He benched Cristiano Ronaldo at the 2022 World Cup . Even though Portugal won that game 6-1 against Switzerland, with many considering it the dawn of a new era, they were dumped out by Morocco in the quarter-finals. Four years ago, Fernando Santos did what was then considered unthinkable. Santos left his post after the tournament.
The 72-year-old had managed Ronaldo before, at Al-Nassr, where he helped the club win the Saudi Pro League in May 2026, ending a seven-year wait and handing Ronaldo his first league title in Saudi Arabia. The suspicion grew when Jesus admitted that Ronaldo, who had announced that the 2026 World Cup would be his last, triggering rumours that his career is about to end, remained in his plans. He said it in 2014, in an interview with the newspaper Sol, when he was the boss at Benfica. Playing for Almancilense in 1989, he changed the course of a game in which his side was trailing 0-3 at half-time, and Almancilense went on to draw. He eventually rose to prominence after guiding Belenenses to their first-ever Portuguese Cup final and to UEFA Cup qualification in 2006-07. But his most significant spell came at Benfica, between 2009 and 2015, where he won three Portuguese league titles. He won both the Brazilian league and the Copa Libertadores, and took Liverpool to extra time in the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup final. Ronaldo won his first Saudi league under him in a season in which he scored 28 goals in 30 matches.
By the time he left, he had also won a Portuguese Cup and five League Cups. When Jorge Jesus arrived next, many saw it as an extension of the Martínez approach. That came less than two months before his official appointment as Portugal coach. But those who know Jesus and followed his days as a coach in European leagues know that this was not a fight he picked, nor a move made to prove a point. He went by his principle: “Inside a club, there is only one person who gives me orders: the president. No one else. I don’t allow it. That is not a recent statement. Coaching happened to him by accident. Jesus was the hero of the day, and he left the venue with a job offer in hand. After the game, the president of Amora, who was also a local butcher, convinced him to take over as coach of his side. Two days later, he was running training. He did not just leave Benfica as an icon; he believed himself to be “the best coach in the world. Jesus then ventured overseas, joining Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal, before handing Brazilian club Flamengo one of their most glorious eras. He returned to Benfica for a second spell, albeit without success, and then went back to Al-Hilal to hand them the Saudi league trophy, before emulating the feat at Al Nassr.
