″My next task will be outside Portugal″
“Today, fortunately, I can choose [o clube]”, underlined the former Benfica coach, who was honored this Tuesday, in Leiria, by the National Association of Football Coaches (ANTF), in its annual Forum, for his 600 games in the I Liga.
To journalists, Jorge Jesus expressed his willingness to start working “in May/June, anywhere in the world”, although he is not sure in showing that it will not be in Brazil, nor in Portugal.
However, the coach said he hopes to return to Portuguese football, “but not at the moment”.
“My next task will be outside Portugal”, he underlined.
Regarding the tribute of the ANTF career, which places him in a restricted group of three Portuguese coaches (two of them already deceased and asked) to reach 600 games in the I Liga, Jorge Jesus thanked the clubs that gave him this possibility to continue living.
“I had that facility, because I’ve been a coach since the country always started and that’s the possibility of having many games”, he said, noting that “for or four years it’s been the opposite”.
The former coach of Benfica stressed that, currently, national coaches are very solicitors outside Portugal and, “maybe, it will be difficult to make so many games” he did.
The coach also spoke of the Portuguese team, which will play in the semi-final of the 2022 World Cup qualifying play-off with Turkey, on Thursday, and which could face Italy, in case of victory over the Turks, considering that the task “will not be easy” in the face of two “strong teams”.
“We’re going to have a slightly fragile sector, without the two best central defenders in Portugal at the moment, but Fernando Santos has a lot of knowledge of his players, a lot of ability and I’m sure he’ll have his players to match”, I maintain.