Experienced Portuguese coach Fernando Santos, who signed on Tuesday as the manager of Istanbul's Besiktas, one of Turkey's three major clubs, expressed his happiness at returning to lead a club after 12 years at the helm of three European national teams.

"In the twelve years working with a national team, I missed training a team on a daily basis a lot," acknowledged Santos, who was the coach of Greece from 2010 to 2014, Portugal from 2014 to 2022, and Poland until last September".

"In the national team, you train one day with the players, they play the match, and then they leave. You can't be with the players every day, observe them. That was difficult for me", said Santos during the press conference broadcast on the club's channels.

"I wake up thinking about the next training, what we're going to do the next day. Being at a great club like this makes me happy", added the 69-year-old Portuguese.

Santos, who arrived in Istanbul last night, signed his contract at noon during a ceremony at the Besiktas stadium in Istanbul. According to the Turkish press, the contract has a duration of 1.5 years, but club president Hasan Arat refused to clarify the specific terms and economic conditions of the agreement during the press conference.

According to the club's statement, Santos will fly later today to the city of Rize on the Black Sea coast to meet his players in the match against Rizespor.

The Portuguese coach takes charge of Besiktas at a challenging time for the club, less than three weeks after his predecessor, Turkish legend Riza Çalimbay, left the position. Çalimbay had been in charge for only six
weeks, succeeding the young Burak Yilmaz, who lasted just a month, after replacing the veteran Senol Günes, who lasted a year.

In total, Besiktas has changed coaches five times in the last two years, going from winning the 2020-2021 Super League to finishing sixth last year, currently holding the same position in the Turkish league table.

Santos arrives at Besiktas with his team of five assistants, consisting of Joao Costa, Paulo Ramos Mendes (Paulinho), Justino Fernando, Ricardo Santos, and Jorge Rosário.

"My only goal is to win. If I lose, I can't sleep. We will have to fight in the worst situations, and we have to convey that spirit to the players", said the coach.

Asked about his decision to leave Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench, following the player's anger, in the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup where Portugal eventually lost to Morocco, Santos downplayed the issue.

"It was a decision based on tactics and strategy. The team matters. If we had won and continued in the World Cup, it wouldn't be talked about so much", concluded Besiktas' new coach.