Former Tottenham manager Villas-Boas hospitalized after Dakar Rally crash

Even when Andre Villas-Boas was manager at Tottenham Hotspur, he was pretty open about the fact that he didn’t want to be a football manager until he was old and grey. Instead, he was pretty adamant that eventually he would drop football altogether to become a rally car racer.

And he did! Back in November, AVB quit as manager of Chinese club Shanghai SIPG to compete in this year’s Dakar Rally as part of Team Overdrive. And things were going so well: as Pardeep had mentioned in the Hoddle a couple of days ago, Villas-Boas was middle of the pack, driving a Toyota Hilux pickup truck, as late as two days ago.

But there’s been some bad news: AVB has been forced out of the race after crashing into a dune in Peru, an accident that sent him to the hospital. Thankfully, Villas-Boas wasn’t seriously injured, but it did cut his inaugural rally short.

Villas-Boas sustained no broken bones but was taken to hospital for checks.

The Portuguese told BBC Sport his spine and back hurt, “but nothing broken, which was the main worry”.

He added: “Unfortunately I can’t continue but it’s part of the Dakar.”

— BBC Sport

I’m a little disappointed that Andre didn’t get a little further in the competition, honestly. It’s kind of nice watching a guy chase his dream. And perhaps it was more fun to crash into a Peruvian sand dune than it was dealing with players like Oscar and Hulk in a Chinese football league.