Jorge Vilda to coach Morocco after being ousted as Spain manager following Women’s World Cup controversy

Jorge Vilda, the disgraced coach who was fired weeks after Spain lifted the Girls’s World Cup for the primary time, was named the supervisor of Morocco’s ladies’s nationwide workforce on Thursday.

Vilda replaces Reynald Pedros, who coached the workforce from November 2020 by means of this 12 months’s Girls’s World Cup. Morocco are a workforce on the rise in ladies’s soccer and made unimaginable strides beneath Pedros. They have been finalists on the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, their deepest run on the event, and superior to the spherical of 16 at their first-ever World Cup this 12 months.

Vilda beforehand coached Spain from 2015 till final month, a spell of time that included the workforce’s World Cup triumph. Spain have been thought-about one among ladies’s soccer’s rising powerhouses however earlier than they received the World Cup, Vilda’s aspect struggled to interrupt into the higher echelon of the sport — they’d not received a knockout match in a significant worldwide event till their spherical of 16 win over Switzerland at this 12 months’s World Cup.

Amidst inconsistent on-field outcomes, Vilda was mired in controversy for the latter a part of his stint with Spain. Fifteen gamers, together with eventual World Cup golden boot winner Aitana Bonmati, refused to play for the nationwide workforce in Sept. 2022 citing an unprofessional and poisonous tradition, a few of which was attributed to Vilda’s management. The gamers accused the teaching employees of limiting privateness throughout coaching camps, from forcing them to maintain their resort rooms open to inspecting their luggage.

The Royal Spanish Soccer Federation controversially caught by Vilda and demanded that the gamers apologize. Eight finally did and made themselves obtainable for the World Cup, and three made Vilda’s roster. Although the World Cup ended on a victorious notice, the indicators of rigidity between Vilda and the gamers have been clear — he was booed on the last by followers and iced out of post-match celebrations.

After then-federation president Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed Jennifer Hermoso as she collected her winner’s medal, Vilda positioned himself as his boss’ ally. He reportedly tried to steer Hermoso and her family members to look in a Rubiales apology video that satisfied nobody and applauded the disgraced exec when he refused to resign. Rubiales was suspended by FIFA after which lastly resigned three weeks after the ultimate.

Vilda was fired 5 days earlier than Rubiales resigned in a transfer from the federation’s interim president, Pedro Rocha, that was indicative of Spanish soccer’s intent to maneuver ahead from the controversy. Vilda was changed by his former assistant, Montse Tome.

Morocco return to motion for a pair of Olympic qualifiers in opposition to Namibia on Oct. 23 and Oct. 31.