THE BALL – Jesus reaches 600 games: «Today I choose the clubs» (Benfica)

It was August 20, 1995 when, at the Estádio dr. Machado de Matos, in Felgueiras, against Chaves de Vítor Urbano (2-2), Jorge Jesus was making his debut as a coach in the main division of Portuguese football.

Tomorrow, at Belenenses SAD-Benfica, more than 26 years later, JJ will complete his 600 game in the League. At the beginning of that season, Carlos Queiroz was at Sporting, Artur Jorge at Benfica, Bobby Robson at FC Porto, Manuel José at Boavista, Manuel Cajuda at SC Braga, João Alves at Belenenses, Vítor Manuel at UD Leiria and Fernando Santos at Estrela da Amadora , for example.

If Jorge Jesus is superstitious, the best thing is to pay even more attention to tomorrow’s game at Restelo, as he only won once when he celebrated a number of round games in the League: he drew at 1 (Felgueiras-Chaves, 2-2), in 100 (Estrela da Amadora-SC Braga, 3-3) and in the 400 (Benfica-Arouca, 2-2), lost in the 300 (Nacional-Benfica, 2-1) and in the 500 (Sporting-SC Braga, 0-1 ) and only won in the 200 (Paços de Ferreira-Belenenses, 0-2). With Belenenses SAD, the 600 arrived.

In the report that A BOLA presents today, Jorge Jesus assures that he is getting younger, “because the passion for football is the same” and that he just wants to be healthy to be training “up to 75 years old”. 14 years ago, when he was still at Belenenses, the coach said, in an interview with A BOLA: “I am not a good speaker, but I am a professor of football.”

Tomorrow Jesus becomes the third coach to reach 600 games in the main competition of Portuguese football. Only Fernando Vaz and Manuel Oliveira have more. The Benfica coach says that, over the years, he doesn’t make so many plans, but he still has many goals to accomplish. And he goes even further: «Now it’s up to me to choose the clubs I want to coach, it’s not the clubs that choose me. Portugal is not my only market.”

Read the entire interview in the print edition or digital of THE BALL.

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