Portuguese Football in English
Portugal coach Fernando Santos has had his contract renewed as head coach of the Seleção until 2024.
The 65-year-old will therefore lead his team’s defence of the European Championship and the Nations League, two trophies won under Santos, making him Portugal’s most successful ever coach.
He will also be in the dugout for World Cup 2022 in Qatar and oversee qualification (at least) for Euro 2024.
It would have been this past weekend. In an alternate universe in which COVID-19 was merely the stuff of nightmares rather than the very real plague on our existence it has become, Fernando Santos would have announced the 23-man squad set to defend the European Championship.
As it is, Portugal internationals will have another year of football to make the grade, but who would have made the Fernando Santos cut if – you know – the calamitous events of 2020 had never transpired?
Seleção expert Nathan Motz discusses the squad that might have been….the squad that in fact, will never be.
That many Portuguese football fans nurture a lingering sense of injustice and distrust for the English media can be traced back to the summer of 2006. In Gelsenkirchen, Portugal and England went head to head for the third time in four tournaments with a huge prize at stake: a place in the World Cup semi-finals.
The Seleção eventually won in a penalty shootout, but the game is remembered mainly for the red card issued to Wayne Rooney for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho’s private parts. TV replays shows the Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo was spot on with the decision, but much of the UK media vilified the role played by Rooney’s then Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo.
Rooney himself has now set the record straight in his column in the Sunday Times, saying: “I would have done the same thing in Ronaldo’s shoes.”
Making it to one hundred appearances for your national football team is no mean feat and one that truly deserves to be recognised. Our beloved Portuguese team have only bestowed this honour on six incredible players: Cristiano Ronaldo, Luís Figo, Fernando Couto, Nani, João Moutinho and Pepe.
While the footballing talent of these players is widely appreciated, sometimes it’s easy to forget they have a life outside the beautiful game. Here’s a little background and some fun facts on each of Portugal’s six centurion capped players.
This summer was set to be a bumper year of sport, but the Olympic Games and the European Championships have fallen victim to the Conoravirus pandemic. The year’s most celebrated and largest football event, Euro 2020, has been postponed until the year 2021.
With tensions and anxiety levels high amongst populations around the entire planet, the question remains: will popular sporting events return in 2020? Or will they follow the lengthy re-scheduling plan of the UEFA governing bodies?
