From Riopele to the Portuguese national team: the story of Jorge Jesus

Almost five decades before taking charge of the Portuguese national team, Jorge Jesus, one of Portugal’s most renowned football coaches, wore the Riopele jersey during one of the most significant moments in the club’s history: its promotion to the First Division in the 1977/78 season.

At the time, Grupo Desportivo Riopele was much more than a football club. Founded at the initiative of the company’s management and workers, it was an integral part of Famalicão’s industrial community. Some of the players combined training and matches with their jobs at the company, at a time when professional football and working life were far more closely intertwined than they are today.

It was in this context that a young Jorge Jesus took his first steps in a career that would eventually lead him to the biggest stages of Portuguese and international football.

Almost 50 years later, his journey has brought him back to the heart of Portuguese football, this time as national team head coach — his first role leading a national side.