Twenty years ago it was José Mourinho. Now it is Ruben Amorim who looks set to move from Portugal to the Premier League with a reputation as Europe’s next technical star.
Mourinho was 41 years old when he left Porto and took charge of Chelsea on the verge of dominating English football after the acquisition of Roman Abramovich.
Amorim, at 39 years old, is the favorite to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
Other coaches came from Portugal with great reputations. André Villas-Boas failed to live up to expectations after following Mourinho’s path from Porto to Chelsea in 2011.
But everything about Amorim suggests he really could be something special, as Mourinho claimed of himself in 2004.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be good or bad, but that’s what I’m going to be,” Amorim told Tribuna Expresso in 2017, when confirming his plan to become a coach.
He had just stopped playing at the age of 32, after a fine career was derailed by injuries.
Amorim stood out as a coach at Sporting, but starred as a player for rival Benfica, a club he always supported and of which he was a ‘partner’ (member) since birth.
“I can see myself coaching Benfica, or one of the biggest clubs in the world. Obviously only time will tell and it takes a lot of luck”, he said in the same interview.
Amorim started playing for Belenenses, the modest club from the Lisbon suburb of Belém, best known for its pastéis de nata.
There he worked with Jorge Jesus, helping them finish fifth and reach the Portuguese Cup final in 2007.
In 2008 he joined Benfica and a year later he met Jesus again. Amorim played mainly at right-back as a team consisting of David Luiz and Angel Di Maria competed for the title.
The following season, Benfica were overtaken by Porto de Villas-Boas and Amorim suffered a knee injury.
He needed a long loan at Braga to relaunch his career and returned to Benfica, and Jesus, in 2013/14.
Playing regularly in midfield, Amorim starred in the domestic treble and the Europa League final defeat on penalties to Sevilla.
His career never reached such heights again because of injury, and he ended his playing days in Qatar.
– Influenced by Jorge Jesus –
Amorim described Mourinho as his role model, but admits that Jesus – who now manages Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia – made an impact on him more than any other coach after spending seven years under him.
“It’s funny because as a player I had a lot of problems with Jesus, but other players also had them, because Jesus is a tiring coach”, recalled Amorim.
“He’s a true perfectionist. I worked with him for a long time and it’s obvious that what I demand from players is very similar to him, but I won’t be a coach like Jorge Jesus, because our styles are very different.”
Amorim, who represented Portugal in two World Cups, began training in 2018, aged just 33, at Casa Pia, a Lisbon club, and his rise since then has been dizzying.
He won the third division title there, but did not yet have the necessary coaching qualifications and left at the beginning of 2019.
Amorim really began his rise by joining Braga, managing the B team before taking charge of the first team in December 2019.
– Huge termination clause –
Braga were mid-table when he took over, but did so well that, just two months later, Sporting advanced, paying his release clause of 10 million euros, an astronomical sum for a coach in any country.
Sporting hadn’t been Portuguese champions since 2002 and their fans had some concerns about this Benfica fan.
“I’m a professional and I’m fanatical about winning. I know the size of this club. I played against them. I don’t hide my past,” he said at his inauguration.
In their first full season, Sporting won the title, losing just one game against a team made up of Pedro Porro, João Palhinha and Matheus Nunes.
Amorim, who prefers to play with three central defenders and intense pressing, then led Sporting to the round of 16 of the Champions League.
Now he is on the verge of another title – the second in four seasons for a club that had won two in the previous 38 – as well as being in the Portuguese Cup final.
Players like English striker Marcus Edwards and Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres are thriving under his watch.
“I chose Sporting for Viktor when he had eight other clubs interested, all offering more money,” Gyokeres’ agent Hasan Cetinkaya recently told A Bola.
“I chose Sporting because of Ruben Amorim.”
The former Coventry City striker has scored 38 goals for Sporting this season, just one of many examples of Amorim’s successful tenure at the Estádio José Alvalade.
how/jc
