Sporting Lisbon ‘s young Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim began his managerial career. While compatriot Jose Mourinho was in charge of Manchester United and, unbelievably, just six years later, Amorim is being talked about as the new boss of the Red Devils.
The 39-year-old has been wanted by a number of top clubs, with Liverpool reportedly keen to replace Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City. Reportedly considering him as Pep Guardiola’s successor, but Old Trafford appears to be the 39-year-old’s new destination.
After Manchester United’s board announced the sacking of former Dutch coach Erik ten Hag earlier this week. Amorim’s name was immediately brought up, with multiple outlets reporting. That the Red Devils had already held preliminary talks with him.
Looking back at Amorim’s career path, he started as a former midfielder for Benfica and after hanging up his boots in 2018, he started coaching a small team like Casapia. Then he went to coach the reserve team of Braga. Before being promoted to coach the first team and led the team to win 10 out of 13 games. From this performance, Sporting paid a release clause of 8.6 million pounds to acquire him to work in 2020.
“His coaching career began at Casa Pia, then a third-division club, and it almost ended as soon as it started,” European football expert Guillem Balague told BBC Sport. “He lost his first two games and there was a lot of pain and doubt about him.”
“He then announced that if he lost the third game he would quit. In the next game he changed the formation and played with three at the back for the first time. Which became the system he used consistently and his team never lost again. He also felt that he had found a system that allowed him to produce the style of football he wanted. Then he went to Braga and then โปรโมชั่น ufabet Sporting.”
Upon moving from Braga to Sporting, Amorim became the third-highest paid manager in Portugal and he quickly proved to be a good investment. Guiding Sporting to a 32-game unbeaten run and their first league title in almost two decades.
Former Liverpool and Portugal defender Abel Xavier, who worked with Amorim, said: “He is very humble, calm and has a very clear attitude. At Braga we saw the impact immediately. Because we had the same team, the same players, but he changed the whole thing.”
“He brings his ideas, changes the dynamic, creates empathy and of course a big club like Sporting Lisbon is willing to pay to have him, that’s proof.”
“Amorim admits he still needs to add layers of knowledge to his approach, but he still believes football only makes sense when people are excited about it, similar to the lessons learned by former coaches like Jorge Jesus, who Amorim studied closely, as well as José Mourinho,” Balague added.
“He is an enthusiastic player who plays exciting attacking football. He loves to score goals. And He is good at possession and controlling the game, so he is always a crowd pleaser.”
“Amorim is like a sponge. After training and meetings, he likes to spend two or three hours in the office watching games, about football and studying other managers. He likes to hold meetings or talk to people where he can learn new things,” Balake concluded.