DYNAMOS coach Paulo Jorge Silva lost his marbles and physically attacked journalists who sought an interview with him in full view of shocked players and assistant coaches.
BY HENRY MHARA
The controversial Portuguese, who had a brawl with the Premiership football club’s goalkeepers’ coach Gift Muzadzi just four days ago, scuffled with a ZBC female cameraperson, injuring her in the process.
Silva imposed a ban on all his players and backroom staff from giving any interviews while he also vowed he would not speak to the media.
Paulo Jorge Silva [/Caption]
He has been angered by the reports that have been carried in NewsDay Sport over a number of misrepresentations about his coaching experience with some clubs contacted by this publication denying ever employing him at any stage or in any capacity.
After the attack yesterday, he later phoned the ZBC crew apologising, telling them he thought they were from NewsDay.
While the ZBC crew declined to share details, it is understood that they had sought and been granted permission to conduct interviews from team manager Richard Chihoro.
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But the combustible coach told the news crew off before trying to stop the cameraperson from recording a video, spraining her wrist.
“He said he didn’t want to talk to the media because they were writing bad things about him, but they had been granted permission to talk to him by the club’s top hierarchy,” a source who witnessed the incident, said.
“Coach Lodza (Lloyd Mutasa, the assistant coach) tried to calm him down, but he was having none of it. He has an attitude problem.”
Silva then told Chihoro in front of everyone at the Prince Edward School soccer pitch that he would have no one granting interviews to the Press or they risked getting fired.
Dynamos president Keni Mubaiwa yesterday said the club would definitely take action.
“I haven’t been briefed, but if it’s true, then we will certainly take action,” Mubaiwa said.
“As Dynamos, we don’t want to risk unnecessary bad publicity. We are a big brand and we should lead by example. Such behaviour, if it’s really true, is not acceptable. We will have to sit down with him and hear his side of the story, but we always want to work well with our stakeholders, especially the media because they are the ones who promote our brand. If he has problems with any particular journalist, there are other ways to solve it without necessarily resorting to violence.”
Silva has got a reputation over his aggressive behaviour from his playing days.
The coach claims to have a wealth of coaching experience with 12 clubs which he says he worked for during a period of three years.
Investigations have however, shown that he might have worked only at COD United of Nigeria where he lasted for just two months before he was booted out. The other clubs that he has included on his CV include Al-Sharjah FC in the United Arab Emirates as well as Austrian Bundesliga sides FC Admira and SV Grödig, German’s VfB Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Greuther Furth and Aalen.
He says he started his coaching career at Sporting Lisbon guiding their Under-17 squad in 2011, before moving to an unnamed club in Albania as an assistant coach.
While he claims to have been the coach of Stuttgart’s Under-21s at some point, the club said he was never on their payroll at any point.
An online search on Silva’s coaching history only yields his shortlived stint with COD United.
Information from the Sporting Lisbon website suggests that their junior team was under Telmo Moura Costa in 2011, before he was replaced by Jose Lima the following year. The team is currently coached by Joao Couto.
Evidence also shows that Silva never coached at FC Admira and SV Grödig in the years 2013-2014.
