Tiago Fernandes nearly promoted his former club Torreense to Portugal’s top division
Tiago Fernandes will take over as head coach of Portimonense Futebol SAD for the 2025/26 season, the club confirmed this Sunday.
The 43-year-old joins the Algarve-based side from Torreense, a fellow Segunda Liga (second division) club he nearly led to promotion last season.
Fernandes is set to be officially presented on Tuesday at 3.30pm in a press conference at Municipal Stadium of Portimão.
Portimonense, who finished 15th in last season’s Liga Portugal 2 under the leadership of Ricardo Pessoa, will be hoping to improve under Fernandes, who brings with him a mix of top-flight and second-division experience. In 2024/25, he led Torreense to a fifth-place finish, recording 15 wins, 9 draws and 10 defeats in 34 matches.
“This is a club I’ve always dreamed of coaching,” Fernandes said earlier this month in an interview with Portuguese sports newspaper A Bola. “Portimão is like a second home for me. My family’s had a house there for 45 something years, and I’ve been going there since I was a kid. There’s a lot of mutual will for this to happen, and everything is on track.”
Fernandes began his coaching career as an assistant at Vitória de Setúbal in 2009 before joining Sporting CP’s youth setup, where he worked with teams ranging from under-14 to under-23. He later managed Leixões, Estoril, and Chaves, the latter two in Portugal’s top-tier Primeira Liga during the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons.
Asked whether his goal was to return Portimonense to Portugal’s top division, Fernandes remained cautious: “My ambition as a coach is to be at a club where people want to help me do a good job, that is important. Portimonense did not have a very good season and we have to improve. The most important thing is to assemble a squad that is capable of remaining competitive in Liga 2, which is very difficult. It is a very competitive championship.”
“Portimonense should always aim to get back to the top division,” he said, recognising, however, that many other teams have the same goal. Teams that been relegated, like Chaves, Farense, or Vizela, are hungry to return, he said, adding that the gap between mid-table Primeira Liga teams and the top sides in Liga 2 isn’t that wide.
Meanwhile, Farense, the other Algarve-based side in Portugal’s second division, has already announced Jorge Silas as its new head coach.
