Paulo Alexandre Rodrigues Fonseca (born 5 March 1973) is a Portuguese professional footballmanager and former player who played as a central defender. He is currently the manager of Serie A club AC Milan.
Fonseca retired in June 2005 at the age of 32 after a further four campaigns with Estrela, three of those spent in the Segunda Liga. In the 2003–04 campaign he participated in 15 games as the Lisbon side ranked last in the top tier, with the subsequent relegation.[4]
Fonseca started coaching immediately after retiring, remaining two years at the helm of Estrela da Amadora's youths. From 2007 to 2011 he was in charge of several modest teams, notably Pinhalnovense which he led to the quarter-finals of the Taça de Portugal in both the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons.[5][6]
In 2011–12, Fonseca was appointed at Aves in division two for his first job in the professionals,[7] and he led the team to the third position, just two points shy of promotion.[8]
In his first season in charge of a top-flight team, Fonseca led Paços de Ferreira to a third-place finish[9] after signing a two-year contract on 28 May 2012.[10] The club consequently qualified for the play-off round of the UEFA Champions League for the only time in its history;[11] in the domestic league, they only lost to champions Porto and runners-up Benfica,[12][13] notably winning both games against Braga (2–0 at home, 3–2 away) and Sporting CP (1–0 on both occasions).[14][15][16]
Fonseca succeeded Vítor Pereira at Porto – winners of the last three league titles – when he joined on a two-year deal on 10 June 2013.[18][19] He started his spell on a high note, winning the year's Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira after a 3–0 victory over Vitória de Guimarães which marked his first honour as a coach.[20][21]
However, on 5 March 2014, following a string of poor results that left the club in the third position in the league, nine points behind leaders Benfica, Fonseca was relieved of his duties.[22] Previously, on 12 January, he had stated that Porto would be champions in the last matchday against that opponent.[23]
Fonseca moved abroad for the first time in his career on 31 May 2016, replacing legendary Mircea Lucescu (12 seasons) at the helm of Shakhtar Donetsk and signing a two-year contract at the Ukrainian Premier League side.[30][31] He won the double in all three seasons of his spell[32][33]– which earned him the distinction as the league's best coach in 2016–17.[34]
Immediately after leaving Roma, Fonseca was director Fabio Paratici's top choice to be manager of Tottenham Hotspur, but the advanced negotiations were scrapped on 17 June 2021,[43] allegedly due to tax issues.[44] However, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph in September, the former revealed that the main reason for this was that the latter wanted to hire a more defensive-minded coach.[45] In October, he was interviewed by Newcastle United following their Saudi-led takeover, before the interest shifted to Unai Emery and Eddie Howe;[46] his name was then linked to a third English club, Aston Villa.[47]
On 13 June 2024, Fonseca was appointed as the new head coach of AC Milan, agreeing to a three-year deal as of 1 July.[55] After a bad start to the season and rumours of imminent dismissal,[56] he oversaw a 2–1 victory against Inter Milan in the Derby della Madonnina on 22 September.[57] Ahead of the match, he experimented with the lineup, choosing 4–4–2 and 4–2–4 for defence and attack, respectively;[58] it was also the first time the club had defeated this opposition in two years, ending a six-game losing streak.[59]
At Shakhtar, Roma and Lille, Fonseca preferred a 4–2–3–1 formation and an emphasis on dominating possession. In these teams, the player behind the centre-forward played as a second striker; Henrikh Mkhitaryan achieved 13 goals for Roma in 2020–21 from that position.[60][61][62]
In an interview for French media RMC about his Lille debut, Fonseca described his managerial style as "an offensive play in order to overcome the opponent, to settle in the opponent's half and to create many scoring chances."[63]
Speaking in 2021, Fonseca mentioned three coaches which influenced his philosophy and style: ‘At this moment, I can highlight Maurizio Sarri and Pep Guardiola as the coaches I admire the most because they are bold, they have their own ideas, they are brave enough to play their own game and attack. Now, we can’t forget that José Mourinho has marked a generation of coaches in Portugal and marked Portuguese football. He completely changed the mindset of Portuguese coaches and he’s obviously been a great influence.’[64]
Fonseca had a son and a daughter with his first wife.[2] On 29 May 2018, he married Ukrainian television personality and producer Katerina Ostroushko (born 1991) at Lake Como, Italy; their son was born the same year.[65][66] The family escaped Kyiv after the 2022 Russian invasion, travelling for 30 hours to Romania.[67]
^Frederico, Francisco; Pereira, Sérgio (14 May 2012). "P. Ferreira: Paulo Fonseca negociado para render Calisto" [P. Ferreira: Paulo Fonseca in negotiations to take over from Calisto] (in Portuguese). Mais Futebol. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
^ abCalaveiras, Carlos (22 May 2016). "Sp. Braga vence Taça de Portugal" [Sp. Braga win Portuguese Cup] (in Portuguese). Rádio Renascença. Retrieved 31 May 2016.