Oscar makes surprise return to coach Maccabi Tel Aviv

After guiding yellow-and-blue to its first Premier League championship in 10 years, Oscar Garcia will return to the club next season.

By ALLON SINAI
Oscar Garcia coach waving 370 (photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
Oscar Garcia coach waving 370
(photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
After guiding Maccabi Tel Aviv to its first Premier League championship in 10 years, Oscar Garcia will return to the club next season looking to finish off the job he began after agreeing to a two-year deal on Monday.
Oscar left Maccabi just two days after its final match of the 2012/13 campaign, explaining that “some circumstances in life transcend professional matters and I have been forced to suddenly take this decision.”
His successor, Paulo Sousa, also led Tel Aviv to the league title in the past season, but he announced his departure after a single campaign for Swiss club FC Basel last Thursday.
Maccabi’s sporting director Jordi Cruyff claimed a week earlier that he had a list of alternatives ready should Sousa leave, and he indeed didn’t take long to bring in a replacement, returning to the man who helped him build the team that has dominated the Premier League in the past two years.
The return of Oscar, who knows all about the club, the players and the fans, is an ideal appointment for Maccabi, with the yellow-and-blue to already resume training in a couple of weeks ahead of the start of its Champions League qualifying campaign in mid-July.
The 41-year-old Spaniard joined English Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion after leaving Maccabi, but resigned following its play-off semifinal defeat to Derby County.