Portugal's Helena Costa said on Tuesday she had decided against taking up the coaching position at French side Clermont for "purely personal" reasons. The 36-year-old Costa made global headlines as the first woman to take charge of a men's professional team in a leading European nation after being named in May to coach Clermont, who play in France's second tier.
But club president CLaude Michy took everyone aback on Monday with the sudden announcement that the ground-breaking deal had fallen through. Costa appeared alongside Michy at a press conference at the club's Stade Gabriel Montpied on Tuesday, but would only say that personal considerations had been behind her decision to step away from the job.
She said that she had explained her decision in private to Michy and that she would have no further comnments to make. Michy, however, called Costa's decision "astonishing, surprising, incomprehensible." "She simply said: 'I am leaving', and we were not able to get her to change her mind. She takes her secret with her.
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