The Luanda team leads Girabola and the former União de Leiria player had already been invited to renew for another three seasons, but the difficulty in combining family life in Portugal with work, as well as the insistence of the Togo officials, precipitated the decision.
"I had been on national teams a lot, which allows me to be at home and working. I got my family and my children a little used to that routine. Being in a club, in Africa, and in this phase of [pandemic of] covid-19, in which there are confinements after each trip and entering or leaving the country, I can't participate in my family day-to-day life and this is bringing me some problems at the level of my children's growth," explained the coach.
Before moving to Angola, the coach worked in the Burkina Faso national team, from 2008 to 2012 and from 2016 to 2018, as well as in the Gabon national team, in 2012 and 2013.
At club level, after leaving the command of União de Leiria, in 2008, he had only fleeting stints with the French of Le Mans (2010) and the Turks of Sfaxien (2014).
This season he was seduced by 1.º de Agosto's project, which involves "valuing the soccer academy" of the club, which is "excellent", "launching many youngsters and, at the same time, conquering the five times champion".
"Fortunately, this is happening, we are in first [place], despite many difficulties and obstacles that have arisen. But we are managing to launch many 18-, 19-, or 20-year-old talents, and I would very much like to stay for another two or three years, I have already told the president. It's just that on a family level it's not easy to combine my profession abroad with what has been my career for the last 10 years", he reinforced.
About the "obstacles", Paulo Duarte referred that "the team that is in second place", Sagrada Esperança, "has already won eight points in the secretariat", because other teams "don't show up to the games because they missed the flight", or "didn't have the necessary requirements", or even "because of a possible or a so-called badly enrolled player".
"So in a brief summary, our biggest opponents are being somewhat benefited by points they earn when in reality they end up not playing," he summarized.
However, it was mainly the insistence of the Togo federation officials that convinced Paulo Duarte to move, but only in September, after finishing his contract and fulfilling the objectives he proposed in the Angolan club, despite "a clause that allows both parties to waive the services of the other.
"I stayed in 1.Agosto for a question of honor, to finish the contract and to conclude the objective for which I came, which is to be five-time champion. And also because no Portuguese coach has ever been champion at the club," he explained.
However, "10 days later, once again, the Togolese federation returned to the charge" and accepted the conditions of the Portuguese coach, which were to "work on the three-year project with Togo, but after the end of the contract in Luanda," which will force Paulo Duarte to miss a double day of qualification for the World Cup in June.
The presence in the World2022, however, "will not be easy", since Togo has in its qualifying group "the number one candidate, Senegal", a country that "has much strength in CAF, FIFA, Africa and is a team with players of excellence.
Therefore, the coach goes with caution and warns that the main objective of the three-year project is "to rebuild bases so that Togo can win many times in the coming years.
Togo, he explained, "is a very strong African reference," despite not being a top team on the continent, like those of "Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, and Senegal."
"It's a team that is in a difficult phase, that needs a very quick renewal, with players with an average age of about 30. A team that three years ago virtually disappeared from the African context, so the goal is to reformulate and rebuild what was one of the African powers," said Paulo Duarte.
