Aston Villa Set-piece Coach Austin Macphee has been given a new role in the national team of Portugal.
It is understanding that the 45-year-old specialist will combine his new job as an assistant coach with his current position in Villa Park.
The news arose a few months after Macphee left his role in Scotland for personal reasons after almost three years in action.
He used to have a youth team player, he had a long coaching career in various clubs such as Cowdenbeath, St Mirren, Hearts and Midtjylland.
Now the Scotsman will be part of the technical team of Portugal, which will prepare the team for the upcoming World Cup 2026.
The statement from Portugal said: 'National coach Roberto Martinez has chosen the Scottish set-piece specialist to join his staff and replace Anthony Barry.
'Austin Macphee will collaborate with Martínez in March, when Portugal is opposed to Denmark in the quarterfinals of the Nations League.
He was named Villas Specialized Set-piece Coach in August 2021, under Dean Smith, but played an important role in the recent successful results of the team with Unai Emery.
Macphee was also part of the technical team of Noord -Ireland and led the team alongside Michael O'Neill to the last 16 of the Euro 2016.
He left the team to become a member of Scotland, where he developed a strong relationship with head coach Steve Clarke.
At that time he was already known as a set-piece expert and brought an interest from various national teams.
Earlier, Macphee spoke with Mail Sport to share his thoughts about his move.
He said: 'Steve probably knew two things. Scotland was not very good in set pieces and I was a set piece coach.
'Steve knew that I had a specialization for this in my career. It is a natural evolution of the game. And he knew that Scotland was struggling in this area.
“So they thought if they would add someone to the staff, we would add someone with specific skills.”
Last year the duo was noted to exchange opinions, while many thought they were made of frustration during the disappointing 5-1 defeat of Scotland against Germany.
After the Euro 2024 match, however, Clarke wiped the speculations away and said that he no longer remembers their conversation and that they are 'good'.
“Yes, it's going well. I don't even remember. We are doing well, “said the Scotland.
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