Brooklyn FC hires Tomas Tengarrinha as new head coach for second USL season

Tomás Tengarrinha, a 34-year-old who most recently coached SF Damaiense in the top women’s league in Portugal, has been hired as Brooklyn FC’s head coach ahead of its second season in the USL Super League, The Post has learned.

After going 10-9-9 during the league’s inaugural campaign, Brooklyn fired Jessica Silva, and now Tengarrinha — possessing a résumé that also features guiding SC Braga to a third-place finish in 2023-24 — will inherit the group as his unusual path takes him to the U.S. for the first time.

It was an “easy decision” to accept the job, Tengarrinha told The Post, because of the city (“something special”), the league (still “new,” establishing its place alongside the NWSL) and the club (one that has “ambition”).

“I would say I’m not a typical coach because I had a lot of professions before this one,” Tengarrinha said. “I did a lot of things probably that helped me to be more authentic and more honest with the players because I have an opportunity to see a lot of different things. … From the beginning, seven or eight years ago, I’ve had success in every single club, so I’m a very lucky person.”

Tengarrinha previously had opportunities to take his career abroad, but he didn’t feel like it was the right time.

At that point, his coaching journey still was in its early stages. For around six or seven years, up until his mid-20s, Tengarrinha worked a variety of different jobs that weren’t connected to the sport he played at the amateur level and watched family members — his late cousin and his father — play professionally.

He dabbled in fashion as a model. He helped his parents run a restaurant. He worked at a travel agency, too.

Eventually, his ex-girlfriend asked why he hadn’t tried coaching since he felt he possessed the qualities and the desire to become one, so Tengarrinha started with an internship, eventually became a paid coach and, at one point, shifted from men’s soccer to women’s soccer because he thought it “was the future” — even though everybody laughed at the time, he said.

“And I said, ‘Mmm, you can be wrong,’ ” Tengarrinha recalled. “And I’m here.”

Still, \Tengarrinha never could have dreamed of this happening. But he’ll get a chance at overseeing a Brooklyn team he wants to control the game; to dominate with the ball and combine that with strong play defensively; to mesh with a style shaped not only by his years on the pitch but also his years away from the game.

“The modeling gave me the opportunity to know a lot of different cultures and different persons and different mindsets,” Tengarrinha said. “And that made me a little bit more mature. And yeah, that kind of experiences I feel like today help me a lot — not about understanding the game but also understanding people.

“And we can never forget we are dealing with people.”