Fluminense coach Muricy Ramalho, who turned down the job to become Brazil’s manager and went on to lead the club to the Brazilian championship title last year, has resigned.
Ramalho, who won the Brazilian championship four times in five years after a hat-trick of titles with Sao Paulo, cited the poor infrastructure at Fluminense.
“When I arrived at the club (in April 2010) I was promised two things: a team to become champions and an improvement in the physical structure of the club,” Ramalho said in a statement.
“We achieved the first with the title in the 2010 Brazilian championship and the second, an improvement in the structure, was not realised,” he added after Fluminense drew 0-0 with Flamengo in a Carioca (Rio) state championship derby.
“I would very much like to thank everyone who worked with me during this period and say my cycle at this club is closed,” added Ramalho, whose resignation came a day after Fluminense sacked the club’s director of football Alcides Antunes.
The club president Pieter Siemsen said he would do everything within his powers to stabilise the club.
“We’ll work to the death so Fluminense need never again go through this. You have a team that are Brazilian champions, a first notch coach and you see that trainer leave because he feels he doesn’t have adequate working conditions,” Siemsen told reporters.
Ramalho’s decision came as a shock given his reputation for not breaking his contracts.
Selected by the Brazilian Football Confederation to replace 2010 World Cup coach Dunga after Brazil’s quarter-final defeat by the Netherlands in South Africa, Ramalho did not take the job because Fluminense refused to release him from his contract.
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