When Cristiano Ronaldo welcomed Benfica’s precocious attacking midfield player João Neves to the Portugal camp for the first time in October, the legend chatted to the newcomer and eventually asked, “When were you born?”
“2004,” Neves replied.
“That was my first tournament!” Ronaldo told him, laughing.
The exchange reflects the age range in the Portugal squad, Neves’s promise, Ronaldo’s longevity at 38, and also their togetherness. As the new year dawns and the countdown quickens towards the European Championship finals, Roberto Martínez’s Portugal are many observers’ pick to progress far in Germany.
Under Martínez, who took over after their dismal World Cup in Qatar, Portugal won all ten qualifiers, scoring 36 times and conceding just two goals. During his recent visit to England to check on players and fulfil assorted broadcast assignments, the 50-year-old took time out for a coffee and a chance to voice his admiration for Gareth Southgate, how England have acquired a winning mindset, his time with Belgium, the way to bring the best out of Romelu Lukaku and his belief in Sean Dyche at their old club, Everton.
The night before we meet, Martínez had spoken to his former Everton player Ross Barkley on the field at Kenilworth Road after Luton Town’s game with Arsenal. “It was beautiful to see Ross,” Martínez says. “I genuinely felt proud watching his performance. [He’s] someone I haven’t seen since 2016 but what stays is that feeling of seeing someone that you care about. Ross can go and have big moments with England and play and score a goal like last night [and] we feel connected. It’s natural for me to care for people.”
This gets to the heart of Martínez. People skills have always been a part of the engaging Spaniard’s character and management. “You need to know the human being before you can coach the player,” Martínez says. He draws on his experience of moving as a young player to Wigan Athletic in 1995. “It wasn’t easy to be a Spanish player in the lower leagues, to understand the British dressing-room culture.” The banter, the drinking, the pies — the norm at the time.
“The way I coped with the difficulties was [by thinking] ‘One day if I’m a manager I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone,’ ” he says. “That’s become more important because now each dressing-room has on average between 12 and 15 nationalities. That diversity is huge.”
Yet he settled at Wigan and excelled. “I am curious. I live my life that you treasure every moment. I tell my two girls [Luella and Safiana] just to be curious in life.” His career and curiosity took him to Motherwell, where he met Beth Thompson, now his wife, then Walsall, Swansea City and Chester City, before beginning the first of 534 games as a manager at Swansea, then Wigan, Everton, Belgium and now Portugal.
“I’ve learnt that home is not a place any more for me,” he says. “Home is where the passion is and the passion changes, we have different projects and we decided as a family we would always do that together. Let’s grow together with the experiences. My wife is very Scottish, very patriotic. I’m very, very Spanish. The two girls were born in England in the northwest, and the older one feels very Belgian. She spent six years there. They’re now learning Portuguese.”
He admires the exploratory nature of his Portuguese players: “Portuguese travel well, they speak languages, fit in really well in the dressing-room. They’ve got this natural knack of engaging. Spanish people are more just wanting to be settled, wanting to be at home. The Portuguese are more adventurous.”
He extols the virtues of Portuguese players well known to Premier League audiences, such as João Palhinha, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva, as well as Ronaldo, and this stellar cast are why Portugal are among the favourites for Euro 2024. “We should be comfortable with the expectations but that’s far from being favourites,” Martínez says. “The small details between winning and losing in a big tournament are minimal.
“People talk about Spain as one of the great winners, in 2010, and then you analyse it and Óscar Cardozo missed the penalty for Paraguay [in the quarter-final] and in the final Arjen Robben has a one-v-one with [Iker] Casillas [who saved it].
“So there are no favourites really. There are groups of teams expected to fight for the title. We’re part of that group with England, Germany, France, Spain, even Italy when they arrive. It doesn’t matter how Italy get into a tournament — they are competitive.”
Portugal certainly will be. Martínez dismisses concerns that Ronaldo and Rúben Neves playing in the less-than-competitive Saudi Pro League will hinder them. “This is a league that’s got the potential to become a top-six league very, very soon,” Martínez counters, “because they’re setting the structure right, they’ve got a lot of expertise behind the league and the clubs [are] bringing the best players.
“Cristiano, first and foremost, is happy. What shocked me was how fresh he is with his approach in football: someone of 38 [years old] comes to training and wants to win every exercise, win every race and is the last one leaving.”
Still Champions League level, I ask? “Totally,” Martínez replies. “He’s incredible with his capacity to really reinvent himself. This is not the player we saw in the first spell at Manchester United, he’s not a wide player. Now he’s a finisher, someone that understands quality of movement in the box and is an incredible threat. And experienced.”
It is why Ronaldo’s welcome to João Neves was so important. “He always tries to give young players a lot of help. Nobody can help a young player better than a team-mate that’s got more than 200 games for the national team. João Neves is becoming the biggest hope for Benfica. I think the young players are in awe of Cristiano but when they start working with him it’s respect and then it’s just very competitive. The generation of Cristiano and [the defender] Pepe, 40, set the standards of how the work should be done for a young player. It’s gold.
“Cristiano is obsessed about being the best, obsessed about winning, and that’s what a coach wants. He’s obsessed about what can he do to get himself ready to help the team. He goes about finding every small detail to allow his body to be at its best, from nutrition to pre-work before training, after training, the way he looks after the muscles. He’s always talking to anyone with expertise around the group like doctors to find out more that can make him even better.”
Last month, as Portugal concluded qualifying, Ronaldo played 67 minutes against Liechtenstein and then the full 90 against Iceland. “There are no other 38-year-olds that can give you the level that he gives physically in two international games within a space of three days,” Martínez says.
But how long can he maintain it? “Cristiano will finish the day he decides that his body cannot give him what he wants on the pitch. At the moment he still wants to win everything.”
Our talk turns to the present United captain, Bruno Fernandes: demanding, arguing, talented. “Bruno’s a perfectionist,” Martínez says. “The emotions are always emotions for the right reasons. He cares about United. He cares about every aspect of trying to win a game. To be United captain now is not easy. Because it’s United and that demands wins and when you don’t [win] it’s difficult. He can cope with that with ease. He’ll just get up and try to help the others. You have to be accountable. That’s what you see with Bruno. He’s not someone that is going to accept defeat and hide away and let things go. He would stand up and fight.
“He’s a really intelligent player, thinking constantly of where there is space, and that’s why you see such a great combination in the international team with Bernardo Silva. Bernardo’s probably not appreciated as he should be by the neutral fan. But he is properly appreciated by people that work with him. He does the things that win you tournaments that the fans don’t see.”
Like? “Like deciding to sprint 50 yards to defend the back post because the team is out of position, to make you compact. The normal fan wouldn’t see that, wouldn’t appreciate that. He’s not receiving the credit he deserves. Pep [Guardiola] always needs thinkers on the pitch and Bernardo epitomises that.”
Our stroll through the Portugal teamsheet brings us to Fulham’s central midfield. “What I love about Palhinha is his journey to become a professional footballer,” Martínez says of a player who kept being sent on loan by Sporting. “Palhinha was three times told he wasn’t good enough. Now we all saw he was very close to signing for Bayern Munich, which is a club that is expected to win everything.
“His journey has made him such a committed character, a true genuine football player. He gives the balance in our team. That stability and that strength of character to be always at the right place at the right time — João Palhinha gives us that.”
Palhinha was on the field at Craven Cottage in January when João Félix made his Chelsea debut on loan from Atletico Madrid and was promptly sent off. Martínez admires how the attacker, now on loan at Barcelona, learnt from his spell in England. “João’s become a more consistent, more complete footballer. The British game gave him that. The period in the Premier League matured him.
“The physicality of the Premier League pushed him to the level he has now. He has this incredible capacity for appreciating space. A final third player who can play inside and outside is quite rare. Now he’s probably in the best moment of his career.”
On we went, admiring more talent, now on to another 24-year-old attacker, albeit blessed with different skills. “It’s beautiful to have Rafael Leão, to have ‘raw’ players,” Martínez says of the AC Milan winger. “He is the player who if we played in the park he will go past 11 players and finish. He brings you the romanticism of football. He’s built to take players on, use big spaces.
“What I enjoyed with Rafael is that he wins Serie A [in 2022] and became the main reference for AC Milan. It’s very difficult how you react after winning a title like that and he shows he’s still hungry. He took it to the next level. It’s not an easy club for a young player. He’s still developing. He’s kept true to his real strengths, his individual talent. The level of responsibility he showed after winning Serie A has given him a big role now with the national team.”
If Portugal and England both win their Euro 2024 groups, they still could not meet until the July 14 final in Berlin. Martínez understands why Southgate’s side are among the favourites. “England have a chance, absolutely. What’s been really interesting with England is how flexible they’ve been under Gareth. I played against him in 2018 [in the group stage and third-place match, both won by Belgium, and he went from] a back five or back three into a back four in 2020 in the Euros. He’s constantly finding ways.”
He respects their togetherness. “What’s clear is that this England team since Gareth has been in charge is a very, very close group. They’re very competitive. One of the criticisms in the past is when you were playing against England that they were not a competitive unit. That’s changed completely. Gareth has achieved that.
“They want to play for each other, they want to win the tournament. I was in Georgia watching the under-21s tournament where England won [the Euros in July]. There’s been a big transformation with England teams knowing how to win.”
He knows Southgate well and likes him as man and manager. “He is the typical gentleman of English football. He represents the English FA, and a huge history in the game, and the English team extremely well and then he’s got this desire to do whatever it takes to win. Gareth’s such a committed England manager.
“It’s a wonderful combination of someone very respected because he’s always respectful but then he’s got this modern way of being tactically flexible. He’s a difficult manager to play against.”
Yet he outwitted Southgate twice in Russia, though Belgium’s “golden generation” have arguably underachieved under Martínez. “Belgium? No regrets. You can never regret anything when what was stated as [a job for] two years ends up seven years and three major tournaments, undefeated in all the qualifying games, four years No 1 in the world.”
Belgium finished behind Morocco and Croatia in their group in Qatar. “We had four points, didn’t qualify and it felt a big disappointment. You have to really look at yourself, try to improve and treasure the great memories.”
He had Lukaku, a centre forward with remarkable goalscoring stats but not always the respect or trophies his talent deserves. “I met Romelu when he was 19 [20, initially on loan at Everton] and then we paid the record transfer at Everton for him [£28 million at the time] and see him grow very closely. Then he’s at the national team [and] he became a leader and a captain.”
Martínez contends that Lukaku has not always been used properly. “The problem with Romelu is sometimes at different clubs he’s been asked to do things that go beyond being a goalscorer, trying to link up play, try to win the first ball. He’s an out-and-out goalscorer. That’s him at his best. He was a goalscorer at 16. His power and pace will get him in goalscoring positions, and he never stopped working to become a better finisher. In goalscoring terms, he’s phenomenal.”
Lukaku, now 30 and on loan at Roma from Chelsea, has scored 338 times in 634 appearances for clubs and country. “His stats in front of goal!” Martínez marvels, before explaining why. “Romelu is someone who constantly was about repetition, repetition, repetition in getting those positions and being a clinical finisher, totally focused on what he was good at.”
As for their old club, Martínez was shocked by Everton’s ten-point punishment for breaching Premier League profit and sustainability rules. “Yes, but I’m a positive person as well,” he says. “If that happened last season or two seasons ago it would have been relegation. Now Sean Dyche showed that the team is going to stay up. It would be a pivotal moment in the history of the club to overcome this penalty together as a football club and move to a new stadium. You would see Everton go up to a different new level.”
He’s always positive. As Martínez heads into 2024, Portugal’s manager himself has much to be positive about.
