Fernando Marques de Sousa Pires (born 27 October 1960), known as Fanã, is a Portuguese football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Farense's under-19 team. Having been assistant to Paco Fortes at Farense in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

in the 1990s, he went on to manage Ovarense,

Covilhã Covilhã (), officially Covilhã City (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in the Centro, Portugal, Centro region, Portugal. The city proper had 33,691 inhabitants in 2021. The municipality population in 2021 was 46,455 in an area of . It is ...

and Farense in the second tier, each in a different decade. In the third tier, he had three spells at

Louletano Louletano Desportos Clube is a Portuguese club from Loulé, founded on 6 June 1923. The association football team currently play in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (Portuguese fourth level), D series. The club plays at the Estádio Algarve, ...

, and won the 2004–05 title for Covilhã. Abroad, he managed clubs in Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Career

Born in Faro on the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

, Fanã was briefly a youth player for

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club based in Faro, Portugal, Faro in the Faro District, district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club ha ...

and senior player for minor local clubs FC São Luís and Sport Faro e Benfica before returning to Farense as assistant manager to Spaniard Paco Fortes. Under their leadership in the 1990s, the club recorded its highest

finish and qualification for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. After being head coach at

Louletano D.C. Louletano Desportos Clube is a Portugal, Portuguese club from Loulé, founded on 6 June 1923. The association football team currently play in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (Portuguese fourth level), D series. The club plays at the Estádio ...

and

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its Association football, football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association Portuguese Di ...

in the third tier, he as hired at A.D. Ovarense in the second division for 2001–02, leaving in March with the team in 14th. After a return to Louletano, he was appointed at

S.C. Covilhã Sporting Clube da Covilhã, commonly known as just Sporting da Covilhã or Sp. Covilhã, is a Portuguese association football, football club from the city of Covilhã that plays in the third-tier Liga 3 (Portugal), Liga 3. The club was founded on ...

in 2004–05, winning the third-tier championship. After spells at

Al-Seeb Club Al-Seeb Club (; also known as ''The Emperor'', "Master of the Clubs", Al-Seeb or Seeb Club) is an Football in Oman, Omani professional Association football, football club based in Seeb, Al-Seeb, that competes in the Oman Professional League, the ...

and Muscat Club in the

Oman Professional League The Oman Professional League (; known as the ''Omantel Professional League'' for sponsorship reasons), previously known as the Omantel Elite League, is the top division of the Oman Football Association, and was officially created in 1976. Curren ...

, and Al-Nasr SC of the

Kuwait Premier League The Kuwait Premier League (), known as Zain Premier League due to sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Kuwait football pyramid system. Formed in 1961, Kuwait SC holds the best record in the competition, having won 20 times. History The ...

, Fanã returned to his country's third division in August 2009 at

Gondomar S.C. Gondomar Sport Club is a Portuguese football club based in Gondomar, Porto District. Founded on 1 May 1921, it currently plays in the fourth-tier Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at '' Estádio de São Miguel'', with a capacity of 2. ...

He then went back to the Middle East to lead Al-Shabab Seeb in Oman and

Hatta Club Hatta Club is a sports club based in Hatta in the Emirate of Dubai, UAE, founded in 1981. It is most widely known for its professional football team, which currently plays in the UAE Division One. Founded in 1981, the club’s football team p ...

in the

UAE First Division League UAE First Division League is the second tier of football league competition in the United Arab Emirates. As of 2020–21, the league features 15 sides who play each other in a home and away round-robin format, with a total of 28 games for each t ...

, before in November 2012 moving to his country's second division for the first time in a decade; he succeeded

Filipe Moreira Filipe José Oliveira Moreira (born 30 May 1964) is a Portuguese football manager, currently in charge of Kuwaiti club Al-Tadamon SC. His career of four decades began at age 21 with Mafra, where he was manager in three spells. He led Santa C ...

. After 3 wins and 9 defeats in 16 games for the club from the

Serra da Estrela Serra da Estrela (, ) is the highest mountain range in Continental Portugal. Together with the Serra da Lousã it is the westernmost constituent range of the Sistema Central and also one of the highest in the system. It includes mainland Portuga ...

, he was dismissed on 26 February 2013 with the team one place above the relegation zone, and replaced by

Francisco Chaló Francisco Alexandre Lacerda Chaló (born 10 February 1964) is a Portuguese Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, footballer. Career Born in Ermesinde, Porto Metropolitan Area, Chaló began managing at the ...

. Fanã then went back to the United Arab Emirates, managing Dibba Al-Hisn SC and the under-21 team of

Emirates Club Emirates Club () is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. They play in the UAE Pro League after being promoted from the UAE First Division League. They play their home game ...

. On 28 November 2017, he was hired for a third spell at Louletano, 13 years after his last time there. He managed the club for two seasons in the third-tier Campeonato de Portugal before moving to Farense 1910, a

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

of his hometown club. In 2019–20, they were the only senior club in the country to win all of their games, with 18 victories before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

curtailed the season; this won them promotion to the

Algarve Football Association The Associação de Futebol do Algarve () is one of the 22 Portuguese District Football Associations, district football associations that are affiliated to the Portuguese Football Federation. The AF Algarve administers lower tier football (socce ...

's first district league. On 1 September 2021, Fanã went from under-23 to head coach at Farense, after Jorge Costa's exit. He returned to his previous post on 19 December.

References

{{S.C. Farense managers 1960 births Living people Footballers from Faro, Portugal Portuguese men's footballers S.C. Farense players Portuguese football managers S.C. Olhanense managers S.C. Covilhã managers Al-Seeb Club managers Al Nasr SC (Kuwait) managers Gondomar S.C. managers Hatta Club managers S.C. Farense managers Liga Portugal 2 managers Oman Professional League managers Kuwait Premier League managers UAE First Division League managers Portuguese expatriate football managers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Oman Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in Oman Expatriate football managers in Kuwait Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates