Real Madrid have hired former futsal player and coach Marcelo Serpa Coelho to Juni Calafat’s scouting staff.
Serpa specialises in South American football, although his responsibilities will not be limited to that area.
Madrid’s chief scout Calafat previously had Paulo Xavier as his main point of contact in Brazil, where he worked as the club’s Latin America scout between 2017 and 2023, before he joined Arsenal at the end of last year.
Xavier was a highly regarded member of Calafat’s scouting team, and earlier in 2023, Madrid scout Gonzalo Novillo also left the club to join Real Betis.
Madrid have a history of recruiting talent from Brazil, with Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Endrick all moving to the club from Brazil in recent seasons.
Serpa, born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, had a career as a futsal player and coach spanning over 30 years.
The 53-year-old began his futsal career in Flamengo and then played in Spain between 1993 and 2010, winning 12 titles, including the European Champions Cup in 2000 and a number of domestic honours in Spain.
After working in France as a player-coach, he retired from playing and in July 2012 he joined the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to promote the national team and the national league, while also working in women’s football.
He led the Malaysian women’s national team to bronze at the 2013 South East Asian (SEA) Games, and also oversaw the Malaysian men’s national team’s second-place finish at the 2013 Oceanic Football Confederation (OFC) Championship and their qualification for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Futsal Championship in 2014.
He has coached in France since 2016, spending the last four seasons at futsal side Paris ACASA, before joining Real Madrid.
(Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
