After parting ways with Portugal, Santos had taken over as head coach for Poland eight months ago. (Image: AFP)
Fernando Santos has been sacked by the Polish FA after only taking the reins eight months ago. He was sacked due to Poland’s struggle in making through the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
Polish Football Federation announced on Wednesday that they fired their national team coach, Fernando Santos just eight months into his tenure as the team were struggling to qualify for the Euro 2024 finals.
Poland lost 2-0 to Albania at the weekend to leave them fourth in Euro 2024 qualifying Group E with only the top two guaranteed to play in the finals.
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“The Polish football federation announces that Fernando Santos is no longer national coach as of September 13,” read a statement.
Santos left his job as coach of his native Portugal after 10 years at the helm in December and took over the Poland position in January. He managed to help Portugal win the Euros in 2016, making it the nation’s first major honour by defeating France in the finals. He also managed to help Portugal win the inaugural edition of the UEFA Nations League in which they defeated the Netherlands in the finals.
Ever since then, Santos has failed to replicate the winning momentum for the Portuguese side which faded into the side’s World Cup 2022 campaign. Portugal managed to top the group despite their defeat to South Korea. They managed to score 6 goals against Switzerland after the controversial dropping of the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo from the side for the new transfer for PSG, Goncalo Ramos. Ramos managed to score a hat-trick in the fixture against Switzerland. But when it came to the quarter-finals against Morocco, the side bottled the game and Santos was under even more scrutiny for not starting Cristiano Ronaldo who is also the world’s highest international goal-scorer. He decided to part ways with Portugal and the side is now managed by former Belgium boss, Roberto Martinez.
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The 68-year-old also managed the Greece national team from 2010-2014.
Santos was under major scrutiny for failing to utilize the star-studded Portuguese side which consisted of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Rafael Leao, Joao Felix, Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias and many more stars from the major European Leagues.