Belgium coach Roberto Martinez said he was leaving his job after the team were eliminated from the World Cup in Qatar following a 0-0 draw with Croatia on Thursday.
The 49-year-old Spaniard had earlier hinted to leave the job after the world cup, having served as the Belgium team coach since 2016 and his contract was due to run out after the tournament.
“That was my last game with the national team, I can’t carry on,”
“It’s the time for me to accept that this is the last game.” Martinez said at his post-match press conference.
The Belgium team has had an unlucky event at the Qatar World cup 2022, after scoring only one goal in three games.
Martinez led Belgium to a third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and to the Euro 2020 quarter-finals last year.
“That was the end, whatever would happen, whether we were world champions, whether we went out in the group stage,”
“It’s got nothing to do with being eliminated in the group stage.
“Since 2018 I had many opportunities to leave, take jobs at club level, but I wanted to be loyal. I don’t resign, it’s the end of my contract.” Martinez added.
Also Read: Kenya’s and Australia’s Rugby Teams Draw at Dubai Sevens Opener
Belgium went into their final Group F game needing to win to be certain of reaching the last 16 after a 1-0 win over Canada and a 2-0 loss to Morocco.
“Today, if we would’ve gone through, I think we would’ve seen the real Belgium and we could’ve been very competitive in the next rounds,”
“The disappointment was against Morocco. Today we were ourselves, we played very good opposition… The first two games we weren’t ourselves.” The Coach said.
Martinez consoled his players on the pitch after the game in emotional scenes which could herald the end of an era for Belgian football.