Fernando Santos quits as Portugal coach; Jose Mourinho tipped as successor

Fernando Santos

Fernando Santos quit as coach of Portugal on Thursday following the team's shock World Cup quarter-final loss to Morocco with colourful and controversial Jose Mourinho named as a leading candidate to take over.

The Portuguese football federation (FPF) said in a statement that an agreement was reached with the 68-year-old Santos "to end the journey of great success that began in September 2014."

The FPF added that it "will now launch the process to choose the next national coach."

Daily sports newspaper Record claims that Mourinho is the federation's number one target to take over ahead of qualifying for Euro 2024. They would even reportedly entertain a deal which would see Mourinho take charge of the national team on an interim basis to allow him to see out the season with club side Roma in Italy.

Asked about the national team job by journalists late on Thursday afternoon when he arrived in southern Portugal for a training camp with Roma, Mourinho made no comment.

Qualifying for Euro 2024 gets underway in March. Portuguese coaches Rui Jorge (under-21s), Abel Ferreira (Palmeiras), Paulo Fonseca (Lille), Rui Vitoria (Egypt) and Jorge Jesus (Fenerbahce) are also among the potential candidates cited by local media.

Also Read: No Spain, but LaLiga well represented in FIFA World Cup final

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever