SANTOS IMPRESSES

Fernando Santos has achieved a lot of success during his four years as the national team manager of Greece, but he has revealed his decision to step down from the post after the end of the World Cup 2014. Greece qualified for this major tournament and will be playing alongside Colombia, Ivory Coast, and Japan in the group stages. Hence, there is a very good possibility that the nation will be in the knockout stages of the tournament, which in itself will be considered as a major achievement. Greece did extremely well at the recent Euro 2012 when they reached the quarter-finals.

This led to a lot of praise for Santos, who is now prepared to give way for new managers to take this Greece team to greater heights. The Euro 2004 champions will now be unveiling a new manager, whose identity will be learnt after the tournament. It is highly likely that the Greek FA will appoint a successor before the qualification campaign for Euro 2016 begins in September. Santos has been in charge of the national team since 2010 and his major achievement has been getting the nation to quarter-finals of the Euro 2012.

It is understood that the Greek FA did offer him a contract extension, but he has turned down.

“I’ve just informed the members of EPO administrative council that Fernando Santos will end his tenure at the helm of the Greek national team after the World Cup finals. It is obvious that, despite his decision not to extend his contract, we have the highest regard for Mr Santos and won’t deviate from our efforts to achieve our common goals in the upcoming World Cup. My priority now is to provide the ideal solution for the national coach position,” said Santos in a recent statement.

Greece lost the recent friendly 2-0 to Korea Republic.