A great career as a player
It is often said that great players do not make great coaches. Although it is difficult to define Rúben Amorim as a former great player, his career is nevertheless very good. Trained by Benfica then continuing his development at Belenenses, he returned to the Aguias through the front door in 2008. Having loans to Braga (2012/2013) and within the Qatari team of Al-Wakrah (2015/2016) , he nevertheless remained with the Portuguese giant until the end of his career in 2017 when he was 32 years old. In about a decade, he won 3 Championships, 6 National Cups, 1 League Cup and 1 Super Cup with Benfica as well as a Portuguese Cup with Braga. Portuguese international midfielder (14 caps), he played in the 2010 World Cup and the 2014 edition.
Already a solid track record and a winning culture
Bringing in Rúben Amorim also means ensuring we bring a culture of winning. It’s simple, it only took him 33 days at the helm of Braga to win a trophy. After taking out Sporting (2-1) in the semi-final and beating FC Porto (1-0) in the final, he won the Portuguese League Cup. At Sporting, he maintained this winning dynamic by winning the same competition in 2021 and 2022 as well as the Portuguese Super Cup at the start of the season. But the most important remains the title gleaned in 2022. With a long invincibility and despite the return of Porto, he was able to hold on with his men to win the championship and offer the club’s first title since 2002 (Cristiano Ronaldo had not even yet started with the first team). A performance that he was able to reproduce the season by offering the 20th Portuguese championship title to the Leões. Rúben Amorim is a man of exploits.
Baby Mourinho
Starting his coaching career at 33, he took the reins of Braga in December 2019 when he was just 34. In just three months, he will explode and convince Sporting CP to lift his release clause of 10 million euros. Boasting a crazy reputation with a release clause estimated at 30 million euros, he follows in the footsteps of young coaches like André Villas-Boas, Julian Nagelsmann and Domenico Tedesco. Going through the stages at a rapid pace, he earned the nickname Baby Mourinho, a coach with whom he identifies. “There are coaches who have a way of seeing the game that I like, like Guardiola, but for me the reference is Mourinho, because I see the ball more like him. He analyzes opponents very well and puts his team, not only with a particular game model, but also thinking about how to adapt to win. And I’m a bit like that”he explained in an interview for Tribuna Expresso.
He has a gift for hatching young
A pragmatic coach capable of quickly achieving results, he nonetheless remains an excellent trainer. It was he who allowed the emergence of Francisco Trincão during the 2019/2020 season for Braga. Launching David Carmo in a lasting manner, making João Palhinha and Paulinho key players that he will take to Sporting CP, he also worked miracles on the Leões side. Participating in the emergence of Pedro Gonçalves or even that of the Swedish serial scorer Viktor Gyökeres, he regularly helped young people like Tiago Tomas, Matheus Nunes, Manuel Ugarte and Gonçalo Inácio to grow. He got the most out of Pedro Porro, but also from a certain Nuno Mendes who is now at Paris Saint-Germain. From now on, it allows Ousmane Diomandé, Geny Catamo, Conrad Harder and especially the nugget Geovany Quenda to express all their talent. With Manchester United and a renowned academy, he will still be able to launch careers.
A European experience still a little tender
Being coach of Braga and Sporting CP is good, but it has limited Rúben Amorim’s experience for the moment. However, he already has small references even if it remains just on the scale of Manchester United. For his first season, he failed in the round of 16 against Rangers despite good opposition (3-2/1-0) and did not really weigh in on the Minhotos’ progress. The following season, the disappointment was enormous with Sporting CP since after a victory against Aberdeen (1-0), it failed in the play-offs against the Austrians of LASK (4-1). He then discovered the Champions League during the 2021/2022 financial year. Hat 1 and placed in the group of Ajax Amsterdam, Borussia Dortmund and Besiktas, he was able to snatch second place from the Germans thanks to a 3-1 victory during the fifth day.
On the other hand, it was not enough against Manchester City with a 5-0 defeat in the first leg before an anecdotal draw in the return. The following year, he qualified again for the Champions League but finished third in his group behind Tottenham and Frankfurt but ahead of Olympique de Marseille. Notably winning the scalp of Arsenal in the Europa League, he came out in the quarter-final against Juventus (2-1 on aggregate). Last season, he participated in the Europa League where he finished second in his group behind Atalanta who eliminated their Sporting CP in the round of 16 (3-2 on aggregate) before winning the competition. This season, Sporting CP is back in the Champions League and has 7 points in 3 days, which ranks it eighth. Enough to optimistically foresee a place in the first 24 at the end of the group stage. If Rúben Amorim still needs to develop his culture in European competitions, his results in other competitions leave room for optimism.
