Jorge Jesus Appointed Portugal National Team Coach
Portugal have turned to one of their most seasoned tacticians. Jorge Jesus, 71 years old and 36 years into a restless managerial career, has been appointed national team head coach following the departure of Roberto Martinez.
Martinez’s spell ended with a thud. After taking charge at the start of 2023, his tenure closed on Monday with a World Cup last-16 exit to Spain, another reminder that Portugal have not reached the semi-finals of the tournament since 2006.
Into that void steps Jesus, a coach whose résumé stretches across Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul and Riyadh, and whose touchline presence has rarely gone unnoticed.
A serial winner with a global footprint
Jesus arrives with a haul of 25 trophies and the kind of mileage few international coaches can match. He built his reputation in Portugal with Benfica and Sporting CP, winning three league titles with Benfica and then crossing the city in 2015 in one of the most dramatic moves in modern Portuguese football, when he left Estadio da Luz for fierce rivals Sporting.
His career then exploded beyond Portugal’s borders. He lifted the Brazilian league title with Flamengo, then added Saudi Pro League crowns with both Al Hilal and Al Nassr, asserting himself as a specialist in rebuilding big, expectant clubs that had gone too long without success. At Al Nassr, he delivered their first title in seven years.
The Saudi Pro League became his base for each of the last three seasons, a late-career chapter that underlined his adaptability as much as his appetite for the spotlight.
Ronaldo connection and a changing national side
The link back to Portugal’s greatest modern icon is already written into this story. Ahead of joining Al Nassr last summer, where he would coach Cristiano Ronaldo, Jesus admitted he “could not refuse the invitation” of the Portuguese captain to take the job in Riyadh. That partnership has now flipped: Jesus returns to lead the national team just as Ronaldo has stepped away from the World Cup stage.
Ronaldo confirmed earlier this month that he will not play at another World Cup. He leaves that tournament behind with a world-record 146 international goals from 233 Portugal appearances, numbers that define an era and cast a long shadow over whoever shapes the next one.
Portugal’s recent history offers both comfort and frustration. They became European champions in 2016, lifted the Nations League in 2019 and reclaimed that trophy six years later, in 2025. Yet the World Cup remains the missing piece of the modern puzzle, the stage where their golden generations have repeatedly fallen short.
A job others coveted
The scale of the Portugal role is underlined by the company Jesus has recently kept in the rumour mill. In March 2025, The Athletic reported that he was a leading contender to become Brazil head coach, mentioned in the same breath as Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian ultimately took the Brazil job after leaving Real Madrid in May, while Jesus stayed in Saudi Arabia, guiding Al Nassr to the league title before exiting at the end of the 2025-26 season. Ange Postecoglou has since taken over at the club.
Now the veteran coach returns home, not to the daily grind of club football but to the long arcs and high stakes of international tournaments.
Eyes on 2030
The next World Cup offers a unique backdrop. Portugal will co-host the 2030 finals alongside Spain and Morocco, with Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay staging matches at the start of the tournament. Home soil, shared or not, raises expectations. It also raises the pressure on a coach whose reputation has been built on imposing structure, intensity and personality on talented squads.
Jesus inherits a national team with a rich recent honours list but a lingering sense of unfinished business on the biggest stage. Ronaldo’s World Cup story is over. The country’s is not.
The question now is simple and unforgiving: can Jorge Jesus be the man who finally drags Portugal back to the sharp end of a World Cup, in their own backyard?
