Unmasking Cape Verde coach Rui Aguas

Coming for revenge. Cape Verde coach Rui Aguas. His team lost 1-0 to Uganda Cranes in Praia. COURTESY PHOTO

Deadly in front of goal in his heyday, leaving marks at Portugal’s biggest clubs in Porto and Benefica , the 58 year old loves to attack. A total of 291 games and 120 goals over 12 seasons with an app
Deadly in front of goal in his heyday, leaving marks at Portugal’s biggest clubs in Porto and Benefica , the 58 year old Rui Aguas loves to attack.
In a total of 291 club games, Aguas scored 120 goals over 12 seasons. He also made an appearance at the 1986 World Cup with Portugal, a nation he scored for ten times from 31 caps.
His Playing career is as colourful as they come. He won three Primeira Liga titles with Benefica and one with Porto. He was also the competition’s top goal scorer once in 1991.
Certainly with such a cv, Cape Verde’s coach commands respect.
His coaching career started in 1996 as assistant coach of the Portugal national team.
He then came to Africa in 2014 taking over from replacing Men Ramires as Cape Verde coach.
He led the Blue Sharks at their first ever Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Equatorial Guinea in 2015.
This was his first stage to impress but things could have gone better for a nation that gave lots of promise to African football. Cape Verde did not make it out of the group stages despite not losing a game. He quit the job in 2016, reportedly due to unpaid salaries for six months. The Portuguese considers Cape Verde as his second home and he has gone on to wed one of their own. Probably that is why he easily returned to the job in June after a series of negotiations with the Cape Verdean Football Federation.
He has since beaten Algeria 3-2 in a friendly. He went on to manage 0-0 draw away to Andorra before beating Tanzania 3-0 in the country’s third Afcon 2019 qualifier at home
Cape Verde, however, lost the return leg 2-0 days later at the Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium.
Forget the result in Tanzania, Cape Verde a full of hope and in need of a result to return to only their second Afcon.
“When Uganda beat Cape Verde, I wasn’t there so I can’t speak about it now. It is different history and I need better result,” he revealed upon touching down at Entebbe Airport on Thursday.