Former Barcelona Femeni head coach Lluis Cortes has been announced as the manager of the Ukraine women's national team.
The 35-year-old had a successful spell in the Catalan capital, winning 7 titles, including the Champions League, two Primera Division titles and two Copa de la Reina.
Even though Cortes won the historic treble, he decided to resign from his role as Barcelona Femení’s head coach after two years in charge.
And on November 14 Cortes was appointed as the Ukraine women's national team head coach.
Speaking on his new role, Cortes explained his main idea in the game:
"Total possession on the pitch is not my only way to understand football, because if you only do passes you will never score. Last year in Barca most people spoke about our possession game. Yes it’s true, but we scored a lot of goals after taking the ball in the counter attack. One two three passes maximum, the most important thing is to understand when to run & when to keep possession"
As Ukraine women's national team head coach, Cortes answered further questions.
What is the main problem of Ukrainian Men’s and Women’s football, technique or tactic?
“I think we can improve in both sides, also in fitness part. I always say that you can’t change a team 100% but you can change a lot of things inside the team 100%. It’s about doing small changes in each player, in each member of staff and in each club in the league to improve the level of the Ukrainian football.”
You’re a part of Barcelona’s system, so we used to think that the idea of Barca’s football was football of Guardiola. Do you share these in your work?
“Yes, a lot of people say that Lluis Cortes is similar to Guardiola but in Women’s football. This is because we’re playing similar football, also because we’re both winning a lot of matches and trophies. I think each coach has their own system, but it’s maybe true that my system is similar to Guardiola’s. And well it’s true that I might adopt some of it within the next months to make the players in Ukraine understand my idea”.
Explain us why is Barcelona one of the greatest clubs in the world, what is the basement of their system?
“I think one of the key points of Barca’s system is La Masia – the residence where the young players all over Spain or other countries come to Barcelona to develop their football, like Messi. Because when they’re young they start to train and play in Barca’s system. So when they become 18-19 they’re very ready to play in Barca’s system. The second key is that there are a lot of professionals working for Barcelona”.
How do you estimate Ukrainian football infrastructure?
“Well, I think we have to improve a lot. We’re now in a very big country but we don’t have much licenses in the women’s football, so we’re convinced that we can improve it. The first step is to grow the licenses, we need more girls playing football.”
Ukrainian women’s football is doing its first steps to become popular. So, how popular is Spain women’s football?
“Spain women’s football has developed for the past 5-6 years. It was because of World Cup in France and it was because some specific campaigns from Spanish association. Also the clubs started to understand that they had to invest in women’s football too”.
How went the negotiations with the Ukraine Association? How was it, who suggested it and did you think long?
“Well, it was so quick. The president of association contacted me because they wanted to sign me as a coach for the women’s team. They knew that after Barca I wanted to rest at least for 3 months and they were waiting. Then they offered me this position and we talked about the conditions. I thought it was a good offer. I signed a two-year contract with an option of another two years”.
