Nuno Campos takes over the U-20 team and leads its first training session

Flamengo's new under-20 coach, Nuno Campos, took over the position and led his first activity in charge of the team on Tuesday afternoon (25), at CT George Helal. Alongside Gonçalo Cruz, his assistant, the coach began preparing for his debut, against Vasco, next Friday (28), at 16 pm, at Estádio Luso-Brasileiro.

Born in Lisbon, Nuno worked as an assistant coach at major European clubs such as Roma-ITA, Porto-POR, and Shakhtar Donetsk-UKR, as well as Toluca in Mexico, among others. His most recent stint was with the Mexican team, then managed by Renato Paiva, currently at Botafogo, from December 2023 to 2024. At the Italian club, Nuno worked with Paulo Fonseca, who was born in Mozambique but excelled in Portuguese football as an athlete and coach, and has previously managed other major European clubs such as Milan, Porto, Lyon, and Lille.

During his time at Shakhtar Donetsk, from June 2016 to June 2019, Nuno worked with José Boto, the club's current director of football. As a coach, the current Flamengo U-20 manager managed Tondela and Santa Clara, both from Portugal, in the 2021-2022 season.

After having five Portuguese coaches in the professional team, Flamengo will have Nuno Campos as the coach of the Garotos do Ninho under-20 category. Ernesto Santos, Cândido de Oliveira, Jorge Jesus, Paulo Sousa and Vitor Pereira are the fellow countrymen who have previously managed the senior team.

The derby against Vasco da Gama—part of the third round of the Brazilian Under-20 Championship—will be the Rubro-Negro's second match in the competition. Their debut match was against Athletico-PR, away from home in Curitiba, where they lost 2-1. It's worth noting that the match against Cuiabá, part of the first round of the competition, has been postponed.