Canadian-born Jorge Braz Wins 2nd Straight International Futsal Coach of the Year Award

Portugal’s Jorge Braz has won his second consecutive National Team Coach of the Year Award after a successful 2019 which saw the Seleção go undefeated through UEFA’s World Cup Qualifying campaign, booking their ticket to the 2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Born in Edmonton, Jorge’s family moved back to Portugal when he was 9. After serving as an assistant to renowned coach, Orlando Duarte, Braz was promoted to Head Coach in 2010. Since then, Portugal have never finished below the quarter-final stage at the UEFA Futsal Euro or World Cup.

At the 2016 World Cup, Braz brought Portugal to the semi-finals before losing to eventual champions, Argentina. In 2018, he led Portugal to their first ever UEFA Futsal Euro title, completing an unprecedented trilogy of European championships in soccer, beach soccer, and futsal at the same time. As a result, it was not surprising in the least that he received his first award as International Coach of the Year.

In this year’s voting, Braz finished more than 200 points ahead of 2nd place finisher, “Marquinhos”, Brazil’s Head Coach.