Juan Sartori responsible for Michael Beale Sunderland sacking, claims reports in South America
It was actually co-owner Juan Sartori who fired Michael Beale from his job as Sunderland head coach, a newspaper in South America has claimed.
Beale was sacked on Monday after dismal defeats to Huddersfield and Birmingham left the Black Cats all but out of the Championship play-offs race.
It made the former Rangers boss the second-shortest serving Sunderland manager in the club’s history, with him lasting just 64 days and taking charge of 12 games.
Now, respected newspaper El Pais have claimed it was Sartori who ‘picked up the phone’ to sack Beale in a feature about how the Uruguayan is balancing his political aspirations with his duties at Sunderland.
Sartori has always been a bit of a mysterious figure at Sunderland, with fans never really being able to figure out what he does behind the scenes.
However, the recently released season of Sunderland Til I Die revealed that Sartori was the crucial figure in getting Kyril Louis-Dreyfus to buy the club.
“So I’ve known Juan Satori since a few years,” Kyril Louis-Dreyfus said in the hit documentary. “We met in the Maldives on a tiny island where the staff used to play football and I decided to join in and he decided to join in.
“And then we just kept seeing each other to play football in different parts of the world. So, basically, I phoned him up out of curiosity to see how things are going and he mentioned to me how the club is for sale and if I’m interested to take a closer look at it.
“That’s when I really saw the size and the magnitude of the football club and the huge potential it has.”
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