the termination of its contract with Ricardo Sá Pinto.
The Portuguese coach packed his bags, said goodbye to the country and, “two or three days later”, the USA and Israel.
“I already predicted that this would happen: the last few weeks have not been easy, there were many demonstrations that took many people to the streets, the atmosphere became very tense, people were scared and it was clear that something would happen soon,” the former football player told .
In another interview with , the former national team player says that, at the beginning, he was even determined to stay in the country. However, with the escalation of the demonstrations in January, where he says twice as many people died as he was supposed to, he decided he would have to leave the country.
“I don’t think people even noticed. There’s talk of 20, 25 thousand, but it was more than double, more than double. Many images and videos did not reach Europe because it was truly a catastrophe, it was something indescribable. It was terrible. When I said I wanted to continue, I hadn’t reached this point yet”, he lamented.
“They were days and days of killing children, people, young people between 20 and 30 years old. More than 50 thousand people died because they demonstrated peacefully. They were actually murdered. And well-known actors, well-known former players… A lot of people, figures from Iranian society,” he added.
To CNN, Sá Pinto gave the example of a player he had faced, who was murdered, together with his wife and daughter, during the protests: “There were plainclothes police mixed in among the protesters and they were killing people in an unbelievable way. I knew one, who played against me three years ago here, he was with his family, They shot the woman too, the girl too.”
The coach, who has already played in Iran twice, knew it was a “matter of time”, reporting that there were “members of the technical team and players who left the country and did not return”.
“We knew it was a matter of time… at least the information I had. You probably didn’t realize or understand thisbut I, with the contact I had at the embassy, came to understand this. It was a matter of time,” he told RTP.
What’s happening in Iran?
Sá Pinto spoke at a majority of discontent: “There is a niche here that has a lot of money and is satisfied, but it represents 5 or 6 percent. So, 90 or so percent have immense financial difficulties.”
“The big demonstrations have to do, fundamentally, with this, with the quality of life and, of course, with freedom. With freedom of expression, with the freedom to be able to democratically express your will and the things you most should and like to do”, revealed the coach.
Sá Pinto thinks that what is happening was what most people wanted. “There are those people who are really religiously fanatical and who believe what they think they need to believe, but a minimally emotionally balanced person realizes and knows that, in today’s times, there are things that are unacceptable: living with all these constraints, with these absurd rules, with this lack of freedom. Anyway, it’s too much”, he considered, to RTP.
Despite mentioning that most people are unhappy, the former Sporting captain explains that this dissatisfaction is hidden: “Openly they could never say much. I had players who had some problems making posts when there were the last demonstrations.”
The manager believes that the regime is on the verge of falling and that is why he has many friends who do not want to leave the country: “He thinks it will really happen. everyone is prepared so that, in the coming weeks, Iran will become independent and become a normal society.”
“I consider returning when the regime falls (…) It will fall for sure”he envisioned.
