The exit that opened the vacancy

This whole archive starts with a match. On 5 July 2026, Portugal were knocked out of the World Cup by Spain in the round of 16, and what on another night would have been just a defeat became the start of a new cycle. A day later, Roberto Martínez confirmed he was leaving the national team.

These two entries are the foundation for the rest of the story. No exit, no vacancy; no vacancy, no succession; and without the succession, none of what follows — the contract, the unveiling, the Cristiano Ronaldo question and four years of argument until 2030. It is the shortest section of the archive and the one that explains all the others.

The sources are in plain sight on every moment, and each one has its own page with the context and a link to the original news story.