Portuguese Francisco Santos and N Ravichandran will coach Maharashtra United in the upcoming edition of the Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT), to start from June 14 to July 1.
A former Portuguese national player, Santos helped Portugal bag bronze medals in both the singles and doubles in the European Youth Championships. He then led Portugal to 2nd place in the European Championships in 2017. He also guided Falcons TTC to the title in the inaugural edition of UTT last year.
"We have seen what Ultimate Table Tennis has done to the sport and Maharashtra United's campaign last season was impressive. With a crisper format this year, it will get exciting this season and I look forward to the player draft and then the season, Santos said.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran became a name to reckon during his stint with the National team from 2013-2017. He was a part of the Indian team that won three gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals at the 2015 Commonwealth TT Championships.
He also managed the women's doubles team of Mouma Das/Manika Batra and the men's doubles team of Anthony Amalraj/G Sathiyan that won a bronze medal at the 2016 Czech Open and 2016 Bulgaria Open respectively. Ravichandran was managing the Dabang Smashers TTC last season.
Speaking about joining forces with Santos, he said: "Along with Santos, our aim is to make Maharashtra United a consistent side, one that challenges every team for the ultimate trophy. It's now time to put our heads together so we get the best possible team in player draft."