The Portuguese coach Fernando Santos, European champion in 2016 with Portugal, will be the new coach of Poland, the president of the Polish Football Federation announced Monday, assuming the third selection of his career after Portugal and Greece.
Cezary Kulesza published today, on the social network Twitter, a photograph with the former coach of Portugal, between 2014 and 2022, and of Greece, between 2011 and 2014, champions of Europe and the League of Nations, after the federation itself notice the presentation. of the new national coach.
“See you tomorrow, at the conference at the National Stadium”, can be read in the caption of the photo.
The coach’s presentation is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. local time (12:00 p.m. in Lisbon) at the Kazimierz Górski National Stadium, home of the Polish national team and named after a former coach and former president of the federation, in Warsaw, it was announced today in a statement.
The Polish federation thus returns to bet on a Portuguese coach to lead the destinies of the selection, after Paulo Sousa had been in charge in 2021, ending up leaving to guide the Brazilians Flamengo, in a decision highly contested by the Polish leaders .
Santos, 68, replaces Czeslaw Michniewicz, who led the Polish team at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, in which they ended up eliminated in the round of 16 by France, defeated finalist of the competition.
Santos will command a team led by the ‘star’ of FC Barcelona Robert Lewandowski, top scorer (78 goals) and most international (138 games) of the team, whose great achievements include two third places in World Cups, in 1974 and 1982, in In addition to the 1972 Olympic title.
He qualified for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, a feat he had not achieved since 2006, and in the Europeans he only managed to qualify from 2008, having received the 2012 edition with Ukraine and reaching the quarterfinals, the best result, in 2016. , in an edition won by Portugal and Fernando Santos, who eliminated the Poles in that round.
The Portuguese coach led the Portuguese team since 2014 and left on December 15, 2022, after giving Portugal the first two international trophies in the senior category, with the conquest of Euro 2016 and the League of Nations in 2019.
In 109 games, Fernando Santos achieved 67 wins, 23 draws and 19 losses, the last one against Morocco, 1-0, in the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup.
Before that, he had his first experience in national teams with Greece, a country where he also coached PAOK, Panathinaikos and AEK, in a vast coaching career in which he was national champion with FC Porto, won two Portuguese Cups and two Super Cups. Cups, and he also coached Sporting, Benfica, Estrela da Amadora and Estoril Praia.
Source: TSF
