Portugal's 68-Year-Old Coach Santos Resigns

The Portuguese Football Association officially announced that the 68-year-old national team coach Santos has left.

In this World Cup, Portugal was eliminated by Morocco and stopped in the quarterfinals. The contract between Santos and Portugal originally expired in 2024, but because the team's performance failed to meet expectations, the two parties finally reached an agreement to terminate the contract.

Santos started coaching the Portuguese team in September 2014 and won the European Cup in 2016. In addition, he also won the European Nations League. However, the team did not perform well in the World Cup. It stopped at the top 16 in 2018 and the top 8 this year.

In this World Cup, Santos put Ronaldo on the bench, which caused controversy. Against Morocco, Ronaldo could only come on as a substitute and failed to help the team reverse the situation. After the game, Ronaldo walked back to the locker room sadly alone, and his girlfriend Georgina also bombarded Santos.

When Santos issued a farewell statement, he said that he sometimes made decisions that did not win everyone's approval. "I leave with a lot of gratitude. When you lead a team, you have to make some tough decisions. Not everyone will be happy with the choices I made, and those are normal."

Portuguese President Marcelo issued a document expressing his gratitude to Santos. "Thanks to Santos for his contribution over the years, a sincere hug to him. He brought us the European Cup, lifted the Portuguese team and many Portuguese because of it, he improved the strength of the Portuguese team!"