Fernando Santos and the president of the Polish Football Association already reached an agreement this Wednesday on the end of the Portuguese coach’s contract. According to the Polish press, Fernando Santos’ departure from the technical management of the Polish national team should be made official within hours.
If confirmed, the contractual relationship between the Portuguese coach and the Polish federation, which has been in place since January this year, will come to an end.
According to Polish newspaper WP SportoweFakty, Fernando Santos met with the president of the Polish Federation, Cesary Kulesza, and agreed to the terms determining the early end of the contract.
According to O Jogo newspaper, Marek Papszun, Maciej Skorza, Michal Probierz, Adam Nawalka, Jacek Magiera and Jan Urban are names tipped to succeed Fernando Santos.
The poor results in the qualifiers for the 2024 European Championship contributed to the bad moment that the former Portuguese national team is going through in Poland.
The recent defeat against Albania (2-0) was the final straw. After the match, striker Robert Lewandowski, captain of the Polish national team, even called for “big changes”, with Portuguese Fernando Santos stating at the time that he would not resign.
“Big changes so that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” the player said, without specifying which changes were intended, adding that he could not explain the reasons for the disastrous result against Albania in a qualifying Group E . match for the 2024 European Championship.
“We have had problems since the start of qualifying,” the forward said, without being able to explain what is going on with the team. He said they “knew much better how to play” with the same players and that they had the potential “to do this”.
The FC Barcelona forward avoided talking about Fernando Santos, at a time when voices against the coach were growing louder and calling for the Portuguese’s departure.
Sunday’s result complicates the results of Poland, which has played five matches and has six points in Group E, just ahead of the Faroe Islands (one point) and behind Albania (10), and the Czech Republic and Moldova (both with eight).
Fernando Santos had to deal with a difficult press conference after the match in Tirana on Sunday, during which he refused a dismissal scenario more than once.
‘I’m resigning? Not today, not tomorrow. [Continuar como selecionador?] You have to ask the president that. If the president understands that he doesn’t want me as a coach, talk to me and we will find a solution. I am always the solution. It is not worth asking the question again, I am not going to resign,” said the former Portuguese coach.
With Lusa
Source: DN
