Ronaldo sacks his own former team-mate! Brazil legend gives ex-colleague at Real Madrid the boot as reserves manager of LaLiga club Real Valladolid
- Julio Baptista has been sacked as Real Valladolid head coach by Ronaldo
- The Brazilian manager will now be replaced by Alvaro Rubio in the dugout
- CHRIS SUTTON: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is a CLOWN – It’s All Kicking Off
Real Valladolid president, Ronaldo Nazario, has sacked his side’s reserve team manager Julio Baptista, after the coach criticised the club’s management.
The pair are known to be close friends having played together at Real Madrid and also both representing Brazil, but Baptista will now leave his position as the manager of Valladolid Promesas, after five years at the club.
On Wednesday, the Spanish side released a statement claiming that he would be replaced by Alvaro Rubio, a former club captain who has been working as a technical coach since 2017.
Ronaldo acquired a majority stake in the Spanish outfit back in 2018, following a £27million takeover that saw him by 51 percent of the club.
Baptista meanwhile, who played alongside Ronaldo at the Bernabeu between 2005 and 2007, had spent three years in charge of the reserve side, but this season they have slumped to 14th place in the Segunda Division RFEF table, losing six of their opening ten games.
Real Valladolid president Ronaldo Nazario has sacked his old team-mate Julio Baptista
Baptista was the head coach of the club’s reserve team, Valladolid Promesas, and had spent three years in charge at the club
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They were beaten on Sunday 1-0 by Ourense, a second loss in as many games, and after the match, Baptista claimed that he did not have the freedom to utilise the players he wanted.
‘Until 22 p.m. (the day before) I didn’t have the lineup for this game. There is an order of which players have to play and I, as a worker at the club, do what they ask of me,’ he said after the match, per PLACAR.
He also added, per AS, ‘the way in which things are being done [at the club] is not the most appropriate.’
But he, along with his coaching staff, José Luis Rueda and Alfredo Fernández, have now been relieved of their duties, with Valladolid issuing a statement to thank them for their work.
The statement reads: ‘Real Valladolid have informed Julio Baptista that they are dispensing with his services and have appointed Álvaro Rubio as the new coach of Real Valladolid Promesas.
‘The former captain, who has been part of the first team’s coaching staff since 2017, takes over the reins of managing the reserve team from this Thursday. This Wednesday’s session will be held, on an interim basis, by Javier Torres.’
It added: ‘Julio Baptista, who was in his fifth season at the Club and his third at the helm of Promesas, no longer belongs to the Blanquivioleta discipline, in the same way as his deputy, José Luis Rueda, and his assistant, Alfredo Fernández.
‘The Club would like to thank Julio Baptista, José Luis Rueda and Alfredo Fernández for their performance as Blanquivioletas, while wishing them the best of luck in their new personal and professional stages.’
Baptista (left) played alongside Ronaldo (middle) at Real Madrid between 2005 and 2007
But the reserve side have struggled at the start of the season and sit 14th in the Segunda Division RFEF table having lost six games
It also comes after Baptista had made comments criticising the club’s management
Valladolid’s sporting director, Domingo Catoira, had also shed some light on the situation on Tuesday, claiming that the statement’s made by Baptista ‘undermined the image of the club’.
‘It is obvious that these are unfortunate statements because it undermines the image of the club,’ he said to AS.
‘I probably did it in a moment of frustration with the result, but it’s a reality.
‘I am surprised that you may not understand or agree with a model that has been in place for a long time and has not changed.
On whether he had spoken to Baptista, he added: ‘That is in the private sphere, we are going to face the situation as we think we have to, but those statements are not fortunate.
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