Brazilian Emerson dos Santos Alcántara has agreed on a two-season deal at DIRECTV North East Stars which will see the 37 year-old fill the role of head coach at the Sangre Grande based club until the end of the 2012-2013 TT Pro League season.
This was confirmed by North East Stars president Darryl Mahabir who said the club needed a coach that can motivate the players and has a lot of confidence in Alcântara who arrived in Trinidad last Tuesday.
The coaching post at the Sangre Grande club was vacant for the past month since the sacking of Shurland David following a string of defeats (2-1 against T&TEC FC in the League and First Citizens Cup group stage defeats W Connection and Caledonia AIA with 4-1 and 2-0 results respectivel).
Emerson Alcántara may be considered a young coach at 37, but his resume includes coaching posts with Bucheon FC (South Korea 2009-2010), Sports Club XV November Piracicaba(Brazil 2009), Atletico Penapolense(Brazil 2008), FC Lugano(Switzerland 2007), Red Bull (Austria 2006), Ipanema(Brazil 2005) and Atletico Jaboticabal(Brazil 2004).
“I think Trinidad style of football is similar to that of South America,” said Mahabir. “We try to play a lot of passing football. And that contributed in our decision to hire Alcântara.
Alcântara has been working with his bunch inclusive of Seon Power, Charles Pollard, Kevaughn Connell, Stern John, Marc Leslie, Anthony and Glenton Wolfe, Stephen Cruickshank and Keryn Navarro at North East Stars over the past few days and according to Mahabir, the Brazilian is quite pleased.
“He(Alcántara) is quite satisfied with what he saw,” explained Mahabir. “He is very impressed with talent at our club.
We also definitely have a more motivated bunch of players now. There is no doubt that our players can play. It’s just that our players weren’t motivated enough under the last coach.”
Alcántara will take charge of his first match on Tuesday afternoon at the Larry Gomes Stadium from 5pm against Adam’s Construction San Juan Jabloteh in Round One Match Day Four of the Digicel Pro League Championship.
“He has been working on a lot of passing and movement in the last few days,” added the North East Stars president. “We hope that this coach would definitely improve our team to help achieve our goals this season and also bring the Brazilian styled football at our club.”
Mahabir went on to add that the arrangement with Alcántara could see the club sign a Brazilian, Argentine or even Mexican player.
Alcántara will also be privileged to witness two of Trinidad and Tobago’s top passing teams Caledonia AIA and W Connection in action from 7pm at the Malabar venue in another scheduled Match Day Four fixture.