CELTIC v RANGERS
Director OF football Kids were ready for a cartoon – but Pedro showed them films of games
PEDRO CAIXINHA had just graduated from university and was a young coach with a grand plan.
A friend of his father’s stepped in to offer him a job coaching local schoolkids – and the rest is history.
Carlos Sanina is beaming with pride his protege’s hard work and determination has paid off after he accepted his biggest challenge yet – to restore Rangers’ fortunes.
Sanina was president of CD Beja, Caixinha’s hometown club, when the new Ibrox boss returned home in 1999 after earning his degree in physical education at Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro University in Vila Real, in the north of Portugal.
Sanina quickly realised they had a coach of potential when he took his group of 12 and 13-year-olds on an unbeaten run of more than 20 matches.
In the end, the minnow club were only pipped for the national title by the mighty Benfica but Caixinha’s work had been noticed throughout Portugal.
Sanina said: “I played in the same team at CD Beja with Joao, Pedro’s father, but I had little contact with his boy, who had graduated and returned home to be offered the post of professor at the local University of Evora.
“The youth football department of CD Beja was run by a group of men called ‘The Dads’ and they decided to bring in a young coach with fresh blood and ideas to coach their youngsters.
“Pedro’s references were the best we’d seen and I was mandated by the group to interview him before inviting him to take over the team. Pedro was exceptional. He accepted our offer immediately.
“CD Beja was seen as a club with a poor youth structure but in his first year they achieved the unprecedented feat of going 24 games without defeat in the national youth championships.
“In the end, we only lost out on the title to Benfica. Pedro was an individual with an above-average reputation among coaches in the region, even then. I still remember Pedro filmed the games against Benfica and after they lost he told the kids – remember they were only 12 and 13-years-old – they were going to watch a movie.
“Everyone thought it would be an animated film or some family adventure.
“Instead he did something unprecedented at that time and for this level, of showing the action from the games and explaining some of the mistakes they had made against Benfica. The players were open-mouthed.
“The training was something very different and important for our players. It contributed a lot to the sporting, cultural and emotional evolution of our kids.
“The four years he spent at the club were an eye-opener, revolutionary, and also helped to set the standards for the coach Pedro has become today.
“It is a pleasure to know that wherever he goes, he represents the dignity of our city, the history of our club and the greater region of Alentejo.”
Caixinha, like many coaches in the modern game, was a modest player, a goalkeeper who moved at the age of 18 to play with SC Portimonense in Portugal’s Second Division. He stayed at the club for six years and in 1994 he moved to CD Beja, retiring at 28 to focus on his studies. After his role with the youth side of his former club he moved, in 2003, to Vasco da Gama for a season.
His work caught they eye of Sporting Lisbon boss Jose Peseiro and he invited Caixinha in 2004 to become assistant, responsible for observation and analysis.
They finished runners-up in the UEFA Cup the following year, losing the final 3-1 to CSKA Moscow in Lisbon, before stints in Saudia Arabia, Greece and Romania followed.
He became his own boss in 2010
His four years at our club were an eye-opener, revolutionary and helped set standard CARLOS SANINA
at UD Leiria then moved to Madeira and Mexico before pitching up in Qatar two years ago with Al-Gharafa.
Caixinha is no stranger to Scotland – he completed his UEFA A Licence at Largs in 2007 and returned three years later to work on his UEFA Pro Licence, which he completed in Lisbon in 2011.
Sanina said: “Pedro took a UEFA course in Scotland. Carlos Queiroz was also involved and I know that they had an excellent opinion of him in Scotland.
“Coaching such an important team as Rangers can open the door to the English leagues for Pedro.”