Twenty years ago it was Jose Mourinho. Now it is Ruben Amorim who appears set to move from Portugal to the Premier League with a reputation as Europe’s next coaching superstar.
Amorim has emerged as the favourite to take over at Manchester United following Erik ten Hag’s sacking. His club Sporting Lisbon have confirmed the English club’s interest, and that they have entered negotiations.
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Sporting have confirmed that United will pay the €10 million release clause in Amorium’s contract to allow him to leave. It is expected that a United delegation will travel to Lisbon to close the deal after Sporting’s Portuguese cup quarter-final at home to Nacional on Tuesday evening.
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Amorim is 39, two years younger than Mourinho when he left Porto and took over a Chelsea side poised to dominate English football.
Other coaches have come from Portugal with huge reputations, but not all have succeeded. Andre Villas-Boas, for example, failed to live up to expectations after following Mourinho’s path from Porto to Chelsea in 2011.
But everything about Amorim — who was also linked to the manager’s job at Liverpool this year — suggests he could be something special, just as Mourinho famously claimed he himself was in 2004.
As long ago as 2017 when Amorim confirmed his intention to become a coach, he told Tribuna Expresso: “I don’t know if I am going to be good or bad, but that is what I am going to be.”
He had just quit playing aged 32 after injuries blighted a fine career. Amorim has made his name as a coach at Sporting, but he starred as a player for their Lisbon rivals Benfica, the club he has supported from birth.
“I can see myself coaching Benfica, or one of the world’s biggest clubs. Obviously only time will tell and you need so much luck,” he said.
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Amorim began playing at Belenenses from the Lisbon suburb Belem best known for its custard tarts.
He worked under Jorge Jesus there, reaching the Portuguese Cup final in 2007. In 2008 he joined Benfica, and a year later he was reunited with Jesus. Amorim mainly played at right-back as a team featuring David Luiz and Angel Di Maria romped to the title.
The following season, Benfica were overtaken by Villas-Boas’s Porto and Amorim struggled with a knee injury.
He needed a loan move at Braga to relaunch his career, and went back to Benfica, and Jesus, in 2013/14.
Playing regularly in midfield, Amorim starred as they won a domestic treble and lost the Europa League final on penalties to Sevilla.
His career never reached such highs again, and he ended his playing days in Qatar.
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– ‘Fanatical about winning’ –
Amorim has described Mourinho, who managed United from 2016 to 2018, as his reference, but he admits Jesus — now guiding Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia — marked him more than any other coach after he spent seven years under his stewardship.
“It is funny, because as a player I had lots of problems with Jesus, albeit other players did too, because Jesus is a coach who wears you out,” Amorim recalled.
“He is a real perfectionist. I worked with him for a long time and it is obvious that what I demand of players is quite similar to him.”
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Amorim, who appeared for Portugal at two World Cups, began coaching in 2018 when just 33, at Lisbon club Casa Pia, and his rise since has been vertiginous.
He won the third-tier title there, but didn’t yet have the necessary coaching qualifications and left in early 2019.
Amorim really began his steep ascent upon joining Braga, managing their B team before being handed the first-team reins in December 2019.
He did so well that Sporting swooped, paying his 10-million-euro release clause. Sporting had not won the Portuguese title since 2002 and their supporters had some concerns about his Benfica past.
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“I am a professional and I am fanatical about winning. I know how big this club is. I played against them. I am not hiding my past,” he said at his unveiling.
In his first full season Sporting won the title, losing just one game. Amorim, who favours an intense pressing game, then took Sporting to the Champions League last 16.
He won a second Portuguese title last season and players such as English forward Marcus Edwards and Swede Viktor Gyokeres have flourished under him.
