This following interview was conducted by Renato Senise (@Renato_Senise) in Portuguese for DAZN Brasil. The content of the interview was translated and transcribed by Matt O’Connor for Próxima Jornada (@ProfMatheu)
Jorge Jesus, the enigmatic former Sporting and SLB manager is making waves of late, to put it mildly. His impact in Brazil since his arrival as Flamengo manager in June 2019 has been immeasurable and with his recent capture of the Copa Libertadores and Brasileiro Série A in his first season in charge, his stock internationally is higher than ever. Bruno Fernandes, who was signed by and played under Jorge Jesus at Sporting CP spoke passionately about Mister Jesus during his interview with Renato Senise.
“When I came back to Portugal, Mister Jorge Jesus immediately helped me understand that I had to do more, be better, have more desire, I had to take the next step to become a great player. He’s a coach that helped develop my tactical awareness tremendously, even coming from a great tactical education in Italy. Mister Jorge Jesus is someone with a profound understanding of football, his reading of football is ahead of the curve and is perhaps one of the few coaches in world football with this ability.
(photocredit:90min.in)
I think from the moment Mister Jorge Jesus arrived in Brazil all the Portuguese started following Brazilian football even more, he’s obviously become the high-profile figure in Brazil that he already was in Portugal. He’s someone I’m still in contact with, I sent congratulations on the Libertadores victory. Recently (Nemanja) Matic, who also worked under Jesus (during their time at SL Benfica) sent a photo of the two of us together to and his reply to Matic was to, “look after my boy”.
Mister Jorge Jesus has always looked out for me, despite his shouting and intense mannerisms, he’s somebody who really knows how to get the best out of some players.”
