The coach of Portugal, who faces Switzerland this Tuesday in the round of 16, is a very religious man, criticized in the country for his temperament of a low-income earner.
On July 10, 2016, Fernando Santos takes his place in front of the press. The Portuguese coach has just won the Euro in France, the first title in the history of the country, acquired at the end of a competition conquered with the slingshot and with the teeth, on a goal in the 109th minute from Eder, player little friend with the ball. The manager releases a letter written almost a month earlier, in which he thanks for the final, planned victory, the president of the Portuguese football federation and his players. Then he rents his “best friend and his mother” : Jesus and Mary. «[Je voudrais] dedicate this victory to them, thank them for choosing me and giving me the gift of wisdom, perseverance and humility to guide this team. For all that I hope and desire is for the glory of his name.” Later, the team will travel to Fátima, the local Lourdes.
Fernando Santos, 68, upset features and contrite eyes day and night, has since joining the selection bench in 2014, embarked Portugal on a small train for a series of loops. Elimination against Uruguay in the round of 16 of the previous World Cup, a League of Nations, the first of its name, gleaned in 2019, then an inglorious elimination during the last Euro… The divine prophecy has lived. And for the World Cup?
Knitting with your toes
Fan of sueca, a popular card game, missionary temperament (he has already made the front page of Christian newspapers and has taken a public position against the legalization of abortion during the 2007 referendum), chain cigarette pumper, not stingy of swearing on the bench, Fernando Santos is regarded in the country as a Mr lambda, that we meet at the café teasing scratch games. A professional footballer without genius in the 80s, he has a university background obtained at the Higher Institute of Engineering in Lisbon – hence his nickname, “the engineer”. Between the ages of 26 and 42, Santos combines two jobs: footballer before becoming a coach, and maintenance manager of a five-star hotel in Estoril, a suburb of Lisbon, which notably served as the setting for James Bond in 1969, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
In the rest of his career, Santos, a Benfiquist by descent, took the reins of Os Três Grandes, the three biggest clubs in the country (Porto, Sporting and Benfica), without leaving any bitterness anywhere, which is not nothing in a country divided into three, where the highway is sometimes strewn with billboards to the glory of the three clubs, even at the other end of the country. In Greece, he took charge of two Athens clubs, AEK and Panathinaïkós, then later PAOK Salonika and the Hellenic selection.
Is it this lackluster resume, this low-income temperament (every victory is worth its own), this inability to polish a generation that could knit with its toes, that drains so much frustration among supporters in Portugal, who are not lacking in talented coaches elsewhere – with this particularity, for many, of also coming out of university (like José Mourinho or Leonardo Jardim)? Santos once described his view of talent: “That may be the beauty of football, but it comes with certain rules. That’s like saying you have 500 paintings, but no wall to hang them on.”
“I really didn’t like it at all”
Santos’ men qualified in Qatar ric-rac, sent to the play-offs by Serbia, a “world shame” for the press. They released the Italian European champion on this occasion and since then the selection has been rolling better, less rigid in the midfield than it was in the past. Of course, and despite Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva or Rúben Dias, Cristiano Ronaldo remains the switch. On Monday, Fernando Santos, who obviously believes in victory on December 18, upset the balance of his group like never before: questioned about the attitude of the fivefold Golden Ball, which came out bubbling against South Korea in the third match, the coach advances: “I don’t know anything about what happened on the pitch, I just saw him arguing with a Korean. I don’t want to talk about that anymore but about tomorrow’s match.
Before continuing: “I saw the pictures and I didn’t like it at all. I really didn’t like it at all. These stories need to be resolved internally and that’s what has been done. Final point on this problem.” Santos’ mandate must end at the end of the next Euro. A hasty exit from the World Cup, for example in the round of 16 against Switzerland on Tuesday, could announce the end of a coach who sat on the Portuguese bench more than anyone.