Portugal Entrusts Roberto Martínez and Immortalizes Cristiano

First came the banks and oil companies, followed by construction firms. Now, tech companies, energy firms, and logistics and distribution sectors are also here. About 3,000 Spanish-capital companies operate in Portugal, where a few years ago the Portuguese edition of the magazine Focus issued a kind of alert. “Spaniards are taking over everything,” it headlined on the cover. “What they couldn’t achieve through military means, they now accomplish economically. We shop at El Corte Inglés, wear Zara, buy glasses at Multiópticas, book vacations with Halcón… and we keep our savings in their banks,” it explained inside. Football was another matter—until Roberto Martínez Montoliu (Balaguer, Lleida, 1973) arrived, the third foreign coach to lead the team after Otto Gloria and Luiz Felipe Scolari, a Spaniard who has spent more than half his life abroad, one of those three amigos who unexpectedly joined Wigan to play in the English third division in 1995.

Having three guys from Zaragoza’s youth team arrive at English football thirty years ago was like a trip to the Moon. So don’t tell Martínez about impossible challenges; he forged a career in the Isles, first as a player and then, especially, on the benches. “The place of birth was never relevant,” concluded Fernando Gomes, the president who hired him in January 2023 on a contract until June 2028. Today he is under the orders of Pedro Proença, that referee who officiated the Euro final thirteen years ago between Spain and Italy and now leads Portuguese football. Four days ago, he couldn’t guarantee the coach’s continued position, but after lifting the Nations League trophy, he confirmed that Martínez would stay at least until the World Cup. “We didn’t sign that contract, but we are satisfied with Roberto’s work.”

Martínez took the position after the Qatar elimination, a World Cup experience that ended in the quarter-finals against Morocco with Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench. “I’ve been a coach for many years (from 2007 to 2016, I managed Swansea, Wigan, and Everton, with seven campaigns in the Premier), over a hundred matches as a selector (having spent seven years in Belgium), and I know the most important thing is the locker room and what we believe in,” he stated this Sunday in Munich when asked about the keys to victory after overcoming Germany and Spain. “Outside there’s noise, but that’s part of football. Critics often have an agenda,” he explained.

The two and a half years of Martínez in Portugal are those of a peacemaker. “He’s not Portuguese, but he speaks Portuguese,” Cristiano defines him. The coach knew he had to be close to the star, so a few days after signing his contract, he met with him in Arabia. And he made him a praetorian. Or perhaps Martínez is the praetorian regarding CR. “Upon meeting Cristiano, I found a player who was willing to keep giving everything for the national team. I saw he was a committed person who serves the team, and I was surprised by his humility,” he says. The fact is they formed a team and, around them, built a shield that has protected the locker room from criticism.

Because this winning Portugal rises after fierce reproaches despite the results supporting the work done. Qualification for the Euro was achieved after a full ten victories in ten matches, the elimination came against France in the quarters and by penalties. And the journey to winning the Nations League knew only two setbacks, a draw in Scotland and a narrow defeat in the first leg of the quarters in Denmark, which was corrected in the return match after extra time.

Martínez is the Portuguese manager with the highest win percentage in history, the only one above 70%, and he has the best goals-per-game ratio, a detail aided by having crossed in qualifying groups with Liechtenstein or Luxembourg. Fortunate or smart, perhaps both at once, no one questions Roberto Martínez in Portugal at least today. “What they did to him isn’t fair. He is the ideal coach for this team. We must respect him,” described Cristiano Ronaldo after giving him a hug on the Munich pitch. In the end, the path to success is as thin as the penalties that put everything in doubt after falling to France in the Euro, which now reinforce the plan to go for the World Cup after overcoming Spain.