Portugal has become, in recent years, a barn of soccer technicians with university diploma, fluent English and guaranteed market in major European leagues. With humble origin, rugged trajectory and an early career by chance, Jorge Jesus is not part of this select club.
However, it achieved international respect in victorious passages by Flamengo, Benfica and Al Hilal, until the most quoted name to replace Dorival Júnior in the Brazilian National Team.
“Jesus is a very intense coach with players, with a lot of strategic and tactical intuition,” describes António Veloso, creator of a high performance soccer course at the University of Lisbon, where several of the most victorious Portuguese coaches passed.
“This intensity can lead their commanders to saturation. The fact that he spends less time with players in a selection, however, may be an advantage,” he adds.
The Portuguese coach was born in 1954 in Amadora, lower middle class municipality of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. He was a midfielder with no highlight, with tickets in small clubs of Portugal. At 35, he was the captain of the modest Almancilense of the third division. In a game against the equally modest blackberry, he was screaming so much with his companions that a leader of the opposing team invited him to be a coach. Jesus accepted and took the blackberry to the second division.
The coach recalled the episode in 2013 when, at the height of a glorious period at Benfica, he was invited to give a talk at the Noble Hall of the Faculty of Human Motricity of the University of Lisbon. Between one anecdote and another, in the face of a crowded audience, he exposed what he considers the five pillars of his work: creativity, knowing how to operationalize ideas, leadership, organization and passion.
In Portugal, the bridge between football and gym was built by legendary coach Carlos Queiroz, who applied his theses in the Portuguese team and Real Madrid. Also passed by the University of Lisbon José Mourinho, the most victorious Portuguese coach of all time, sporting in the curriculum Two Champions League, Porto and Inter Milan, and three English championships for Chelsea. And today’s rising star Rubem Amorim, who runs millionaire Manchester United.
Unlike Queiroz, Mourinho and Amorim, Jesus never had the opportunity to drive a club in one of the richest alloys in the world – the English, the Spanish, the German and the Italian. He also remained far from the gym. He only did the basic training course of the Portuguese Football Federation Technician, required for those who want to practice the profession.
According to him, his most learning moment took place at a one -month internship in Barcelona, when he can live with legendary Johan Cruyff. Jesus always quotes the Dutch idol in his lectures and lectures.
Like Cruyff – and unlike Tite and Dorival Júnior, the latest technicians of the Brazilian National Team – Jesus likes teams who play in a compact, intense and extremely offensive way. “Cruyff has taught me that it is better to earn from 5 to 4 than from 1 to 0,” he often states in interviews. In the best Dutch style, their teams like to maintain control of the ball, the defense plays advanced and the attackers score by pressure. The “olé” that Brazil took in the monumental de Nuñez-that the ball went through the feet of the eleven players of Argentina, in 34 touches that resulted in the anthological goal of Enzo Fernández-perhaps did not happen with Jesus shouting and gesturing from the bench.
The Portuguese coach has been directing Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal since July 2023. His two -year contract expires next June. According to journalist Fabrizio Romano, a reference in business related to European football, Jesus nods with the possibility of leaving May 3, after the Asian Champions League final – but he needs to negotiate with the Saudi club, which pays him a monthly wage of 1 million euros, or $ 6 million.
In his second spell at Al Hilal – the first was between 2018 and 2019 – the “Mister”, as Portuguese coaches like to be called, hit a record and caused a controversy. Last year, Al Hilal joined the Guinness Book with a 34thial game of 34 games, something never seen in professional football.
The controversy earlier this year involved Neymar. Jesus decided not to enroll the player in the Saudi championship claiming that, back of a serious bruise, Neymar could not play with the intensity that the coach demands. The Brazilian ended up terminating his contract with Al Hilal and returned to Santos. The two will probably have to work together if Jesus will train the Brazilian team.
Coach and player do not talk publicly about it, but in interviews Jesus always praises Neymar’s talent.
Jesus’ demand and intensity often bring rewards on the field. He is the most victorious coach in Benfica’s history. He won ten titles in his six -year time through the club, between 2009 and 2015, surpassing the previous record of Brazilian Oto Gloria. More than for the national championships – they were three, in 2010, 2014 and 2015 – Jesus is remembered for putting Benfica in two Europa League decisions, the second most important tournament on the continent.
Lisbon’s “glorious” did not win a continental tournament since the two-time 61-62 championship, when he was directed by Béla Guttman. After defeating Barcelona and Real Madrid in two anthological finals, the Hungarian coach asked for an increase and received a negative. As he left the club, he worked a plague: Benfica would never be champion in a continental tournament.
Jesus was the one who was closer to breaking writing. In 2013, the incarnates of Lisbon lost to the powerful Chelsea-who bears one of the 10 largest budgets in world football-with a goal in the additions. In 2014, he was defeated by Sevilla on penalties.
The Portuguese coach only got a continental title in 2019, winning Libertadores de America from Flamengo-breaking a fast that has been coming since 1981. Faithful to the coach’s offensive style, Gávea’s red-black scored 22 goals in 12 games.
In Portugal, the country of technicians with academic education, Jesus is criticized for running over Portuguese in interviews. On the other side of the ocean, her informal style, with typically Lusitanian shots, fell better. “I like to put all the meat in the roast at once,” he said once, when asked which tournament was going to prioritize in the staple calendar of Brazilian football.
Contrary to what happened in the 2014 and 2018 Cups, Brazil now has an excellent generation of players spread throughout the richest clubs in the world. With several names of this new batch – Vinicius Junior, Raphinha, Rodrygo and Alisson, as well as Neymar – Tite failed to surrender the expected in 2022.
With effects of effect, exhausting training and inspiration in the 1974 Netherlands, the Portuguese coach wants to reach something that seems easy, but Brazilian technicians have not been able to: make a cousin of cousin-dona sounds tuned.
