Fernando Santos quit as coach of Portugal today after the elimination in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Qatar against Morocco (1-0) and the controversy of leaving Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench for the last two games.
All indications are that Rui Jorge, currently in charge of the Portugal Under 21 team, will fill the vacancy on an interim basis until José Mourinho agrees to take over. The coach of Roma is the great goal of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF).
Fernando Santos, who has a contract until 2024, resigned after eight years in charge since he was appointed in September 2014. It is the longest tenure of any coach in the history of the Portuguese team.
Agreement for termination of contract
According to the official statement, the FPF and Santos “have agreed to end the highly successful journey that began in September 2014” and it is understood that “after one of the best performances in the history of the national team in the final stages of the World Cup, this is the “right time to start a new cycle”.
“The FPF thanks Fernando Santos and his technical team for the services rendered over eight odd years and believes that this thanks is also done on behalf of the Portuguese people,” said the organization, which will now start on process to choose the next coach. .
The relationship with Christian
The surprising elimination against Morocco (1-0) was for Portugal the end of a tense World Cup marked by the relationship between Santos and ‘quinas’ captain Cristiano Ronaldo.
The crack showed his dissatisfaction when he was substituted in the last match of the group stage against South Korea and Santos decided not to start him in the following matches against Switzerland in the round of 16 and Morocco in the quarterfinals.
In the match against Morocco, he only put on the captaincy in the second half when Portugal was already losing 1-0.
The balance
Santos, 68, took over the reins of the Portuguese national team in 2014, replacing Paulo Bento.
In 2016 he won the European Championship in France, the first major trophy in the history of the Portuguese national team, and in 2019 he added another trophy to the Portuguese shows by winning the first edition of the Nations League.
In addition to the quarterfinals in Qatar, Portugal was eliminated in the round of 16 both in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and in the title defense at Euro 2020, an edition in which the Portuguese team had the worst performance in a continental championship.
In total, Santos is Portugal’s coach with the longest tenure (8 years), with the most appearances (109) and the most wins (68).
critics
Despite the statistics, the style of play carried out by Portugal during his tenure was often criticized for being conservative and defensive, as well as sometimes relying too much on the individual plays of its stars, especially Christian.
Fernando Santos (Lisbon, 1954), an engineer by profession, divided his teaching career between Portugal and Greece.
In Portugal, he coached the ‘big three’ -Porto, Sporting and Benfica- and won the Liga in 1998/1999 with the ‘dragons’.
He also went through the main Hellenic football clubs -AEK, PAOK and Panathinaikos- and for the Greek national team, which he led in the 2012 Euro Cup and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he managed to reach the quarterfinals and the eighth. .then, respectively.
He has recently been in the news due to problems with the Portuguese Treasury related to his salary as a coach.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
