After being Jurgen Klopp‘s No. 3 at Liverpool and Pepijn Lijnders‘ No. 2 at Salzburg, Vitor Matos now plans to move into senior management on his own.
Matos garnered a strong reputation for his role as first-team development coach at Liverpool, but opted to leave along with Klopp and his staff last summer.
That saw him follow Lijnders to Austria as his assistant at Salzburg, but both swiftly departed the club in December having won just seven of their 16 games in the league.
It remains to be seen where Lijnders will go next, but wherever that is Matos seemingly has no plans to follow.
In an interview with Portuguese newspaper A Bola, the 36-year-old outlined his desire to become a head coach in his next job.
“I feel prepared and I want to be a head coach,” Matos explained.
“Above all, I am very motivated and very ambitious for the role of a coach.
“It was a natural process, it is something that I have built over time, through experiences and also by getting to know myself.
“And that has led me to this moment and to be comfortable with the role of a coach.”
He added: “Now, it is time to make things work, right? And for that to happen, I also think it is important to feel a connection with the club.
“Which club, I don’t know, but feeling this connection is very important.”
Matos made it clear that he does not plan to move into management before the end of the current campaign, saying “it allows us all to get to know each other better.”
There is no indication where he will work, however, with the Portuguese open to offers from all leagues, even if he admitted: “If you ask me if I’d like to reach the Premier League one day, of course I would.”
“It’s obvious that it’s an ambition, but I also know that I want to take my time to be able to reach that level again,” he continued.
“I want to take my time and do things calmly and sustainably, because that’s more important.”
Matos may have seen his reputation take a hit given the failure experienced alongside Lijnders at Salzburg, but he is unlikely to be short of opportunities given the success he enjoyed at Liverpool.
And with many of his countrymen thriving in charge of Premier League clubs – Nuno Espirito Santo at Nottingham Forest, Marco Silva at Fulham, Vitor Pereira at Wolves and, less so, Ruben Amorim at Man United – there may be a clear pathway eventually.
Lijnders’ next move is unknown, but with Matos going it alone and Andreas Kornmayer remaining at Salzburg, he will almost certainly do so without a Liverpool connection.
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