Jorge Jesus Biography

Jorge Jesus, born 24 July 1954 in Amadora, Portugal, is a Portuguese coach and former footballer who used to play as a midfielder. He is currently in charge of Benfica. He has been twice named one of the 10 best club coaches in the world by IFFHS. In 1973, he started his playing career at Sporting, then played for twelve other clubs over the course of seventeen years, which included nine seasons in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.

His debut as a coach came in 1990 with Amora, leading the club to the Second League, achieving promotion in the 1991-92 season and arriving at the top flight of Portuguese football with Felgueiras in the 1995-96 season. Having failed to keep Felgueiras in the first division and a brief stint with União da Madeira, he worked for Estrela da Amadora twice, and in between, he coached Vitória de Setúbal.

In the meantime, Jesus has managed other First League clubs such as Vitória de Guimarães,

and União de Leiria. He was coach of Belenenses between 2006 and 2008, guiding the club from Restelo to the final of the Portuguese Cup in his first season. He coached

in the 2008-09 season, winning the Minho club's only international title so far, the Intertoto Cup.

Between 2009 and 2015 he was head coach of Benfica, where he won ten titles (a club record) and made it to the two Europa League finals. He was employed by Flamengo in June 2019, where he went on to win the Copa Libertadores and Campeonato Brasileiro titles that year.

All You Need to Know About Jorge Jesus Biography

By winning the continental title, he became the second European coach to win the competition and the first Portuguese. He is also the first foreign coach to receive the Silver Ball Award from Placar/ESPN. He rejoined Benfica in July 2020, where he was introduced on 3 August 2020.

Jorge Jesus Information

Now that we know the Portuguese coach much better, in this section of

Jorge Jesus biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Jorge Jesus nationality

to let you know him even better.

Jorge Jesus Bio

• Full Name: Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus

• Nickname: Mister

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Jorge Jesus Physical Stats

• Weight: 78 Kg

• Height: 1.80 m

• Eye Color: Dark Brown

• Hair Color: Grey

Jorge Jesus Football Information

• Position: Midfielder

• Jersey Number: 7

• Professional Debut: 1973

Jorge Jesus Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 24 July 1954

• Zodiac Sign: Leo

• Nationality: Portuguese

Birth Place: Amadora,

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Jorge Jesus biography

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Jorge Jesus childhood

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Jorge Jesus Early Life

Jesus, son of Virgolino António de Jesus, who was a former

player in the 1940s, started out in the youth ranks of the Lions and debuted in the Portuguese first division with

, a club he signed for on loan from Sporting.

In the 1975-76 season, he played for Sporting's first team, making twelve appearances - only one of them as a starter. That season Sporting finished the league in the fifth position. It was his first and last season in the ranks of the Lisbon club.

Jorge Jesus joined

the following year, where he played for the first of many teams over the next eight years. Alongside Os Belenenses, Jorge Jesus also played for Grupo Desportivo Riopele, Juventude de Évora, União de Leiria, Vitória de Setúbal and

, playing a total of 166 games and scoring 13 goals in the top flight of Portuguese national football.

In 1989, Jorge Jesus decided to retire when he was 35 years old, after playing the last years of his career in the second (mainly with his hometown team, C.F. Estrela da Amadora) and third divisions of Portugal.

Jorge Jesus Profile

After beginning his coaching career with the obscure Amora FC, Jesus joined F.C. Felgueiras in 1993, where he helped the club to be promoted to the top flight in his second season.

It was a continuity that dominated Jesus' tenure at this small Portuguese club in which he remained as coach until June 1998, when F.C. Felgueiras was relegated from the top flight.

Jesus then went on to lead his hometown team,

, to two eighth-place finishes in back-to-back seasons. In the space of four years, Jesus achieved two promotions to the top flight with Estrela da Amadora and Vitória de Setúbal.

He helped Vitória de Guimarâes narrowly avoid relegation in 2003-2004 when he finished that season with two points ahead of relegated FC Alverca.

During the next four years, still in the top flight, Jesus managed Moreirense FC where he was relegated, União Leiria and Belenenses. It was with the latter that he recorded his best results, finishing fifth, qualifying for the UEFA Cup and playing in the 2007 Portuguese Cup final where they lost 1-0 to Sporting.

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Jorge Jesus biography

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SC Braga

In 2008, Jesus took charge of Sporting Clube de Braga on 20 May, just a day upon he departed Belenenses, where he led the Minho side to a fifth-place finish in the league and to the Round of 16 of the UEFA Cup and were beaten by Paul le Guen's Paris Saint-Germain by an aggregate score of 0-1.

Braga became the first Portuguese club to win the Intertoto Cup in 2008 when it was last held under the guidance of Jorge Jesus. Notable moments of Braga's European campaign during his time at the club included a 3-0 home win against English side Portsmouth and a last-minute defeat to

at the San Siro.

Benfica

Towards the end of the 2008-09 season, after repeated speculation, a deal was announced between

and Braga to sign the coach for 700,000 euros in compensation. The agreement was then confirmed and Jorge Jesus took over from Quique Flores at Benfica, being employed for a period of two years plus an option for another year.

He took Benfica to the National Championship in his first year on 9 May 2010, thereby giving the Lisbon club their 32nd title in Portuguese football's most important competition, defeating Rio Ave at home 2-1 with only two league defeats and 78 goals scored, also reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League, losing to Liverpool in a 5-3 aggregate result.

On 15 March 2013, SL Benfica played their 200th game under Jesus in the UEFA Europa League match against Girondins de Bordeaux. In doing so, he followed in the footsteps of János Biri, Otto Glória, Sven-Göran Eriksson,

and John Mortimore.

With Jesus in charge, Benfica made it to both the 2012/13 and 2013/14 UEFA Europa League finals. However, the Portuguese lost on both occasions. On the first occasion,

scored the winning goal in injury time and a year later Sevilla won after extension and penalty kicks.

Following six years in charge of Benfica and after winning three national championships, Jesus switched to rival Sporting in June 2015. Now stay tuned to this section of Jorge Jesus biography as we want to share some info about his career at Sporting CP.

Sporting

He switched to historic rivals Sporting Lisbon on 5 June 2015 after six years as manager of Benfica, where he signed a three-year contract. As a result of this "betrayal", he got several death threats from his former fans and was then put under protection by the Portuguese police.

He won his first trophy as manager of the green-and-white team on 9 August, when he clinched the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira against Benfica (1-0). Sporting Lisbon finished the season in 2nd place and qualified for the Champions League.

During his second season in charge of Sporting, they finished the league in 3rd place, with 70 points in a total of 34 matches. During that season, Sporting had one of the worst European campaigns in their history, where they finished in fourth place in Group F behind Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid and Legia Warszawa.

In Taca de Portugal, Sporting was knocked out by the GD Chaves in the quarterfinals. During his three seasons at the club, Jesus won the Taça da Liga once and the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira once.

Al-Hilal

Jesus joined Al-Hilal as head coach in June 2018. It was on 17 August 2018 that Jesus made his debut as head coach in the Saudi Super Cup match, which took place in London. This game ended up with a 2-1 win over Al-Ittihad. While he had a record of sixteen wins and only one defeat in twenty matches, he was fired by the president on 26 January 2019 following disputes over contract negotiations.

Now stay tuned to this section of Jorge Jesus biography as we want to share some info about his career in

.

Flamengo

On the first of June 2019, Jesus was named head coach of

. His first trophy with Flamengo was instantly the biggest prize in his coaching career, the CONMEBOL Libertadores. In a heart-stopping final, the team defeated River Plate 2-1 after a late goal in regular match time.

Not long after winning the most important South American club award, Jesus and his team were crowned Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. Subsequently, they won the Supercopa do Brasil, the CONMEBOL Recopa and the state championship of Rio de Janeiro.

In the FIFA Club World Cup Flamengo made it to the final but lost 1-0 after extra time to UEFA

winner Liverpool. Jesus left on 17 July 2020 as head coach of Flamengo after five wins.

Return to Benfica

Jesus was hired for two seasons as head coach of Benfica, the club where he had previously been the head coach for six years, on 3 August 2020. He expressed his confidence at the presentation ceremony, as he did in 2009, that he will lead the club back to titles and playing good football.

He made his official debut for Benfica on 15 September in the Champions League qualifying round against PAOK of Greece. The team lost 2-1 and were eliminated from the Champions League.

In his first eleven matches as coach of Benfica, the team led by Jorge Jesus conceded 16 goals, with 9 of them coming in the Portugal League. It represents the worst start for the Lisbon club, in defensive terms, since 2001.

In his first season since his return to Benfica, Jorge Jesus took Benfica to a third-place finish in the league with 76 points, with 9 points behind the winners Sporting CP. He also guided his team to the final of the Taca de Portugal, eliminating the likes of GD Estoril Praia, Belenenses SAD, CF Estrela Amadora SAD, before losing the final against his former club Braga with a score of 2-0.

In the 2020-21 season, Benfica also took part in the Europa League under Jorge Jesus, where they were drawn in Group D alongside Lech Poznan, Standard Liège and the Scottish club Rangers FC, where they finished second behind Rangers, with 12 points in 6 matches.

However, in the second they had to face English club Arsenal. In the first match at Olimpico di Roma, which took place behind closed doors, Pizzi scored the first goal of the match from a penalty, which was given to Benfica after a handball from Emile Smith Rowe. However, two minutes later, Bukayo Saka scored a beautiful left-footed shot to make it 1-1.

One week later, in the second leg which was played at Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis, Benfica suffered a 3-2 defeat to be eliminated from the European competition.

Style of Play

A strict disciplinarian coach, Jorge Jesus usually demands his teams to play with aggressive possession (his teams move the ball fast, with many players in front of the ball), and with a well-organised defence, which is always high, almost on the midfield line. He also enjoys the so-called "lose-pressure" style of football, in which, when the ball is lost, the team goes forward quickly, kills the play and won't let the opponent players escape.

His favourite formation is the 4-1-3-2 system. The goal is to attack with short passes, bringing the midfielder in between the defenders, making the full-backs play at first, and utilizing the five most offensive players in constant movements to help the teammate with the ball, or attacking spaces in depth.

Reception

He is regarded as one of the best coaches in the current generation of Portuguese football managers, alongside the likes of Jose Mourinho, Leonardo Jardim, Fernando Santos and others. He is also one of the few European coaches to achieve great success in Brazilian football.

Jorge Jesus outside Football

Following two weeks of having suffered from a respiratory infection, Benfica announced on 29 January 2021 that Jorge Jesus had been tested positive for COVID-19 in the eighth test, which took place at the beginning of those two weeks, and that he had been diagnosed in an atypical case, of a rare nature during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, which prevented him from attending the Lisbon derby against Sporting CP.

Jorge Jesus Personal Life

In this section of Jorge Jesus biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Jorge Jesus life story

and

Jorge Jesus religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

Jorge Jesus was born in Amadora, Portugal to his father Virgolino António de Jesus and his mother Maria Elísia Pinheiro. His father was a former football player. Jorge Jesus is the uncle of Bruno Sales, who is a football player.

Jorge Jesus has Brazilian descent on the part of his maternal grandmother, who was born in Pernambuco.

Jorge is married to Ivone de Jesus, who is, in fact, his second wife and has three children, Jorge Gonçalo, Tânia and Mauro de Jesus, the latter with his current wife.

Philanthropy

He paid a visit to the National Cancer Institute (INCA) in November 2019 and announced that he will be donating the money raised from the sale of his biography, the book "Mister Jesus, Quebrando Paradigmas no Futebol", by writer Rui Pedro Braz (from AllBook publishing house) to the institution.

Legal Issues

There aren’t any reports of legal issues or disputes regarding Jorge Jesus either on English or Portuguese media outlets.

Jorge Jesus Career Statistics

In this section of Jorge Jesus biography, we will take a deeper look into his career stats, both as an international and club player.

Club

Between 1973 and 1990, Jorge Jesus has played more than 200 games as a footballer for many Portuguese clubs, notably for Sporting CP.

Managerial

Since the start of his playing career in the early 1990s, and as of 24 August 2021, Jorge Jesus has managed his teams in a total of 1205 matches and with 666 wins, 266 draws and 273 defeats, he has a win ratio of 62.63 percent.

Jorge Jesus Honors

He has won many titles and awards during his career as a manager, including UEFA Intertoto Cup, Portuguese Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal, Taça da Liga: 2009, Saudi Super Cup, Copa Libertadores, Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Recopa Sudamericana and many others.

His most notable individual titles and awards include Primeira Liga's Best Coach, Cosme Damião Awards – Coach of the Year, Globos de Ouro Best Portuguese Manager and some others.

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