Managerial career
Having played as a goalkeeper during his footballing tenure, Fossati states that he had the opportunity to view matches through the perspective of a spectator and the ability to interpret the plays. He began coaching his teammates as a goalkeeper, under the supervision of the coach. As Fossati aged, he started to write analyses of the games and coaches, noting which facets he would have adjusted. [2]
After retiring as a player, he decided to take up management. In the beginning, Fossati had spells in charge of River Plate Montevideo, Peñarol (where he won a league title) and Danubio F.C. in Uruguay. He also had spells as manager of Colón de Santa Fe in Argentina, Cerro Porteño in Paraguay and LDU Quito in Ecuador.
Fossati became manager of the Uruguay national team in 2004, [3] signing at a time in which the team was about to miss qualifying to the 2006 World Cup. He managed to take Uruguay out of the lower places in the qualifying table and into the inter-confederation play-off spot. Despite his and the players' efforts, Uruguay lost the play-off against Australia on penalties. Fossati was then replaced as manager of Uruguay by Óscar Tabárez.
He next coached Al-Sadd in Qatar and, after winning all four domestic titles with them, was unveiled as the new Qatari national team manager in 2007. [4] In late 2008, it was announced that Fossati would undergo surgery. Subsequently, the Qatar FA ended their cooperation with him, who supposedly needed too long to recover from surgery.
In 2009, he signed with LDU Quito from Ecuador to manage the team for the second time, replacing Edgardo Bauza. Fossati helped LDU Quito win the Recopa Sudamericana 2009 matches against Sport Club Internacional de Porto Alegre. LDU Quito won both games of the Recopa 1–0 and 3–0, respectively. This gave LDU Quito their second international title. After that Fossati led them in the 2009 Peace Cup held in Spain. LDU were drawn in Group B, along with Spanish giants Real Madrid and Saudi outfit Al-Ittihad. [5] Although LDU defeated Al-Ittihad 3–1 in their first game, they bowed out of the competition after losing 2–4 to Real Madrid, a match which saw Cristiano Ronaldo's first goal for Real Madrid. In December 2009, Fossati and LDU won the Copa Sudamericana after defeating Fluminense 5-4 on aggregate in the finals.
After Internacional and Mário Sergio parted ways, as per their previous agreement, the Brazilian club turned to the foreign market in South America and reached a deal with Fossati. He is fluent in Portuguese and lived in Brazil during the 1980s. On 13 December 2009, he left LDU Quito to join Internacional for one year, Following negative results, he was fired from Sport Club Internacional on 28 May 2010 after a long meeting with club officials. Fossati left Internacional in the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores after defeating reigning champions Estudiantes de La Plata in the quarter-finals; Internacional would go on to win the Libertadores.
After that, he was named as head coach of Al-Shabab and nearly reached that season's AFC Champions League final with the team. Fossati was sacked by Al-Shabab in December 2010, but returned for another crack at the continental title, after being put in charge of Al-Sadd for a second time between 2010 and 2012, during which he won the 2011 AFC Champions League in a dramatic campaign and reached the semi-finals of the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup. Fossati left Al-Sadd on 19 May 2012 and joined Club Cerro Porteño after just 24 hours.
On 26 July 2013, he signed a two years contract with United Arab Emirates champions Al Ain to replace with Cosmin Olăroiu.
He became coach of the Qatar national football team in 2016. Like Fossati, all of the football management of 'The Maroons' were Uruguayan.
In June 2019, the River Plate Athletic Club of Uruguay asked for help, and that the club take command, in order to resurface it, in four months it led the club to a significant improvement in football.
In March 2023, he joined Club Universitario de Deportes, after the departure of Carlos Compagnucci. His contract would end in December 2023 amid rumours of Fossati signing over to the Peru national football team. [6] On 27 December, 2023, Peru would officialize the signing of Fossati as head coach. [7]
