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Portugal's Jose Couceiro resigned from his position as head coach of last season's UEFA Champions League winner "Porto" after his team failed to defend the title of the Portuguese champions on Sunday.
"Porto" played 1-1 at home against "Academica" on Sunday and, in case of a failure from newly crowned champions Lisbon's "Benfica", they would have remained in second place in the league standings.
"I refused the club's offer to remain as head coach," J. Couceiro said on Sunday. "I would have wanted to stay before the match, but now I think it would not be good for either me or the team."
"Despite that, I leave happy," said the Portuguese.
It is still unclear who will be the new coach of the team, but the Portuguese media reports that "Porto" has already agreed on a two-year contract with the current head coach of this season's UEFA Europa League dark horse "AZ Alkmaar", Co Adriaanse. Adriaanse's contract with "AZ" ends at the end of this season.
After "Porto" coach Jose Mourinho, who helped the club become winners of the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Champions League, left the club for the same position at London's "Chelsea" club, former "Chievo" coach Luigi del Neri briefly took over the team but was quickly replaced by Spaniard Victor Fernandez. J. Couceiro, who began his coaching career in 2002 at the second division club "Alverca", took over the team in February of this year.
