Morocco defeat was end of the line for Santos as Portugal coach
LISBON: Fernando Santos has stepped down as coach of Portugal after their quarter-finals exit to Morocco at the World Cup and the controversy over dropping Cristiano Ronaldo to the bench for the last two games.
Rui Jorge, currently in charge of the under-21s, will take over as caretaker while the federation tries to land Roma coach Jose Mourinho.
Santos, who had a contract until 2024, was appointed in September 2014. This has been the longest reign of any Portugal coach.
According to an official statement, the FPF and Santos “agreed to terminate the highly successful journey that began in September 2014” and understand that “after one of the best performances in the history of the national team in the final stages of the World Cup, it is the “right time to start a new cycle.”
It added: “The FPF thanks Fernando Santos and his technical team for the services provided over eight years and believes that this expressopn of gratitude is also made on behalf of the Portuguese people.”
The surprising 1-0 defeat by Morocco was the end of a tense campaign in Qatar.
Ronaldo made plain his dissatisfaction when he was substituted during the last group game against South Korea. Santos then decided not to start him in the following matches against Switzerland in the round of 16 and Morocco in the quarterfinals.
Against Morocco, Santos only brought his captain into the game in the second half when Portugal were already losing 1-0.
Santos, 68, took over 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 by winning the first edition of the Nations League.
Portugal were eliminated in the round of 16 both in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and in defending the title at Euro 2020.
Santos is the Portugal coach with the longest tenure (eight years), with the most matches (109) and the most wins (68).
Despite the statistics, the style of play of Portugal during his tenure was often criticised as too conservative and defensive.
Santos, an engineer by profession, divided his coaching career between Portugal and Greece.
In Portugal, he coached the ‘big three’ -Porto, Sporting and Benfica- and won the league in 1998-99 with the ‘dragons’.
He also went coached the main Greek clubs – AEK, PAOK and Panathinaikos- and led the Greek national team to the 2012 Euro finals 2014 World Cup in Brazil, reaching the quarter-finals and round of 16 respectively.
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