Fernando Santos has quit his position as coach of Portugal after their shock World Cup exit with Jose Mourinho named as a leading candidate to take over.
An agreement was reached with Santos, 68, “to end the journey of great success that began in September 2014,” according to a statement released by the Portuguese football federation (FPF).
The FPF further stated, “we will now launch the process to choose the next national coach.”
The daily sports newspaper Record reports that the federation has identified Mourinho as its top candidate to lead the team in the run-up to the Euro 2024 qualifying tournament.
The national team reportedly would be open to a deal that would put Mourinho in charge temporarily while he finishes the season with Italian club Roma.
Upon his arrival in southern Portugal for a training camp with Roma on Thursday afternoon, Mourinho was questioned by journalists about the national team job.
Local media have also mentioned Portuguese coaches Rui Jorge (under-21s), Abel Ferreira (Palmeiras), Paulo Fonseca (Lille), Rui Vitoria (Egypt), and Jorge Jesus (Fenerbahce).
Mourinho, 59, has a stellar resume at some of Europe’s top clubs but has never coached at the international level.
In his managerial career, he has worked with Porto, Chelsea twice, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and Manchester United.
Mourinho has a total of five major league coaching championships, including three with Chelsea, two with Inter, and one with Real.
He won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 and with Inter Milan in 2010.
He led Roma to their first major European trophy in May of this year, the Europa Conference League championship.
To become the first coach in UEFA history to win all of the competition’s current titles, he needed to win this fifth European Championship.
As of right now, Mourinho is under contract with Roma until the year 2024. The club is currently 14 points behind Serie A leaders Napoli and sits in seventh place.
Despite Saturday’s devastating 1-0 loss to the record-setting Moroccans in Qatar, Santos was adamant that he would not be forced out of his Portuguese job of eight years.
Of course, he knew that not everyone was on board with his World Cup strategy, which included sitting Cristiano Ronaldo for later games.
“I’m leaving with the feeling of enormous gratitude,” he said in a video posted on the federation’s website.
“When you lead a group, you have to make some difficult decisions. It’s normal that not everyone is happy with the choices I made.”
After being hired as Portugal’s head coach in September 2014, Santos led the team to victory at Euro 2016 and the 2019 UEFA Nations League.
Nonetheless, both the 2018 World Cup and the Euro 2020 were lost in the round of 16 during his tenure.
Photo by EPA/Friedemann Vogel
