Former Greece coach Santos replaces Bento as Portugal manager

Former Greece coach Santos replaces Bento as Portugal manager

Published Sep. 23, 2014 7:18 a.m. ET

Fernando Santos has been appointed the new head coach of Portugal.

The 59-year-old replaces Paulo Bento, who stepped down from the role 12 days ago following an embarrassing 1-0 home defeat to Albania in their opening Euro 2016 qualifier.

A statement on www.fpf.pt read: "Fernando Santos, 59, is the new national team coach.

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"Santos, the former head coach of Greece, will be presented to the media at 1230 on Wednesday at the headquarters of the Portuguese Football Federation."

Lisbon-born Santos was in charge of the Greek national team for four years, leading them to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 and the last 16 of this year's World Cup.

He left his post the day after they were knocked out of the World Cup by Costa Rica, having decided before the tournament not to renew his contract.

Santos has previously had spells with Portuguese clubs Estoril, Porto, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica in his homeland as well as AEK Athens, Panathinaikos and PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece.

He led Porto to the league title in the 1998/99 season, as well as two Portuguese Cups. Santos also won the Greek Cup with AEK in 2002.

Portugal are next in action on October 11 when they play a friendly against France in Paris, and then three days later they are away to Denmark in their second Euro 2016 qualifier

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