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From Portugal to France via Ukraine and Italy, Paulo Fonseca has traversed Europe honing his football identity but the message has always been the same: his teams are here to entertain.
On Thursday, the 51-year-old takes his young Lille side to England – where he almost ended up three years ago before talks with Tottenham fell through – to face Aston Villa in their Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg.
After success in Portugal, three successive Doubles with Shakhtar Donetsk and “growing a lot” with Roma, the Portuguese manager has spent the past two seasons rebuilding a Lille squad that was stripped of its best assets after winning the Ligue 1 title in 2021.
Now a side branded France’s most entertaining are chasing Champions League football once again and will not take a backward step against Villa, despite Fonseca’s respect for counterpart Unai Emery.
“I love the game,” Fonseca tells BBC Sport. “For me, this is a big passion and as coach we have this big obligation to build a good spectacle for people.
“It is not just about winning, it is about how to win. This process is really important. We want to dominate games, we want to play an offensive game, we want to react fast when we lose the ball, we want to press high, recover the ball high.
“It doesn’t matter who is the opponent, we want to have the courage to be ourselves, to have a strong identity in every moment of the game.”
That has not come at the expense of a solid defence – they have kept 21 clean sheets this season, but it does take “courage”.
“To play in my teams you have to be courageous, you have to have a big participation in our game,” says Fonseca.
“I don’t believe the players grow running, running just to try and recover the ball. I believe players show their quality when they have the ball, they participate a lot in the game.”
Lille operate on a tight budget but have a great strike-rate when it comes to recruitment and academy graduates, who are often sold for healthy profits.
Sven Botman, Mike Maignan, Renato Sanches and Amadou Onana are among those to have left since that title success, beforehand it was Gabriel and Nicolas Pepe to Arsenal, Rafael Leao to AC Milan and Victor Osimhen to Napoli.
Last summer, midfielder Carlos Baleba joined Brighton on the back of a breakthrough season in northern France, while forward Timothy Weah went to Juventus.
After following up their title with a 10th-placed finish, Fonseca was brought in to construct a young side who would buy into his philosophy.
“What was attractive for me in this project was this possibility to start from zero to build a new team with young players, with a small budget,” he explains.
“We restarted again, with new players, with young players, and with a projection to build a new way to play.”
Fonseca has a knack for bringing through young talent. He did so with Diogo Jota at Pacos de Ferreira and Mykhailo Mudryk at Shakhtar, and unearthed another gem from Lille’s standout academy in 18-year-old central defender Leny Yoro.
“To me the players don’t have age, they have quality,” says Fonseca, who also handed 16-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi his debut this season. “Because here we don’t have the possibility to buy very expensive players, we find a way to make the young players grow.
“I believe Leny in the next year will be at one of the best clubs in Europe. He started here at 16 with us. He is very ambitious, but very disciplined.
“He grew a lot but he is a kid with a big maturity, with big quality. He’s very focused, very concentrated, he wants to learn every day and I have no doubt in modern football he will be one of the best central defenders in the world.
“You have some players like Leny, Ayyoub, Carlos Baleba, you see immediately the quality, the bravery, the courage. The intelligence is important.”
Another player to have launched his career at the club is English midfielder Angel Gomes, who joined from Manchester United in 2020. Fonseca is disappointed an injury means the 23-year-old is unlikely to be able to showcase his talent at Villa Park.
“Angel is maybe the most intelligent player I have in my team,” he says. “He understands faster than the others everything about the game, he loves the game, he loves to learn and he is a player with big skills, big technique.
“He is a player who under pressure it is not easy to steal the ball off him and who discovers the space so easily.
“He is young, he has a big talent. I believe with the right coach, with the right project, with the right game for him, he can have a possibility to have a big step in his career.”
Whether Fonseca will be at Stade Pierre Mauroy next season to help Lille continue their progress is still a topic of conversation between him and club president Olivier Letang.
Fonseca’s contract is up in the summer and how his side finish this season, along with Lille’s ambitions, will determine what happens next.
Coaching in the Premier League remains a consideration and he speaks of his admiration for Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta and Brighton’s Roberto de Zerbi.
“I have to confess it is very attractive the championship in England, with the best coaches, with the best teams, with the best players,” adds Fonseca.
“Of course, to challenge me in this way, to play against the best, can be amazing. But I am not obsessed with this. I am very good here, I feel very respected here in France.”
For the moment at least, Fonseca will hope this particular European adventure continues with Lille.
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