Wolves are delighted to announce the arrival of Nuno Espirito Santo as the club’s new Head Coach
Here is some background about the new man in the hotseat at Molineux.
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Born in Sao Tome in Portugal, Nuno started his playing career as a goalkeeper with Vitoria Guimaraes, his next permanent port of call being Deportivo La Coruna.
He made a large number of appearances during loan spells with Merida and Osasuna, before joining Porto, under Jose Mourinho, in 2002.
He moved to Dynamo Moscow for the 2005/06 season, returning to Portugal with CD Aves the following January, and then re-joining Porto in the summer of 2007.
Capped by Portugal at Under-21 level, Nuno was also part of the senior squad at the European Championships in 2008, although was a back-up keeper for the tournament.
He retired from playing in 2010, and worked in backroom roles at Malaga CF and Panathinaikos before being named as manager of Portuguese side Rio Ave in 2012.
In his second season in charge, the team qualified for both the Portuguese Cup and League Cup finals, and Santo led them to the UEFA Europa League for the first time in their history.
Nuno was appointed as Valencia CF manager in July 2014 them to fourth place in his first season, during which he won three La Liga Manager of the Month awards, before leaving in November, 2015.
After departing Valencia, where he worked with Phil Neville, Nuno took over as head coach of FC Porto in June 2016.
He guided Porto to a second place finish in the Primeira Liga and reached the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League – including a 5-0 victory over Leicester in the group stages - before losing to Juventus, who take on Real Madrid in Saturday’s final.
During his managerial career to date, Nuno has registered a win percentage of 47.9%, with Porto losing only two of their 34 league games last season.
Having played and managed in many different countries, it was in Scotland that Nuno completed his coaching badges.
During that time he met Ian Cathro, who went on to become his assistant at both Rio Ave and Valencia, and later worked at Newcastle before his current post as manager of Heart of Midlothian.
Nuno has also previously revealed his desire to work in England and also the strong ambition of coaching in the Premier League.
He brings with him his regular backroom staff of assistant Rui Pedro Silva goalkeeping coach Rui Barbosa and fitness coach Antonio Dias.
