Jorge Jesus is the new national team coach. The Portuguese Football Federation officially announced on Friday the hiring of the 71-year-old coach, who has signed a contract valid for four seasons.
The experienced coach succeeds Roberto Martínez as head of the national team and will have as his main objectives to defend the Nations League title, won in 2025, and to lead Portugal at EURO 2028 and the 2030 World Cup, a tournament that will be hosted by Portugal, Spain and Morocco.
The first major challenge will be to retain the Nations League. Portugal are in a group with Wales, Norway and Denmark.
At 71, Jorge Jesus will coach a national team for the first time. With a long managerial career that began in 1989 at Amora, he spent the last four years abroad, first at Fenerbahce, then at Al Hilal and Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, where he won back-to-back league titles.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 29 goals in 33 appearances under Jesus last season at Al Nassr. Ronaldo, 41, suggested the ongoing World Cup would be his last but did not make a decision on his international retirement.
Jesus also enjoyed tremendous success at Flamengo, where he led the team to the Brasileirao, Libertadores, South American Super Cup, and Brazilian Super Cup titles between 2019 and 2020.
In Portugal, he stood out as manager of SC Braga, with whom he won an Intertoto Cup and caught the attention of Benfica. While at Benfica, between 2009 and 2015 and again from 2020 to 2022, he won three league titles.
He also made a controversial move to Sporting in 2015, where he spent three years and won a Super Cup and a League Cup.
