![\"Roberto](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_Screenshot-2026-02-26-at-083319.png\")
<\/p>\nThe Portugal boss is facing a big call with the World Cup just around the corner<\/p>\n
08:39, 26 Feb 2026Updated 08:56, 26 Feb 2026<\/p>\n
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Roberto Martinez appears on The Overlap<\/p>\n
Portugal boss Roberto Martinez insists a club would have to offer the “right project” for him to leave international football.<\/p>\n
His comments come with Martinez among the bookies’ favourites to be named next Celtic<\/a> boss when Martin O’Neill <\/a>leaves in the summer. He has a long-standing relationship with current Parkhead No.2 Shaun Maloney having signed him at Wigan before bringing him in as a coach for Belgium.<\/p>\n Maloney has revealed that he has held talks with his mentor.<\/a> However, he insisted that the chats were based on the upcoming World Cup in North America.<\/p>\n The former Wigan and Everton boss made an appearance on The Overlap, and the Spaniard was put on the spot about his future. Gary Neville asked the 52-year-old if he wants to return to club management “at some point”.<\/p>\n Martinez said: “I don’t know, that’s the truth. I can never plan my career. I could never imagine what I have experienced. So, I have always been that when it’s the right time, it’s the right project.”<\/p>\n Former Celtic and Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane chimed in with a potential timeline: “If you win the World Cup? Come back a World Cup winner…”<\/p>\n Martinez responded: “Well, I think it’s the project. It’s not about a club, or I would like to manage here.<\/p>\n “No, it’s about that board and that they believe in your work, and what is the project behind it.<\/p>\n Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo with manager Roberto Martinez <\/p>\n “Now, I do feel when I speak to young coaches I say, ‘if you can work at international level, it makes you complete’.<\/p>\n “Club football is so ‘forward, forward, forward’, with international football you need to prioritise.<\/p>\n “You can’t work at everything, you have three days. So everything becomes very specific. International football is about clarity.”<\/p>\n Parkhead icon O’Neill is expected to leave his interim role in Glasgow’s East End following the conclusion of the Scottish Premiership campaign.<\/p>\n Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou<\/a> is the odds-on for Parkhead in the summer after taking Scottish football by storm this term and turning the Steelmen into dark horses for the Premiership title.<\/p>\n Follow Record Sport on Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> for all of the up-to-the minute breaking news, video and audio on the SPFL, the Scotland national team and beyond.<\/p>\n Tune in to Hotline Live<\/a> every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport’s newest podcast, Game On<\/a>, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.<\/p>\n Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google\u2019s preferred sources. Click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_JS338227560.jpg\")
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