Former Portugal national team coach Fernando Santos (69, Portugal) was nominated for the Polish national team coaching tower, which Paulo Bento (54, Portugal), who led the Korean national soccer team, was mentioned as a candidate for.
The Polish Football 메이저놀이터 Association held a press conference in Warsaw, Poland on the 24th (local time) and announced the appointment of Santos as head coach.
Poland has been searching for a new command tower without renewing the contract after the contract expired at the end of last month with coach Chesław Mihniewicz (53, Poland), who led the team to the round of 16 at the 2022 Qatar World Cup held in November-December last year.
Likewise, coach Bento, who left Korea after the World Cup in Qatar, was mentioned as a strong candidate, and local media reported it until the time of the inauguration press conference, but the protagonist of this press conference was not Bento, but Santos.
Coach Santos is the leader who led the Portuguese national team until the World Cup in Qatar.
He has been in charge of club teams in Portugal and Greece since 1988, then coached the Greek national team from 2010 to 2014, and led the Portuguese national team for eight years from 2014 to the World Cup in Qatar.
During his tenure, Portugal reached the top for the first time in history at the 2016 European Football Championship (Euro 2016) and became the first champion of the UEFA Nations League in the 2018-2019 season.
However, after that, in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2020 European Football Championship (Euro 2020), it was only in the round of 16.
At the World Cup in Qatar, they passed the group stage in first place, but lost 1-2 in the third match against Korea, and were eliminated in the quarterfinals after losing 0-1 to Morocco, a sensational team.
The contract remained until 2024, but former Belgian coach Roberto Martinez (50, Spain) was appointed as the successor to Santos, who left the Portuguese national team after the World Cup in Qatar.
Santos, who coached Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr) in the national team and now works with Roberto Lewandowski (Barcelona), said at a press conference, “From today I am Polish.”
“It is an honor to be able to work as a coach here. I will try to bring a lot of joy to the Poles and I am sure that we will achieve success,” he emphasized.
“I don’t want to be someone you only see on match days or special events. I want to know the people of Polish football, and I want them to know me,” he said, revealing his plans to live in Warsaw.
“The choice was difficult, but we chose the best,” said Cesari Kulesha, head of the Polish Football Association. “Our first goal is to qualify for the European Championships in 2024.”