Last Update: January 24, 2023, 18:06 IST
Fernando Santos is going from coaching Cristiano Ronaldo to another great soccer player, Robert Lewandowski.
A month after being sidelined by his native Portugal, Santos was unveiled in Warsaw on Tuesday as coach of the Polish national team.
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The 68-year-old Santos becomes Poland’s third foreign-born coach after Leo Beenhacker and Paulo Sousa and comes with the experience of key high-profile players such as Ronaldo, whom Santos benched last month during the knockout stage. World cup.
Santos will now coach a team captained by Barcelona striker Lewandowski, who at the age of 34 is nearing the end of his career with only the European Championships in 2024 and possibly the 2026 World Cup to play internationally. be saved for
Santos has been tasked with improving Poland’s dominant record in recent major tournaments.
Since 1986, the national team has progressed beyond the group stage in only one World Cup (2022) and one European Championship (2016).
Known as a practical, defensive-minded coach, Santos has a solid international pedigree. In eight years with Portugal, he led the team to the Euro 2016 title – the country’s first international trophy – and the inaugural Nations League title in 2019. He also coached Greece at Euro 2012, where it reached the quarter-finals, and qualified for the 2014 World Cup.
Poland did not extend the contract of Santos’ predecessor Czeslaw Michniewicz after reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time in 36 years. Michniewicz’s contract expired on 31 December.
Former Portugal and South Korea coach Paulo Bento and Liverpool great Steven Gerrard, who were recently sacked by Aston Villa in the Premier League, said the Polish football federation would recruit a foreign coach.
Santos’ more experience would have made the difference. On Monday, when it became clear Santos would be hired, Polish Play Minister Kamil Bortniczuk congratulated the football association on Twitter on its decision and called Santos a highly successful coach with “experience working with great stars” such as Ronaldo.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)