Roberto Martinez Steps Down As Portugal Coach After World Cup Exit

Roberto Martínez has confirmed he is leaving his role as Portugal head coach after their FIFA World Cup campaign ended with a 1-0 defeat to Spain in the Round of 16.

The former Swansea City, Wigan Athletic and Everton manager said there was no reason to continue after failing to achieve the target he set when he took charge in 2023.

Roberto Martínez guided Portugal to the UEFA Nations League title in 2025, but their World Cup run came to an end after the narrow defeat to their Iberian rivals on Monday night, July 6.

“I came to Portugal with the objective of winning the World Cup and because I haven’t won it wouldn’t make sense to continue,” Martinez told reporters after the defeat.

“My contract ends today.”

Despite the elimination, the Spaniard insisted Portugal produced their strongest display of the tournament and felt they deserved more from the match.

“The message I want to convey is that we can be very proud,” he said. “The players played this game with heart. I think this was our best game in this FIFA World Cup. The ball hit the crossbar, there was no goal, that’s the difference in a very evenly matched game. The players deserved extra time. But we are proud. That’s football, and we need to accept that.”

Martinez also defended his side’s performance, pointing to their defensive discipline against one of the tournament favourites.

“We defended very well and showed strong aggression without the ball,” the former Belgian coach noted. “We were facing a favorite team, and we went head-to-head with them. We needed a bit more luck in some situations in the attacking third to convert opportunities. But overall, it was a game that could have gone either way. The game was very balanced, just like the previous UEFA Nations League final. We deserved to go to extra time.”

Responding to comments from Bruno Fernandes about the team’s attacking approach, Martinez admitted there was room for improvement but believed Portugal were unfortunate.

“We always want to be perfect. We had strong possession and achieved that in the first half. We wanted to get into the attacking third and create more chances, but overall, it was a battle between two teams, and the opponent also performed excellently. We were a bit unlucky. We deserved to go into extra time, and I think in that case, we might have had a different game rhythm. Because of the result, it’s a sad day.”

Explaining his late substitutions, Martinez said: “I wanted to finish the game strong. Rafael Leão is very important, he performed well against Croatia. Today we tried to use João Félix’s central attack. But we needed to protect Rafael Leão, who hadn’t played 90 minutes before. Semedo continued the work that Nuno Mendes did, and so did Bernardo Silva, Dalot…”

His departure has also attracted criticism from former England striker Chris Sutton, who questioned the Spaniard’s management of Portugal after previously overseeing Belgium’s so-called golden generation.

“His job was to try and win the World Cup and put the best team out for Portugal,” Sutton said.

“Has he done that? Absolutely not.

“It’s scandalous the way he has managed this team.

“He made a mess of Belgium when they had an opportunity of really doing great things with that golden generation; they ended up Belgian buffoons.

“Now Portugal, it was pathetic to see a manager act in that manner.”