A former assistant of Dons boss Jimmy Thelin has been appointed new head of recruitment at Aberdeen.
Nuno de Almeida, who is based in Portugal, replaces Chris Badlan, who joined Aberdeen in February.
De Almeida has been working as an international scout for the Dons since his arrival with Thelin and his backroom staff in June.
A delighted de Almeida said: “I am pleased to be given this opportunity to lead the recruitment team at such a historic club.
“I have enjoyed working within the department over the last six months and I am looking forward to building on the recent positive work.
“My way of working and the approach Aberdeen has taken in recent seasons is completely aligned, and we will work together to identify and recruit exciting talents who can help us deliver our sporting goals on the pitch.”
He previously served as Thelin’s assistant at Elfsborg in 2019, having previously worked as international scout for Porto for 10 years.
However, de Almeida worked as assistant to Thelin for only 14 months before returning to Portugal due to family reasons.
Despite leaving Sweden de Almeida continued to scout for Elfsborg.
New head of recruitment has international track record
Prior to moving to Pittodrie the Portuguese has spent the last four years at Rio Ave in his homeland as chief scout and more recently, football director.
He also spent the summer as scout master for the Qatar Super League where he specialised in identifying, monitoring and evaluating strikers.
Dons director of football Steven Gunn said: “Nuno has had a hugely positive impact in his time at Aberdeen thus far, bringing a breadth of experience across multiple player trading markets.
“He has a clear understanding of our needs as we work to build on our positive start to Jimmy’s leadership of the first team.
“Nuno has been working with us closely since the summer to identify and progress our player recruitment priorities for the next two transfer windows and that work to strengthen the squad is ongoing.
“We are delighted to be able to strengthen the senior football staff at the club and to have a person of Nuno’s calibre and technical expertise at Aberdeen as we work towards helping Jimmy deliver a winning team on the pitch and build on the trading model which will support future investment into the first team.
“I would also like to thank Chris Badlan for his efforts whilst at Aberdeen and wish him every success in his future career.”
Conversation