‘Amorim is a serial rebuilder and a developer of young players’

Ruben Amorim’s formative experiences as a manager included an internship under Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. Now, six years later, he could become the club’s new head coach. Here, European football expert Andy Brassell looks at the 39-year-old’s credentials and career so far. 

The spotlight is firmly on Ruben Amorim as Manchester United look for their new head coach, and if he were to be appointed then a hugely challenging task lies ahead of him. Fortunately, he is no stranger to the most intense of pressures. 

When Sporting Lisbon paid Braga a reported €10million in compensation for Amorim in March 2020 it was an enormous risk for them. The former Benfica player had won the Taaa da Liga, the country’s League Cup, for Braga but had only taken charge of 13 matches.

Sporting, without huge resources, were going all-in on their coach and then some.

When he arrived at Estadio Jose Alvalade, he was inheriting a big-name team struggling badly to match expectations.

The fact is that Amorim has not just paid that faith back but wildly overachieved since then. In 2020/21 he led Sporting to a first league title in 19 years – they had a teenage Cristiano Ronaldo in the team for their previous triumph – and has rebuilt the squad, despite a raft of losses.

Amorim’s midfield was decimated when Joao Palhinha and Matheus Nunes left for successful careers in the Premier League, and he later saw Pedro Porro join Tottenham Hotspur, while Paris Saint-Germain picked off key players Nuno Mendes and Manuel Ugarte.  

Despite having lesser resources than city rivals Benfica – the traditional giants of the Portuguese game – Amorim has managed to make Sporting competitive through his tenure in charge.  

That, in a nutshell, is why Man Utd have made an approach to hire him. He is the right person at the right time for this job, a serial rebuilder and an encourager and developer of young players.

Unlocking potential 

Working with the academy at Sporting has been sacrosanct through the years, from Luis Figo to Ronaldo to Nani, and Amorim is a coach in the purest sense of the word, who improves players.  

The club’s record signing Viktor Gyokeres, who joined from Coventry City, has become one of Europe’s hottest strikers under Amorim. Pedro Goncalves has matured into a more-than-adequate replacement for Bruno Fernandes, and English winger Marcus Edwards has turned into a UEFA Champions League-level performer, having not quite made it at Spurs where he was a highly rated academy graduate.  

As the growing list of Amorim alumni at the elite level of European football underlines, players unlock their true potential under him.  

Many have assumed that Amorim will impose his 3-4-3 system which has worked so well at Estadio Jose Alvalade at his next club, but this is not necessarily the case.  

Amorim is a players’ coach, somebody who connects with his squad and knows what they need. A skilled communicator, he doesn’t need to shout or bang his fist on the table to make his point. Fair and frank in private and in public, Amorim is convincing and persuasive without being overbearing.  

He publicly talks about his players as people, not just footballers. When Edwards first arrived from Vitoria Guimaraes, Amorim talked about the young Englishman being “introverted”, needing time to absorb and understand the team’s tactics and to settle on a personal level.

The coach gradually assimilated Edwards into his line-up and reaped the rewards with stellar performances from his winger like in September 2022’s 2-0 Champions League win over his former club Spurs.  

Embracing human side of management

Amorim is not only empathetic but self-aware, as he showed while the speculation about Liverpool’s interest in him raged during Sporting’s run towards the title earlier this year.

When Sporting president Federico Varandas claimed that his coach would “be too big for Portugal in a year or two’s time,” and Amorim was asked about the comment, the head coach replied by insisting, “This league will never be small for me.”  

He has a strong sense of his convictions but at the same time he has a dignity that is one of his most appealing features, and which will please supporters.  

Much of it comes from Amorim’s playing career, a successful but not quite stratospheric one. A hard-working and intelligent midfielder, the high point was probably going to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil with Portugal.  

His club path, though, was often a case of nearly, but not quite. Amorim was part of Jorge Jesus’ Benfica squad of all-conquering entertainers that swept the club to a long-overdue league title in 2010. But, facing huge competition for places, he struggled to get a regular start.  

He became a frustrated figure, derailed by multiple knee surgeries before eventually retiring at 32. Arguably these tough times made him understand the human side of squad management when he eventually did become a coach.  

So, if he were to take charge at Man Utd, his players would find with Amorim that there is no “my way or the highway” approach, just collective growth and problems to be solved.  

His patience under pressure could make him a huge hit in the Premier League.