Roberto Martínez leaves Portugal after World Cup exit to Spain

Roberto Martínez ended his spell as Portugal manager after Spain knocked his side out of the World Cup 1-0 in Dallas, a result that shut the door on a project he said had run its course. Martínez said his contract had finished, that “ha acabado un ciclo,” and that there was “no tiene sentido seguir” after the elimination.

Spain’s late winner came from Mikel Merino in the 90+1st minute at Dallas Stadium on July 6, 2026, in a round-of-16 tie that exposed how narrow Portugal’s margins remained under Martínez in the biggest knockout matches. The defeat ended Portugal’s run in a tournament Martínez had been hired to win, and it also closed the chapter on a manager whose arrival in 2023 had been backed by the Portuguese federation through the World Cup 2026 cycle.

His exit leaves behind a mixed record. Martínez did deliver the 2025 Nations League, a real trophy in a job that had often been judged by its ceiling rather than its floor. But World Cup and knockout pressure defined the limits of his tenure, and the loss to Spain sharpened that critique: Portugal could control stretches of play, yet still failed to find the decisive edge when the match turned.

The matchup carried extra weight for Martínez because it came against Spain, the country where he was born, in Balaguer, Catalonia. He left Dallas saying he felt “muy orgulloso del equipo,” but the mood around Portugal is now less about sentiment than succession. The federation is left to choose a manager who can turn a gifted generation into a team that survives elite knockout matches, not only one that wins continental silverware on the way to the World Cup.