Fernando Santos highlights the issue of why Cristiano Ronaldo came on as a substitute in the 4th World Cup final in Qatar

Experienced Portuguese trainer Fernando Santos He was appointed the new coach of the national team. Besiktasannounced this Sunday the emblematic club of Turkey’s first division.

The Istanbul team hopes the 69-year-old coach will help them qualify for the next Champions League.

He Besiktas He is currently sixth in the ranking Super The Turkish League is almost in the middle of the championship. They are 18 points away from automatic qualification for the next Champions League.

Santos faces this new challenge after a short spell as Poland coach, where he failed to directly qualify Robert Lewandowski’s side for Euro 2024.

Santos’ most glorious period as a coach came as coach of the Portugal national team (2014–2022). He was the coach who led his country to the title at the 2016 European Championships.

He has no experience in Turkish football, but does have experience playing in neighboring Greece, where he coached important clubs (AEK Athens, Panathinaikos, PAOK Thessaloniki) before becoming coach of that country (2010-2014), leading the Greek team to the round. from the 16th World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

In his history Besiktas He has become the Turkish champion 21 times and is leading this season former midfielder Liverpool player Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The Portuguese was consulted about his decision to remain on the bench Cristiano Ronaldoafter a player became angry, in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, in which Portugal having finally lost to Morocco, Santos downplayed the issue.

“It was a decision based on tactics and strategy, it was not personal. The team matters. If we had won and continued to compete at the World Cup, there wouldn’t have been so much talk about it,” concluded the new Besiktas coach.