Jorge Fossati

Jorge Fossati
Personal information
Full name	Jorge Daniel Fossati Lurachi
Date of birth	November 22, 1952 (age 71)
Place of birth	Montevideo, Uruguay
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Al Ain (Manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team
1970–1972	Rampla Juniors
1972–1973	Central Español
1973–1980	Peñarol
1980–1981	Independiente
1982	Millonarios
1982–1983	Olimpia
1983–1985	Green Cross
1985–1987	Rosario Central
1987–1988	Mandiyú de Corrientes
1988–1989	Avaí
1989–1990	Coritiba
International career
1975–1985	Uruguay
Managerial career
1993–1995	River Plate Montevideo
1996	Peñarol
1997	Cerro Porteño
1998–2001	Danubio
2001–2002	Colón de Santa Fe
2002–2003	Danubio
2003–2004	LDU Quito
2004–2006	Uruguay
2006–2007	Al-Sadd
2007–2008	Qatar
2009	LDU Quito
2009–2010	Internacional
2010	Al-Shabab
2010–2012	Al-Sadd
2012–2013	Cerro Porteño
2013-	Al Ain
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of March 2008

Jorge Daniel Fossati Lurachi (born 22 November 1952 in Montevideo) is a former Uruguayan footballer and now coach of Al Ain who play in UAE Arabian Gulf League. He was played as a goalkeeper, mainly in Peñarol. While playing at Peñarol, he helped the club win five league titles. He also had spells in Argentina with Independiente and Rosario Central, in Chile with Green Cross Temuco (currently Deportes Temuco) and with Brazilian team Coritiba.

He played for Mandiyú de Corrientes, of Argentina in 1987 and in 1988, and respectively played for Brazilian clubs Avaí in 1989, and Coritiba in 1990.^[1]

Titles as a player

Season	Team	Title
1973	Peñarol	Uruguayan Primera
1974	Peñarol	Uruguayan Primera
1975	Peñarol	Uruguayan Primera
1978	Peñarol	Uruguayan Primera
1979	Peñarol	Uruguayan Primera
1983	Olimpia	Paraguayan Primera
1986–87	Rosario Central	Argentine Primera
1988	Avaí Futebol Clube	Santa Catarina State Championship

Managerial career

Being a goalkeeper for a major club gave Fossati the opportunity to watch the game in the eyes of a spectator and the ability to read the game. He started coaching his teammates from behind, within the guidelines of the coach. Once he got older he started to write analysis of the games, analysis of the coaches, and write down what he would have done differently. Then he knew where his future lied.^[2]

After retiring as a player, Fossati decided to take up management. In the beginning, he had spells in charge of River Plate Montevideo Peñarol and Danubio F.C. in Uruguay. He also had spells as manager of Colón de Santa Fe in Argentina, Cerro Porteño in Paraguay and LDU Quito in Ecuador.

He became manager of the Uruguayan national team in 2004.^[3] He coached Al-Sadd in Qatar and after winning all four domestic titles with them, was unveiled as the new Qatari national team manager in 2007.^[4] In late 2008, it was announced that he would undergo surgery. Subsequently, the Qatar FA ended their cooperation with Fossati, who supposedly needed too long to recover from surgery.

In 2009, Fossati signed with LDU Quito from Ecuador to manage the team for the second time. He helped LDU Quito win the Recopa Sudamericana 2009 matches against Sport Club Internacional de Porto Alegre. LDU Quito won both games of the Recopa 1–0 and 3–0, respectively. This gave LDU Quito their second international title. After that he led them in the 2009 Peace Cup held in Spain. LDU were drawn in Group B, along with Spanish giants Real Madrid and Saudi outfit Al-Ittihad.^[5] Although LDU won defeated Al-Ittihad 3–1 in their first game, they bowed out of the competition after losing 2–4 to Real Madrid, a match which saw Cristiano Ronaldo's first goal for Real Madrid.

After Internacional and Mário Sergio parted ways, as per their previous agreement, the Brazilian club turned to the foreign market in South America and reached a deal with Fossati. He is fluent in Portuguese and lived in Brazil during the 1980s. On 13 December 2009, Fossati left LDU Quito to join Internacional for one year, Following negative results, Fossati was fired from Sport Club Internacional on 28 May after a long meeting with club officials. After that, he was named as head coach of Al-Shabab and was nearly reached last season's AFC Champions League semi-finals with the team. He was sacked by Al-Shabab in December 2010, but returned for another crack at the continental title, after being put in charge of Al-Sadd for a second time between 2010 to 2012 and won the Asian Championship in 2011 in a dramatic campaign. He left Al-Sadd on 19 May 2012 and joined Club Cerro Porteño after just 24 hours.

On 26 July 2013 he move to Al Ain for two seasons.