Friday 22 September 2017 11:10, UK
Former Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson has reunited with the owners of the Foxes having taken the manager's role at Belgian club OH Leuven.
The 54-year-old, who was sacked by Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha two years ago, takes on his first job since exiting Derby in October 2016.
Like Leicester, OH Leuven are owned by the King Power International Group which is founded by Srivaddhanaprabha, with both football clubs subsidiaries of the company.
The Srivaddhanaprabha family bought the Belgian club in June and Sky sources understand talks between the owners over the managerial position had been ongoing for over a month.
It was ultimately decided by the owners that a "reconciliation" with Pearson was not necessary and he held his first training session at the club on Friday morning.
"Nigel is a manager of extremely high standards, whose knowledge of the game, man management qualities and winning mentality will help to strengthen the OHL setup for many years to come," said Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha after confirmation Pearson had replaced Dennis Van Wijk as manager.
Pearson was sacked by Leicester in June 2015 after a little under four seasons in charge, with the owners stating then that "the working relationship between Nigel and the board was no longer viable."
At Derby, Pearson was sacked after just 14 games in charge having initially been suspended by the Rams pending an internal investigation into an argument with owner Mel Morris.
"I'm delighted to be back in football, to be working with King Power again and to be applying my experiences to the development of a club in a really exciting position," said Pearson.
"I know from experience how King Power will want to go about developing every aspect of OHL and I'm really looking forward to trying to help the club realise some of its ambitions going forward."
Pearson's role with OH Leuven is his first coaching position outside of England.
