Jesus tells the story of his conversation with Cancelo and Leonardo
“I don’t expect to stay in Saudi Arabia for all these years,” Jesus told Portuguese newspaper A Bola. “I don’t know what will happen, but when I stop training, the place I want to live is in my country. I have no doubt about that.”
Asked about his dream of coaching the Portuguese national team, he replied: “The dream is still ongoing, but also from the perspective of what I do, such as clubs, I only like to work in clubs that win titles, and for example, I have never been to England to coach, not because there were no offers, and I have never received an offer from the top five.”
“Coaching the Brazilian national team? Of course it is an ambition but they do not look much at foreign coaches, and for me football is day to day, I tell my players this, last year we won everything, we played about 70 games and lost only one game. One! But that does not mean that everything is the same now and we have to do better.”
Regarding his journey in Saudi Arabia, Jesus replied: “The management Crescent “She asked me to renew for three seasons, then two, and I said I didn’t want that because football is a moment.”
He continued: “I am fine now, but in two or three weeks if you do not win everything changes. It is like this all over the world, I do not make projects for the future, I make projects for the present.”
Jesus referred to the backstage of his conversation with the Brazilian Marcos Leonardo and the Portuguese Joao Cancelo, for the ranks of Al Hilal: “Marcos’ characteristics fit Al Hilal, not only because of his age but because of his technical qualities. I spoke to the people in charge here and I thought he was the player who had the ideal profile and characteristics to join us.”
“I spoke with Leonardo and then the negotiations moved to the decisive stage. They went through the president, because he solves the financial situations. I just say what player I want, and the president believed in me again. I put a lot of effort in for him to come and fortunately, he gave good indications. He did not reach the best, but we are very happy with his work.”
Jesus concluded: “I have trained Cancelo since he was a child, he was not even 18 years old, I think, and therefore I spoke with him and I knew that he would be the right-back for the future of Benfica, and now he has joined Al Hilal, and I spoke with him and he accepted the project, and I told him that he has joined a great team and he will not miss anything here.”