Fernando Santos, who led Greece to the last 16 of the World Cup in Brazil, has been appointed Portugal’s new head coach, the FPF announced last week.
The Portuguese coach spent four years in charge of Greece and guided it to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 as well as the last 16 of this year’s World Cup, where it lost on penalties to Costa Rica.
Santos left his post the day after Greece was eliminated from the tournament, having decided before the competition not to renew his contract.
The former Porto and Benfica manager replaces Paulo Bento, who left after Portugal made a calamitous start to its Euro 2016 campaign, losing to Albania. Star player Cristiano Ronaldo dragged them into the tournament via the play-offs, but the Iberian nation went out at the group stage.
Santos could be rendered unable to lead the Portuguese team for the majority for their qualification games after he was hit with an eight-match FIFA ban after he verbally abused match officials during the Costa Rica defeat in the World Cup.
He lost his appeal to the ban this week but can appeal again at the court of arbitration for sport. If the ban sticks, he will be able to pick the team and attend training sessions but not the matches.
Santos’ reign will begin with trips to France on October 11 and Denmark three days later.
He has also spent time managing in Greece, including a stint with PAOK, Panathinaikos and two spells with AEK Athens.
In Greece he is playfully called ‘the engineer’ thanks to his engineering degree he got before he became a coach.
Source: Reuters, The Guardian, goal.com
