Panaji: FC Goa have been quick in finding a replacement for coach Gouramangi Singh with Angel Viadero arriving in the city on Sunday to take charge of the team.Goa parted ways with Gouramangi, the club’s first full-time domestic coach, after their exit in the group stage of AFC Challenge League and a lone win from their first four games in the Indian Super League (ISL).The club believes the team needs an experienced hand and lost no time in finalising Viadero, a Spanish coach who officials had interviewed twice in the past.“Viadero has followed ISL for a long time and knows most of the players,” a senior official told TOI. “He knows the FC Goa players particularly well and we have no doubt that this team will do better.”On his arrival in Goa on Sunday, Viadero visited the club’s training venue in Old Goa and later held discussions with the coaching staff. He will conduct his first training session on Monday morning with players being made aware of his arrival.Assistant coach Shameel Chembakath was in-charge of the team on an interim basis.Viadero has spent most of his managerial career in Spain’s lower divisions, overseeing more than 500 matches since beginning his coaching journey in 2002. With over two decades of experience, the Spaniard brings considerable knowledge of the game.He is no stranger to India, having been assistant to Juan Pedro Benali at NorthEast United. Interestingly, Viadero’s first match in charge of Goa will be against an unbeaten NEUFC side on Nov 21.Viadero began his coaching career with Racing Santander’s reserve side, where he spent six years. He subsequently managed several other Spanish clubs, including Ponferradina, Eibar, Pontevedra, Noja, Sestao River and Burgos. His most successful spell came at his hometown club, Racing Santander, where he recorded 44 wins in 73 matches.When Goa parted ways with Gouramangi, Viadero became a natural choice, given that the club wanted a foreigner and had interviewed him twice in the past. The first was in 2020 when Juan Ferrando got the nod and managed the team in the AFC Champions League.When Ferrando quit midway into the season to move to Kolkata, Viadero was again on Goa’s mind but, in a season impacted by Covid-19 pandemic and played inside a bio-secure bubble, chose to stick with one of their own, Derrick Pereira.Goa are placed seventh on the ISL table with five points from their first four matches.
