Nine years ago, European Champion, and now sacked three times in two years

Portugal national football team won one major trophy in its history - the 2016 European Championship. Just like the leader of that generation Cristiano Ronaldo, the scorer of the winner in the final against France, Eder, and other significant players, such as Nani, Joao Moutinho, Pepe, Ricardo Quaresma, among others, that team's manager, Fernando Santos, will be remembered forever in this Western European country and football almanacs.

Three years later, the Navigators and the then-65-year-old tactician won the UEFA Nations League, cementing his place on the pedestal of Portuguese football as the most iconic national team head coach ever.

Santos: Cristiano was like a son to me, we haven't been talking for 11 months...

In December 2022, the experienced strategist and Portugal parted ways, and ever since, Santos has been unable to catch a break. Moreover, his career went as south as it gets.

Just a month after leaving the Navigators' bench, he became Poland boss, but his spell with this team lasted only eight months. He led the Eagles in six games and won all three matches at home, against Albania, Germany, and Faroe Islands. However, his abysmal road record and defeats to Czech Republic, Moldova, and Albania were the last straw, and Santos was sacked.

Ronaldo's former boss gets sacked after just six games with Poland

He took a break until January, when he became Besiktas manager. In 16 games with the Turkish side, he recorded just seven wins and was fired already in April.

Yet, even that failure didn't discourage teams from hiring him, as he'd been unemployed for only two months, when he sat on Azerbaijan's bench.

Fifteen months and eleven matches later, Santos is jobless again! And it's as deserved as it gets. Namely, under his lead, the Team from the Land of Fire failed to record a single win, avoiding defeat only twice, against Estonia and Latvia!

Still, the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) decided to keep him and begin the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with him on the bench. Nevertheless, already in the first round, Azerbaijan were thrashed 5-0 by Iceland on the road, and that was "the straw that broke the camel's back."

Now, it won't be surprising if Santos found another job soon, as his reputation is still decent, but the impression that his career is plummeting extremely fast will remain either way.