Bordeaux expect to appoint Portuguese manager Paulo Sousa

Paulo Sousa is expected to be officially declared as the next Bordeaux manager within the next couple of days - at least, that's what the French club believe. 

He has been linked with Roma in recent days, and is expected to be in the stands when the Italian side take on Porto in the Champions League round of sixteen second leg, but Bordeaux remain confident of getting the Portuguese manager.

Sousa has been out of work since his stint with Chinese outfit Tianjin Quanjian came to an end last October.

His wait for a new challenge won't be long though as Bordeaux look to confirm him as their new head coach by the end of the week, which would mark the eighth country that Sousa has managed in.

He has already taken charge of Videoton (Hungary), Maccabi Tell Aviv (Isreal), Basel (Switzerland) , Fiorentina (Italy) and a trio of English clubs in QPR, Swansea and Leicester.

He also managed the Portugal U16s in his first ever managerial position back in 2005, before moving on to Queens Park Rangers in '08.

Bordeaux president Joe da Grosa said to Canal+: "Both parties are optimistic, I have a great degree of confidence that he will join."

"Assuming everything goes normally, we expect him to be here by the end of the week. He's started his research on the club to start work early next week."

Paulo Sousa will be the second Portuguese coach to currently manage in Ligue 1 , with Leonardo Jardim already manager of Monaco.

Paulo Sousa. Photo by Ludovic Peron (cropped). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en