Report: Boston Legacy to Hire Filipa Patão

Filipa Patão may be headed to Boston after five years of coaching S.L. Benfica’s women’s team, as reported by A Bola and ESPN.

Filipa Patão may be headed to Boston after five years of coaching S.L. Benfica’s women’s team, as reported by A Bola and ESPN.

The Portuguese national was selected as Benfica’s head coach — the third in the club’s history, — in late 2020 and has since led her team to continued success.

Benfica won its fifth consecutive league title this past 2024-2025 season in Portugal’s first division women’s league, ending with an undefeated record of 22-2-0. In the season prior, Patão’s squad made it through to the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in club history.

The coach has won eight domestic cups throughout her tenure with the women’s senior team.

Patão’s team debuted in the World Sevens Football tournament, a new seven-a-side competition, this week but failed to move past the group stage, losing against Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, and tying with AS Roma.

The 36-year-old has spent nearly 18 years at Benfica in different training roles. In addition to coaching the senior team, she briefly worked with the women’s B team, and spent over 12 years with the club’s youth teams. In the club’s first season of having a women’s football side, Patão was involved in its U-17 district championship and U-15 national cup wins.

Patão was one of six nominated for UEFA’s 2024 Women's Coach of the Year award, alongside coaches Emma Hayes (who took the prize) and Sarina Wiegman.

As for her own playing career, the incoming trainer has three caps with the Portuguese national team from 2012 and 2013. Her club career lasted from 2006 to 2018; in that time she played for 1º Dezembro, C.F. Benfica, and Estoril Praia.

Boston Legacy FC declined to comment on the reports of hiring a head coach.