Watford appoint Uruguayan as their new head coach

Yahoo

13-05-2025

Watford have appointed 42-year-old Uruguayan Paulo Pezzolano as their new head coach.
The former Real Valladolid boss was a name that only entered the reckoning in the last 24 hours, but by lunchtime he was the bookies' favourite – though that hasn't been the greatest guide given the way the market has chopped and changed in the last few days.
Pezzolano becomes the first Uruguayan to manage the Hornets, and at 42 is only seven years older than the man he succeeds, Tom Cleverley.
He will become only the second Uruguayan to have been part of the playing and coaching staff at Vicarage Road, following defender Miguel Britos who played for the club between 2015 and 2019.
Pezzolano began his coaching career at Uruguayan second division side Torque, the club where he spent his final season as a player before retiring.
He led Torque to the second division title before leaving in 2017 to join Liverpool Montevideo, another club he had played for.
After two years there, he left and went to Mexico, taking over at Pachuca who he led to the 2021 play-offs in the Liga MX.
He left by mutual consent in November 2021, and a couple of months later was appointed as head coach of Brazilian Serie B Cruzeiro.
The 42-year-old steered them to promotion to Serie A but little over a year after joining he left and became head coach of Real Valladolid.
The man he replaced there, Jose Rojo Martin (known as Pacheta), was linked with being the next Watford boss both in January and in the last few days.
After suffering relegation in his first season in Spain, Pezzolano guided Valladolid back to La Liga at the end of the 23/24 season.
However, after only two league wins and one cup victory from 15 games this term, he was sacked following a 5-0 defeat to Atletico Madrid at the end of November.
Most of his playing career as an attacking midfielder was spent in South America, and the bulk of that was in Uruguary.
However, he did spend a short spell on loan with Spanish side Mallorca and also spent a season with Hangzhou Greentown in China.
Understood to be a coach who adopts a high-intensity pressing style, Pezzolano likes possession football but his priority is efficiency.
He has also become known for his willingness to progress players through the ranks at the clubs he has worked at, and gives youth a chance.
That is a quality that may well have drawn Watford owner Gino Pozzo to him, as he seeks to turn the club back into promotion contenders after three seasons of mid-table mediocrity in the Championship.