Coaching Career
Santos earned a bacharelato degree as an electrical and telecommunications engineer, awarded in 1977 by the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa. After a career change as a technician, he returned to football in 1987, taking over at former club Estoril-Praia. Stayed for seven years, guiding them to two promotions and the Portuguese top flight. In Estoril, where he remained until 1994, the club climbed up two categories and reached Portugal's top football division.
In 1994, he took over Estrela da Amadora, and in 1998, he moved to FC Porto, winning the national championship and the Portuguese SuperCup in his first season. He was the last of the coaches to win in Porto's run of five consecutive championships, the longest ever in Portuguese club history. For that, he is known as "the engineer of the penta." Next season, Porto missed the sixth title in the last round to Sporting Clube de Portugal, but won the Portuguese Cup and Super Cup, also reaching the UEFA Champions League quarter–finals. According FIFA in 2000, he was ranked ninth best manager in the world.
In 2001, Santos took over AEK Athens, leading the club to the conquest of Greek Football Cup, and losing the championship to Olympiacos due to goal average. His next step was Panathinaikos, then taking over the reins of hometown Sporting Clube de Portugal for 2003–04. The next season, he returned to AEK Athens and the team, based on young players, reached the Greek Cup semi-finals and finished third (only three points behind the first) in the league.
On 20 May 2006, it was announced that Santos would coach Benfica for the 2006–07 season. That season, Benfica finished third, missing the opportunity to be in the Champions League directly, giving just one point to the second place and two to the eventual winners Porto. In the following season, he spent the whole pre-season with Benfica, in which he would lose the services of team captain and top goalscorer Simão, who was transferred to Spanish team Atlético Madrid. Shortly after, Santos was sacked by Benfica's board on 20 August 2007, after a draw against Leixões in the first match of 2007–08. He was replaced by Spanish coach and former Benfica manager José Antonio Camacho.
In September 2007, Santos returned to Greece, signing a three-year contract for PAOK in the city of Thessaloniki. There, joining forces with team chairman and captain of the Golden Euro 2004 Team, Thodoris Zagorakis, he contributed in the so-called "Three Year Plan" for the resurgence of PAOK. Santos is known for his allegoric parabola during his first season in Toumba which illustrated the team and supporters' mentality in 2007, summarized as: "Should we keep fooling ourselves, mistaking sardines for lobsters? I think it's time to change the plate". Effectively fulfilling his promise, he led PAOK to the 2nd position of the Greek Super-League in 2009–2010 after giving hell to all other competitors for the title. During a press conference on 19 May 2010 the PAOK F.C. coach announced his intention to leave the historical Greek club, despite his chance to lead the team in the 2010–2011 Champions' League Tournament.
On 1 July 2010, Santos was named the new coach of Greece by the Hellenic Football Federation for the next two years. After long negotiations with the Greek Football Federation, it was decided that Santos was the ideal replacement of Greece's former head coach Otto Rehhagel. Santos managed to lead the Greek team in the quarter finals of Euro 2012.
Read more about this topic: Fernando Santos (Portuguese Footballer)
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—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)