Martà Cifuentes | Head Coach
A native of Catalonia, Spain, Martà Cifuentes joins Portland with more than two decades of coaching experience across England, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain. Most recently, he managed Leicester City in the EFL Championship after being appointed in July 2025. Prior to Leicester, Cifuentes served as head coach of Queens Park Rangers, taking the helm of the London club in October 2023, with the team at risk of relegation from the EFL Championship. By the conclusion of the 2023-24 season, Cifuentes successfully guided QPR to safety, retaining its Championship status for the 2024-25 campaign.
Before moving to England, Cifuentes managed three top-flight clubs – Hammarby IF in Sweden (2022-23), Aalborg BK (2021-22) in Denmark and Sandefjord (2018-20) in Norway. Notably, Cifuentes has accumulated a winning record of 128-96-84 in his eight years of coaching since 2018.
Cifuentes led Hammarby IF to the 2021-22 Svenska Cupen final, a third-place finish in the 2022-23 Allsvenskan and subsequent qualification for the 2023-24 UEFA Europa Conference League. At Aalborg BK, he elevated the club to a fourth place standing in the table in the 2021-22 campaign.
During his time in Norway at Sandefjord, the Spaniard took over midway through the 2018 Eliteserien season and helped lead the team to promotion into Norway’s top-flight in his first full season in charge. Sandefjord and Cifuentes followed the promotion with an 11th-place finish in the 2020 Eliteserien, the club’s best top-flight result in over a decade.
Cifuentes began coaching at the age of 20 with stints in Spain, the Netherlands and England, primarily working in youth development and academy roles. After gaining youth coaching experience at CE Sabadell (2003-06), Terrassa FC (2007-08), and UE Rubà (2010-13), he advanced into senior roles with Rubà (2013-14), Sant Andreu (2014) and CE L’Hospitalet (2015-16). Cifuentes then managed youth and academy sides for AIK Fotboll from 2017-18 before joining Sandefjord.
A UEFA Pro License holder, Cifuentes earned his MBA in Sports Management from the Johan Cruyff Institute in 2010.