Roberto Martínez's 'fado' in Portugal: a visit to Cristiano, AI control, an hour and a half of Portuguese daily and "a healed locker room"

When he first appeared in the Cidade do Futebol of the Portuguese Federation, Roberto Martínez barely knew how to say “bom dia” and “obrigado”. On January 9, the Spanish coach became the first non-Portuguese-speaking coach to be named coach of the Portuguese team.. During its century of life, the Portuguese national team had never put a man on its bench who did not speak the country's language.. 50 natives and 2 Brazilians, Otto Glória and Luiz Felipe Scolari, before Martínez broke all the molds of his football. Nine months after his presentation, the Spaniard is already walking around the facilities of Oeiras, a municipality next to Lisbon, as if he had been in the capital all his life. He speaks fluent Portuguese, his wife and two daughters have found stability after moving from Belgium and he has made history with a locker room that came out torn from the World Cup in Qatar.

Portugal has achieved the fastest qualification for a European Championship in its entire life. The team, which before 1996 had only participated in one World Cup and one Euro, has lived in the last decade in the constant suffering of the play-offs, needing an extra playoff to attend an international event.. He suffered it to reach the 2010 World Cup, the Euro 2012, the 2014 World Cup, the 2022 World Cup…. After the disaster in Qatar and the bad relationship of many footballers with the coach Fernando Santos, the management of the Portuguese Federation surveyed the market, ignored the prejudices on the part of society and handed the team to Roberto Martínez.

Cristiano Ronaldo's situation appeared from the first moment as the main media and internal management focus. The former Real Madrid player had been a substitute in a World Cup match and his arrival in Saudi Arabia seemed to indicate a friendly ending with the national team, but nothing could be further from the truth.. Martínez's first trip as Portugal coach was precisely to Riyadh, taking advantage of the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.

“Can he still be a starter?”

He met Cristiano and began to manage a key situation in the locker room. The reflection abandoned all prejudice due to the forward's age and focused the decisions on the sporting part: “Can he still be a starter?” The answer has been given by Cristiano himself, who is the second top scorer in the qualifying phase with 7 goals, only surpassed by the Belgian Lukaku.

Portugal has accumulated eight victories in eight games and despite the theoretical weakness of a group with Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bosnia, Iceland and Liechtenstein, it has shown the unity and play that did not appear in Qatar. It is the highest scoring European team and Martínez has now played 37 qualifying matches without losing. With Belgium he never had the prize of a title, but he achieved a historic World Cup bronze in 2018.

“The Portuguese dressing room has healed, the team arrived very frustrated from Qatar,” say sources close to the Portuguese team.. This union with the players is based on two things: the experience with Belgium and Martínez's rapid adaptation to the language and customs of the country.. During his first months, he has dedicated an hour and a half a day to teaching Portuguese, learning not only general vocabulary, but also using football to integrate more with his players..

“close from day one”

He sang the Portuguese anthem in his first match, something that surprised those who did not want a Spaniard on the bench. “They have seen him close from the first day,” they admit in the neighboring country. Speaking perfect English also helped him in the beginning, when he was not as fluent in the language.

After visiting Cristiano in Riyadh, he met with the other 25 players from Qatar. I wanted to know first-hand his feelings. He first made a list of 200 footballers who could go to the national team and then left it in a table of 52 with which he works daily through an Artificial Intelligence tool.

In his office he has several panels with the names, the minutes, the team, the tactical system in which they play, the physical condition, the position, the calendar… “From there we use AI to draw conclusions,” he explains. . “Here they are very interested in applying AI. In football, everything is measured, training sessions, matches… Then the question is to see what is done with it. The data never makes decisions, but it does provide information,” he adds.