Zubeldía arrives in Rio de Janeiro to take over Fluminense

The Tricolor board is working behind the scenes so that the Argentine can be on the sidelines at Maracanã on the next Sunday, in the classic against Botafogo, at 4 pm. For that, his name must be published in the Daily Information Bulletin (BID) of the CBF by Friday night. Zubeldía leaves the airport directly for the Carlos Castilho Training Center, in the western zone of Rio. He will have the first contact with the squad already this Friday and will lead the training in the afternoon, at 3:30 pm. On Saturday, he will already define the team that will take the field trying to break the club’s eight-game losing streak in the Vovô Classic. Zubeldía is the first foreign coach of Fluminense in almost 30 years. The last one was Hugo de León, in 1997. The Uruguayan remained in the position for only 20 days and was fired for being a friend of Renato Gaúcho, then a player of the team. Despite being young for the profession, only 44 years old, the Argentine is a coach with great experience. He started his career at 26, in 2008, at Lanús, where he coached the forward Cano. After starting in Argentina, he traveled through both South and North America, going through Barcelona-ECU, Racing, LDU, Santos Laguna, Independiente Medellín, and Cerro Porteño. He also had a period in Europe coaching Alavés, from Spain. He arrived in Brazil in 2024 to take over São Paulo. The almost one-year passage ended without titles. He led the Libertadores in the first year undefeated, but was eliminated on penalties in the quarterfinals against Botafogo, who became champions. In the Brasileirão, he finished fifth, putting the team back in the continental tournament race. Despite the second-best campaign in the group stage in 2025, he did not resist the poor results at the start of the national championship and resigned during the break for the Club World Cup.