Almanac Soccer: Who is Ruben Amorim?

 

Who is Ruben Amorim?

 

On November the 11th, Ruben Amorim is set to take over from Ruud van Nistelrooy as the latest Manchester United manager after the recent sacking of Erik ten Hag due to his dreadful start to the 24/25 campaign. Amorim becomes the 10th manager in charge since the great Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down after 26 years. But many football fans have never heard of Ruben Amorim. He is fairly young in terms of a coach, 39, but in this piece we will be finding out who Amorim really is, what he achieved in his playing career, how he has transformed Sporting Clube de Portugal into the Champions League contending side and what he can do to bring United back to their glory days they enjoyed under Sir Alex.

 

Ruben Amorim’s playing career consisted of many successful seasons in the Liga Portugal, winning it 3 times with Benfica (09/10, 13/14, 14/15). Amorim also won the Portuguese League Cup 7 times, 6 with Benfica and 1 with his loan stint at Braga. He was also a very successful servant for the Portuguese national team, representing them at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups while earning 14 caps after coming up through their youth ranks. The Portuguese international was a very versatile asset, playing primarily on the right, but also registering a number of appearances in the centre and defensive midfield positions. 

 

After a long and prosperous football playing career, Amorim went into management at a very young age of 33, joining the Lisbon Football Association to earn his coaching licence before spending a week long internship at Manchester United under fellow Portuguese manager, Jose Mourinho.

 

Amorim finally started work as manager of 3rd division Portuguese side Casa Pia at the start of the 2018/19 season. At first, things were not going well for Amorim, losing both of his first fixtures, before publicly announcing he would step down if he lost the 3rd. With nothing left to lose, the 33 year old changed his tactics to his now famous 3 at the back. This worked perfectly for Casa Pia as they embarked on a long unbeaten run due to Amorim’s decision to play his own style of football. 

 

Unfortunately for the Portuguese manager, he was wrongly accused of not having the correct coaching qualifications for a match in January which saw Casa Pia deducted 6 points and Amorim given a 12 month ban from coaching (This was later overturned although Amorim did hand in his resignation in the aftermath of the original accusation). 

 

Just 5 months after stepping down from Casa Pia, Amorim agreed to take the helm of the Benfica u23s, where he had spent the majority of his career. For reasons unknown, he rejected the offer just a month later. 

 

In September 2019, he became the coach of the Braga reserves, who played in the 3rd tier of Portuguese football. Amorim had also spent half of his 2011/2012 playing season at Braga on loan from his parent club, Benfica. After a short successful stint with the reserve side, winning 7 games from 8, Amorim was promoted to head coach following the dismissal of former manager, Ricardo Sa Pinto.

 

Within just 3 weeks of being appointed manager of Braga, Amorim won the Primeira Liga side their first trophy in 4 years, defeating Porto with a last minute winner in the Portuguese domestic League Cup final. His time at Braga was very successful, only failing to win 3 games from his 10 in charge as they went onto place 3rd in the league, earning results at away grounds where Braga had not won for over 65+ years, ending their trophy drought, as well as taking them to a Europa League quarter final after their famous 2-leg win over the Scottish side Rangers.

 

After only managing Braga for 2 months and achieving so much, Amorim was then approached by Sporting CP in March 2020 after the sacking of Portuguese manager, Silas. Proving just how exciting Amorim was seen as a manager, Sporting paid 10 million Euros to Braga for his transfer fee, the 3rd highest ever for a manager at the time. The toxic environment from the fans around Sporting was horrible and they were in dire need of the right manager to take them back to their historic winning ways. Just months before Amorim had joined, it had gotten so bad that around 50 or so ‘Sporting fans’ attacked the players and staff members while at the training ground. Amorim was luckily able to pick up good results and steer the club into a solid 4th place position, also earning them a qualifying spot in the Europa League.

 

Amorim’s next season as a manager was probably his most memorable so far. Sporting made some brilliant signings, picking up young talented players that have since been sold to big clubs around Europe for a large sum of money (Pedro Porro to Tottenham, Joao Paulinha to Fulham and then Bayern Munich, Nuno Mendes to PSG and Mathues Nunes to Wolves and then Manchester City, just to name a few). Amorim won the domestic double with Sporting, winning his 2nd ever League Cup before ending their 19 year Primeira Liga drought. He also set a new record in Portuguese football for embarking on a 32 game unbeaten run. It was a brilliant campaign not just for Amorim but the Sporting fans which saw him win manager of the year.

 

Over the next 3 seasons, he won 2 more League Cup titles, making it 4 in a row, while also winning their 20th league title in the 23/24 season. They also dealt out some major European upsets, beating Tottenham in the Champions League in the 22/23 season as well as Arsenal in the Europa League quarter finals in 2023. While losing many players to bigger European clubs, Sporting and Amorim proved that wasn’t a problem, using the money to scout young and talented players to keep the club with a strong squad. The most notable of them all was Swedish striker Viktor Gyökeres who netted 43 times while also registering 15 assists in his 50 games played.

 

At the end of the 23/24 campaign, Amorim was tipped for a big Premier League move, with clubs such as Liverpool and West Ham announcing their respective managers, Jurgen Klopp and David Moyes, were leaving at the end of the 23/24 season. Amorim took a trip to London for the West Ham job but in the end flew back to apologise saying it was a mistake and he wanted to stay for the 24/25 season.

 

So far this season, Amorim’s Sporting are flying, winning all 10 games in the league so far this season scoring a whopping 35 goals and just conceding 3. They are also having a very successful Champions League campaign, sitting 2nd in the group stage format, coming off the back of a 4-1 thrashing of 2023 winners, Manchester City. Manchester United fans all around the world will be thrilled with this result as Amorim has demolished his new rivals with an arguably lower valued squad. Amroim leaves Sporting as one of their greatest ever servants and one of the most exciting managers in the whole of Europe.

 

The Portuguese coach will come into the Manchester United squad and most likely still use his famous 3-4-3 formation. Despite the majority of the United players being signings under Erik ten Hag, their fans will trust in Amorim to get the best out of them given the job he did at Sporting. Amorim likes to emphasise his wing backs, meaning new signing Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot will be the focal points of his attack. He likes to play a solid 3 at the back, it will most likely be new signing Matthijs de Ligt as well as Lisandro Martinez and Harry Maguire. Amorim then also prefers to play two defensive midfielders in front of his back three to protect them, probably new signing Manuel Ugarte and Casemiro (Casemiro is only a short term option as of his age, Kobbie Mainoo will be preferred to the Brazilian next season). His front three is up to him, wide player options include: Marcus Rashford, Amad Diallo, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony all capable of taking that role. Strikers vary from players such as Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee who are pure no.9’s to players like Bruno Fernandes who have played as a false 9 on many occasions. Amorim will most likely opt to play a pure no.9 though given his success with Viktor Gyökeres. Fans will hope that Amorim can get the most out of Rasmus Hojlund, who has the same traits as Gyökeres but maybe a tad less confidence. If Hojlund doesn’t work out, United fans will hope Amorim will go in and convince Gyökeres to make a Premier League return to help the Red Devils with their goal scoring issue. At the end of matchweek 10, Manchester United have only scored a measly 9 goals, with just newly promoted Southampton and Crystal Palace scoring less.

 

After a very negative last decade for Manchester United fans, there is finally some amount of positivity around the club after new owners INEOS have appointed their first manager, one that looks exciting and one with a solid CV at such a young age. Fans wearing Red in Manchester will hope he can bring them back to their glory days seen under Sir Alex and make Manchester United the best club in the world again.

 

This is Ruben Amorim.

 

 

Ollie Wade is a Grade 11 student who dabbles in sports writing, He plays for the Barossa United Senior Men’s Team.

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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