In the second and concluding part of our interview with Paulo Sousa, the Leicester City boss talks about his time in Italy, winning the European Cup twice in two seasons, becoming a manager and his vision for The Foxes.

After making the breakthrough in Portugal, impressing at Benfica and Sporting Lisbon as a creative deep-lying midfielder, Paulo’s progress was soon monitored by some of Europe’s biggest clubs. In 1994, Italian giants, Juventus stepped in to bring a 23-year-old Sousa to Turin.

The pressure was certainly on as ‘The Old Lady’ of Italian football hadn’t won a league title since 1986, but coach, Marcello Lippi, was building an impressive squad of players and Paulo proved a crucial addition. Sousa explained how success in Italy justified his decision to become a footballer.

“After nine years without a Scudetto, winning it in 1995 was very important and everybody chose me as the best player that year. It made me proud, but more than that, it reinforced my convictions of taking a decision at 15-years-old to be a professional football player. I recognised the important factors that I needed to be one of the best. Firstly, to go to Juventus, an important team playing in an important competition with important team-mates and competing for a position all the time. It also allowed me to grow up quickly, be very competitive and be seen by a number of other clubs.”

After winning the Serie A title at the end of his first season in Italy, Sousa set his sights on the European Cup. Juventus’ only previous success in the tournament came in the 1985 final against Liverpool, a victory that was hugely overshadowed by the Heysel Stadium disaster when 39 fans lost their lives as Liverpool and Juventus fans clashed before kick-off. Paulo explained the importance of the club winning the trophy again to help heal some of those painful memories.

“The two Champions Leagues are always an important memory for me. With Juventus, it was the first they’d won since 1985, which brought bad memories for everyone, when things happened that nobody likes to see in football. Everyone wants to bury these things so you have to win again, and that happened against an important team like Ajax, who won everything for five years with a dream team.”

After two successful seasons in Turin, Paulo was snapped up by German club, Borussia Dortmund and amazingly ended his first season in the Bundesliga with another Champions League winner’s medal around his neck.

“The one with Borussia Dortmund gives me the most satisfaction, beating Juventus in the final after a big injury. Everyone told me that I probably wouldn’t be able to play again. Some doctors were a little more enthusiastic and said I could play but probably wouldn’t be the same. I had to work very hard to achieve that and be very confident with my body to build up everything. As a person and now as a manager, I’m always very positive and always thinking with a lot of confidence. This allowed me to recover quickly and achieve high levels after that, and one of the biggest moments is winning that night in Munich.”

Before moving to Germany, Paulo had the chance to play in England, with Arsenal showing an interest, but the cultured midfielder didn’t feel that his style of play was suited to the Premier League at that point.

“Before I took the decision to go to Dortmund, Arsenal were the main team interested in me. I decided to join Dortmund because I had played against them twice with Juventus, once in the UEFA Cup and once in the Champions League. I realised that they were a good team with players, like me, that could improve and make a big impact. At that time Arsenal played a type of football that didn’t suit my game so I decided to join Dortmund.”

Throughout a career littered with trophies and medals, Sousa played alongside some of the most talented players of his generation, including Alessandro Del Piero, Rui Costa and Andreas Moller, but the ability and commitment of one man stands out for Paulo.

“The best player I’ve played alongside technically is, without doubt, Roberto Baggio. Technically nobody compares to him. He’s someone who helped me understand everything when I arrived at Juventus as a 23-year-old. Roberto Baggio was a big hero for everyone, not only in Italy but in the world, and to see all these things in him was amazing.

“After I met him I did everything right because seeing a player of his technical ability stay after every training session for 20 minutes to improve his technique was amazing. It’s something I would like to see in my players because it means that they are focused on the game and their careers.”

Sousa sees that focus and desire to improve as crucial and wants his players to apply themselves to reach and exceed their potential, both as individuals and as a team.

“It’s more than the money. I think it’s the best thing for the manager when he realises he has 90% of the squad focused on the game and ready to sacrifice themselves. It’s easy when you get money, like players do in football, to forget straight away what is essential. It’s essential to make many sacrifices away from the pitch to be professional, to eat well, recover well and focus on everything. That’s what the manager wants from the team.”

After hanging up his boots, Paulo spent some time out of football, but he soon missed being in and around the game and started his coaching career helping out with the Portuguese national side. However, Sousa still craved the day-to-day involvement of club football and took the decision to start his managerial career in England. Paulo revealed that the English game has held no surprises for him.

“It’s been completely what I expected and I’m happy to work in English football because you can feel a lot of passion and emotion everywhere, in the training, in the games and in the stadiums. We keep seeing a lot of people interested in football and it’s something everybody in England should feel proud of.”

It’s been a challenging start to Paulo’s Leicester City career as the team have performed well but not received the deserved rewards in terms of goals and points. Sousa appealed to the City faithful to keep patient with him and the players as he builds his football philosophy at the Walkers Stadium.

“It’s not an easy process at the beginning, especially because I haven’t built this squad and in terms of that, I need a little bit more time to build what I expect. I read a lot about the club and the fans and I can understand and realise how big this club is. The passion of the fans is very strong and when they start to feel and recognise the project they can be stronger and help us more than they already have.

“It’s not like Formula One where you crash a car and change a part. In football you work with emotions and, of course, some of the players have a big link to the former manager and also the style of football implemented here. From what I can tell, every successful club in England has this success because they have some stability in the project and I think that’s the main thing. To build up things you need time and when you start to see the results of what you’ve built, you need to keep faith with the same people.”

Winning is certainly something that Paulo has become accustomed to in his career and long-term, he is confident of bringing success to Leicester City and in the style that he prefers.

“From the beginning, I said in two years time we will be in the Premier League and I am sure about that and very confident. The supporters are an important part of that, and they are there, I can feel that. I’m a very positive manager and I like to see positive and interesting football all the time. I like to see my players learning different systems and dynamics of the game because I want to see a play rich with ideas and a lot of creativity, making quicker decisions, but the best decisions.

“The first time you work with the players you see confusion and because of that the decision of the player is always a little bit slower. We can see with the technology we have that we are improving these decisions game by game and the quality of the pass, the number of the passes and the number of opportunities to score has increased.

“We are still in a moment of bad results because every time we make a mistake, we concede a goal and we are pushing and creating good opportunities but not scoring as many as we’d like. But, everything is a question of moments and when the moment comes the confidence will be bigger, the convictions will be higher and all of these things will come more naturally.”

At 40-years-old, Paulo is relatively young in management terms but possesses the determination and belief in his ability to achieve great things at Leicester City, targeting success at the club for a number of years before he even considers working on the continent or managing at international level.

“I think coaching the national team is only something that will come towards the end of my career. In the beginning I made the decision to manage clubs and that’s what I would like to do for a long time. First of all, I would like to have success with Leicester. I think I have a lot of things to achieve here and I will achieve them.”

For Part 1 of our Paulo Sousa interview click here.