After resigning from Marseillein February 2021, André Villas-Boas he disappeared from the radar of big football. Mourinho’s former deputy atInterwith a past on the benches of Chelsea And Tottenham, lived three nightmare years. An accident he survived and two tumors he defeated, told in a long interview with Record. “If it had been a few more minutes after a nurse intervened, I would have suffocated to death in a hospital bed.” Now, at 46, he wants to make up for lost time: he wants to become president of Porto.
Villas-Boas and the accident at the Dakar rally
The ordeal actually began in January 2018, when Villas-Boas attended the Dakar rallyscheduled a few months after the separation between the coach and the Chinese Shanghai Sipg. During the fourth stage the coach was forced to retire due to a back injury, the first of a series of physical problems. “After the accident I had some checks and discovered I had two tumors. In the first case – he said – half of my thyroid was removed, but the operation was not successful. My parents and my wife had come to visit me in hospital, I felt better, but from one moment to the next I felt like I was suffocating. I pressed the button next to the bed, a nurse took me straight to the emergency room. It was an internal hemorrhage that would have killed me within a few minutes.” After more thyroid tests, doctors found a tumor in his back, which was immediately removed. “If it hadn’t been for the rally, I would never have found out I was sick.”
Villas-Boas ran for president of Porto
Now the 46-year-old wants to return to being a protagonist in the world of football: he has presented his candidacy for the presidential elections of Porto, the club he coached in 2010-2011.
