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The Swans have finally appointed their new coaches, including Ryan Maye from Aston Villa
Swansea City have finally announced the appointment of Vito Matos’ coaching staff, weeks after his arrival in Wales. Ryan Maye, Toze Mendes and Goncalo Ricca have all joined the club, while Diogo Medeiros will link up with the Swans in the coming weeks.
Swans greats Leon Britton and Joe Allen, who have stepped in during the interim, will also remain part of the coaching team moving forward.
Maye is a big coup for Swansea from Aston Villa, where he has been head of coaching and development since 2019. He becomes Matos’ assistant head coach, having completed his Uefa ‘Pro’ Licence alongside the Swansea City boss with the Football Association of Wales. He has previously held positions with Chelsea, Rangers, West Bromwich Albion and the Football Association.
Highly-regarded within the game, his work is credited with playing a part in the identification and emergence of the likes of Morgan Rogers, Tim Iroegbunam and Finn Azaz, as well as Villa under-18s completing a domestic youth treble last term.ion.
Mendes, 46, boasts over 20 years of coaching experience, having first taken up a role with Vitoria SC’s youth teams in 2002.
With a background in player development, Mendes had three further spells with his hometown club, leading numerous age-grade sides and their ‘B’ team at different points in those periods.
Mendes also worked in similar roles with Al Nassr, Liaoning Hongyun, Al Wedha and the Malta national set-up.
He had a stint as head coach of Maltese club Valetta, while he has most recently been assistant coach at AVS and Maritimo in Portugal.
Ricca joins the Swans having had spells working at clubs such as Marseille, Real Madrid, FC Penafiel, Academico de Viseu, Porto and Maritimo, with a particular focus on analysis.
Medeiros, meanwhile, will make the move to Swansea following time working at Academica de Coimbra, Porto, Santa Clara and Maritimo.
The appointment have finally been rubberstamped after delays over work permits as a result of Brexit.
Swansea City chief executive Tom Gorringe. said: “We are very pleased to be able to confirm these appointments and provide further detail on the make-up of our football staff.
“I also want to place on record my thanks to everyone involved in helping us as we advanced through the various required processes.
“As stated previously, this was something that we always knew we would need to go through, and we are delighted to have added this additional support for Vitor ahead of a busy run of fixtures.
“We are also grateful for the continued support of the existing staff in Martyn Margetson and Kris O’Leary, as well as that of Joe and Leon, which has been invaluable for us as a club.”
