Gilberto Costa eager to help Kristall shine

The Brazil coach will serve as a Technical Consultant for the Russian champions.

Russian champions BSC Kristall have bolstered their backroom staff with the addition of FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup-winning Brazil coach Gilberto Costa.

Ahead of the second stage of the Russian championship, which resumes in a few days’ time, Kristall can now call on the expertise of their new Technical Consultant, who helped Brazil to their fifth FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup title in May.

Kristall – who finished fifth in the recent Euro Winners Cup in Nazaré, Portugal – lost just one of their five matches in the first stage of the Russian championship ahead of their return to action this weekend.

And, ahead of Brazil’s next international commitment at the Mundalito in Cascais later this month, Gilberto is eager to offer his assistance at club level.

“I’ll be the technical consultant for the team,” he explained to BeachSoccer.Ru.

“Myself and [Kristall coach] Aleksandrom Elizarovym have been friends since 2014, when I worked with the national team of Belarus and we have a great mutual respect.

“Now he has decided to work on some new methods and philosophies within the training process and, in turn, I am grateful for that confidence. I am here just to try to help with those new ideas.”

Asked what would constitute success and how Kristall can build on their fifth-place finish in Nazaré, Gilberto added: “First, you need to understand what is meant by ‘success’.

“For me, success – it’s the peace of mind that you are feeling and making sure that you did everything possible at the moment. Whatever I do, I try to give my maximum effort. My main commitment to Kristall is to give maximum effort.

“It would be unethical to discuss here the performance of Kristall at the Euro Winners Cup. This discussion will be held within the team, together with its players and technical staff. Of course, I know that this is not the result expected to the club but I always say that you need to calmly analyse the defeat. This is part of the evolution of the team.”