Ruben Amorim, the road to Manchester United: ‘He was special, like a magician’

It was two o’clock in the morning and Bruno Simao could not sleep. He popped a pill to ease his mind and body.

When he woke up the next day, unanswered calls and messages filled his phone screen. He had missed training with third-division Portuguese side Casa Pia, then coached by Ruben Amorim.

“For Ruben, I was out of the team forever,” says Simao, sitting on a bench looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Simao’s team-mates asked Amorim, in his first coaching job, to allow him to stay, pleading it was a mistake.

“The next day I went to training,” says Simao. “He called a meeting with all the players and told me: ‘You have your friends and colleagues to thank because for me, you were out’.”

Simao stayed and their relationship remained intact, but he could not say he hadn’t been warned. Amorim had not wanted to sign his childhood friend, whom he met at the age of nine at Benfica’s youth team and visited in hospital after a motorbike accident which nearly ended Simao’s football career, telling him bluntly: “Don’t mix our life outside of football with football. Four months ago you were in a coma, you are 33 years old. I have three left-backs in my team and you are expensive.”

But when Amorim saw Simao’s level of training from the videos he posted on social media, he thought again.

Simao says: “At Manchester United, I’m sure he will be the same because this is his character and he’s like this with everyone. You have no time to joke with the job. He’s really strict, but that is why he is a winner.”

Simao and Amorim, godfather to Simao’s 18-year-old daughter Carolina, are still extremely close, but time has passed. Within six years, the former Benfica midfielder and Portugal international, who played alongside Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo, has gone from resigning at Casa Pia because he did not have the coaching qualifications to guiding Sporting to their first league title in 19 years. Amorim, 39, will take over as the head coach of Manchester United next week.

But though times have changed, his character remains the same.

The strict side to Amorim is juxtaposed with a man who, according to some of those closest to him, has a brilliant sense of humour and a broad smile, is a master in communication and a natural leader who brings people together.

The Athletic travelled to Lisbon to talk to some of those who know him best; visiting his father’s key-cutting shop, meeting Amorim’s primary school teacher and speaking to the man who gave him his first coaching job.

This is a window into the man, Ruben Amorim.

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The year 1991 was special for Paula Aheu. Aged 24, she got married, completed her teacher training and taught her first class at CEBI Foundation, a private primary school in Alverca, north of Lisbon. In that class, still etched in her memory, was Amorim.

“He was a very happy boy,” Aheu tells The Athletic from a coffee shop in Lisbon. “I remember the smile he has now.

“He loved football. He was a leader with his friends. He always prepared the game at break times, telling the other children which positions to play: ‘You go here, you go there’.”

Aheu recalls he was strong in maths and, to a slightly lesser degree, Portuguese. But, really, football was his subject.

A well-behaved pupil, Amorim would play at every opportunity; before school started at 9am, when his “very kind” grandmother “with a sweet smile” walked him to the gate, and at break times, lunch and after school.

His mother, Anabela, and father, Virgilo, were already divorced and Aheu notes the importance of his caring family environment — and how Amorim looked up to his older brother, Mauro.

“He loves to speak,” says Aheu. “When I see Ruben speaking on the television, I see Ruben as a child, the big smile, what he says is what he is.”

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“Tournaments… look! Rollerblade hockey! He’s there, the goalkeeper in green. In the Benfica academy with another trophy, dressed up for international tournaments in France. The national team, under-18s, under-17s… look at this photo, how cute! Look at this one, his technique!”

Standing behind the counter of his key-cutting shop in Alverca, Amorim’s father Virgilio is sifting through hundreds of photos. They are markers of his son’s playing career — “He won 10 national titles, three Portuguese titles, five Portuguese League Cups, a Super Cup and a Portuguese Cup,” Virgilio rattles off — and symbols of his attributes as a player and now a coach.

In one photo, Amorim is clutching onto his captain’s armband, which has slipped down his skinny arm.

His leadership skills stood out from as far back as Benfica’s youth academy.

It was there he met Simao, as well as Joao Pereira, Sporting’s reserve team coach who is set to replace Amorim as head coach; and Jose Morais, former assistant to Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea, who coached Amorim for four years.

Described by Virgilio as a “spectacular man”, Morais tells The Athletic about Amorim’s “soft confident energy” as a child, who transmitted “tranquillity” and “maturity”.

“He became captain because of his quality to interact with team-mates; he was a positive influence on others, a role model,” he adds. “In emotional derbies — Benfica against Sporting — he was always the one pushing the others and had a winning belief. ‘Come on, let’s go!’ he would shout.

“He led by example. He was a runner, a fighter, his movements were dynamic, defending and attacking. He never gave up. He gave everything — a kid with character.”

At the age of 17, Amorim had a trial, thanks to Simao, at Portuguese club Belenenses — with a broken arm. He had suffered the injury in the last 20 minutes of the final game of the season with Gimnasio de Corroios, a club south of Lisbon, when they became youth champions. Amorim was hesitant to play, but he was put at centre-back instead of midfield to offer him a bit more protection and still blew the coach away.

Inspired by midfielders Zinedine Zidane and Fernando Redondo, he was highly competitive. Amorim hated losing — and still does. His mother and Simao know not to contact him until the day after a defeat.

“I saw the tears in his eyes when we lost the derby,” says Morais, calling from Iran where he coaches Sepahan in the Persian Gulf Pro League. “He had the will to win, he couldn’t accept things could go wrong. But immediately after, he was the one hugging the others, bringing them together and ready to fight for the next game.”

On December 18, 1997, Morais accompanied a team, consisting of the youth captains of Sporting, Benfica and Belenenses, to an inter-association tournament. A certain Cristiano Ronaldo was part of the group.

“A former Manchester United player and the future coach of Manchester United!” Virgilio says, pointing out the two young boys.

As players, according to Morais, the two are incomparable. “Ronaldo was a goalscorer with a different personality. Ruben brought people together.”

The admiration Morais had for Amorim as a child was so strong that nearly 20 years later, after he left Chelsea and Mourinho to carve his own path as head coach of Antalyaspor in Turkey, he tried to sign Amorim but could not close the deal in time.

“When I heard he was coaching,” he adds, “it made sense because he was an influencer in that way. He helped others.”

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Carlos Pires wanted a change at Lisbon-based club Casa Pia. The third-division side had made the play-offs twice in the last three years but never made that final step. The sporting director was on the lookout for a new coach and, in April 2018, met Amorim in a coffee shop near the retired player’s house by Sporting’s stadium in Lisbon.

The year before, at the age of 32, Amorim had hung up his boots, having won 10 titles and played in two World Cups. He had never been a head coach before but had taken from his playing days what he liked and did not like about how coaches behaved.

Amorim was influenced by Jorge Jesus, his former coach at Belenenses and Benfica who used the same 3-4-3 system and is now managing Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. Mourinho was another inspiration, having been one of Amorim’s coordinators and lecturers on the University of Lisbon’s high-performance coaching course, which led to a week-long internship at Manchester United in 2017.

“Mourinho and Jesus are great coaches, but Ruben has his own way of communicating and building the team,” says Tiago Ribeiro, an agent and Amorim’s friend of 25 years. “He is not trying to be someone else.”

Pires persuaded Amorim to join Casa Pia, despite his lack of qualifications, because he says he saw “the perfect coach”.

“Ruben asked me why,” adds Pires. “I said, ‘I have this feeling’. He was special, like a magician.

“He knows what to say in every moment of the game. He understands every moment off the pitch and he knows how to lead like no one else.”

The aim was to get promoted.

From the first day, the young coach on a contract earning less than half the minimum wage was respected.

“Everyone fell in love with him,” Pires says. “He had an aura, he was completely different.”

But Casa Pia suffered defeats in their first two games of the season and Amorim told Pires that if he lost the next match he would quit.

“We managed to calm him down, convince him to keep working and it would bring results,” says Pires. “There was no chance he could leave.”

Casa Pia won the next game, but Amorim opted to change from a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3, a system he has used throughout his managerial career at Braga B, Braga and Sporting.

The team then went on an unbeaten run. “He was methodical, an exhaustive worker, a natural communicator, and he was able to get his players to execute every idea he came up with perfectly,” says Pires.

“Everything he touches turns to gold. He had a great way of expressing himself and he was able to reach us with his words and create solidarity.”

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Bringing people together is a golden thread that runs throughout Amorim’s life.

Morais points to the example set by his parents, who organised activities with other families before and after youth games.

Simao recalls team BBQs after training at Casa Pia and dinners out, paid by Amorim himself; a gesture he has made to the Sporting team, too.

“We would spend a couple of hours together with him and the team,” says Simao. “When we make a strong group, players with coaches, no one can get inside.”

Amorim called for better conditions for the players; organising ice baths, for example, to aid recovery.

“He pushed the president,” says Simao. “‘My players need this!’ Casa Pia was semi-professional, but everything was professional. He paid from his own pocket to help the club and players.”

One player did not have enough money to pay his rent or look after his children and the authorities threatened to take his children away from him and his partner.

“Amorim promised this boy that he would pay his rent every month,” Simao adds. Amorim still pays the rent to this day.

It all came crashing down at Casa Pia, however, when the Portuguese Football Federation banned Amorim for a year because he did not have the correct qualifications to be a head coach. He was only officially registered as a coaching intern.

Although those punishments were later revoked by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Amorim reluctantly resigned in January 2019.

“He thought it was unfair that people were trying to hinder his career,” says Pires.

“It was a bad time for him and us,” adds Simao. “He said: ‘If I don’t go, it will be bad for the team. And I don’t want this’. He was crying. He created such a wonderful atmosphere with us. What would we do without him? I think this is what the Sporting players are thinking now.”

The same players played the same system after Amorim’s departure and became champions, finally gaining promotion.

“We worked and fought, but it was not the same,” says Simao. “Something was missing: Ruben Amorim.”

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Having turned down jobs with Benfica and Estoril Under-23s, nine months after he left Casa Pia, Amorim was appointed head coach of Braga reserves. He was then promoted to first-team head coach, replacing the sacked Ricardo Sa Pinto, just three months later. From his first game in January 2020, he was undefeated in 11 out of 13 matches, losing only to Rangers in the Europa League.

In March 2020, with just two months of first-division experience, Sporting hired Amorim. They paid Braga €10million (£8.4m; $10.9m at current rates) to trigger his release clause, reported at the time as the third most expensive coach transfer in the world.

“Sporting were in a bad period,” says Ribeiro. “It was like a civil war… It was not a good time to become Sporting coach and he had all that on his hands. It was a lot of pressure. It was a surprise for everyone except a small group of people who knew Ruben.”

“Many people, grown men, were crying when he left Braga,” Jose Chieira, Amorim’s former head of scouting at Sporting, tells The Athletic.

“There were a lot of issues and changes at Sporting. Every department was being built from scratch. When Ruben arrived, he brought a different culture to the club, the board, to everyone there. He’s a very complete profile, larger than life in a good sense. There is a time before and after Ruben Amorim.”

After first meeting Amorim to discuss the squad, the market and scouting, Chieira says he told sporting director Hugo Viana: “This guy is completely different.”

“He brings this empathy, a genuine effort to bring everyone on board, but at the same time he puts everyone in their place,” adds Chieira.

“You can kid around, joke, but he is completely sure of what he wants each and everyone in the structure to produce. He promotes this open, easy, flowing decision-making but people always have to focus and feel the right tension.”

Chieira had already started to build a proprietary big-data scouting model when Amorim arrived, but the new coach was “curious” and “humble enough” to listen, push himself out of his comfort zone and understand something unfamiliar.

“The club had many problems with communication and leadership from the board, he solved 90 per cent of those problems. Like most coaches, he’s quite stubborn in his principles, but you can understand because he knows how to win.”

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When asked about Amorim’s weaknesses, many are stumped.

“I’m still trying to find out,” says Ribeiro, having known him for more than 25 years. “Maybe he is too honest,” he proffers. “Sometimes in the football world, that can become a problem.”

“He says what he has to say with no worries,” adds Simao. “He doesn’t do anything to impress. He must have (some weakness). Everyone does. But it’s impossible not to like him.”

A clue may be in the fact that before heading to Braga, Amorim was going to manage Benfica Under-23s, but the project presented to him was not what he was expecting.

“He wanted to be the person in charge,” says Ribeiro, smiling. “Would it be fair to say he likes control? I can agree with that.”

Amorim has that control at Sporting thanks to his brotherly relationship with Manchester City’s future sporting director Viana, a loyal friend who played with Amorim for Portugal and Braga. Indeed, at one point, it looked as if Amorim would be a strong contender to manage on the other side of Manchester should Pep Guardiola call time, with one Sporting employee referring to their partnership as like “a right hand and a left hand. That’s how close they are”.

But Amorim does not always keep his cool.

“Yes, yes, yes, he shouts,” says Simao. “I’ve heard it. I’ve seen him angry many times because he wants to be perfect too much, to be great, to win. If everything in his life is not like he wants, it’s better to leave him because he can react badly.”

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Amorim can be ruthless, but he also likes to laugh. As a player, he kept the dressing room mood light and jovial.

“Ruben was like a clown,” says Simao. As young as eight, Amorim used to impersonate his late beloved Benfica youth coach Fernando Chalana, a former Portugal national team player.

“Ruben sometimes appeared in the dressing room, with his trousers up to his chest, like Chalana wore them,” adds Simao. “He spoke like him, exactly like him. Sometimes he showed the parents. ‘Look, I am Chalana!’ This was the best.

“When we saw Ruben like this, everybody laughed. That’s Ruben. This is really important in the dressing room. When he’s serious, he’s serious. When he jokes, he jokes.”

It is an attribute that he continued into his senior playing days at Benfica, wiggling his hips in the dressing room…

… or interviewing players, coaches and high-level executives on the aeroplane.

As a pundit with Portuguese channel TVI in 2019, he was always up for a joke, even at the expense of Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes.

In 2019, Fernandes attended the Estoril Open tennis tournament in Lisbon, but the then Sporting captain was refused entry because his denim shorts did not adhere to the dress code. Eventually, he found a pair of trousers, but on the next programme, the pundits, including Amorim, all wore shorts in a nod to Fernandes’ blunder.

Amorim’s punditry career was short but sweet. “The way he explained and read the game was very clear and simple, but very different,” says Sport TV reporter Claudia Lopes, who has known Amorim since 2010. “He came with a new idea of the back three, something fresh. The way he communicated with the media — he has always been very transparent. What you see is what you get, as a coach, a friend and a person. Coaching comes naturally to him, like breathing.”

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Even today, Simao and Amorim reminisce over the good old days.

“The first time we went abroad without our parents, we were 17 and went to Palma de Mallorca with his cousin, Miguel Totti, and his friend, Rui Sota, nearing their 30s.

“We were in the swimming pool, played football, cycled, went to the beach, and to nightclubs.”

Amorim would go out sometimes when he was younger, but never excessively so. As they got older, every summer, a close group of friends, including Ribeiro, would meet up for dinner in the Algarve, but they missed it this year. Nowadays, he and Ribeiro sometimes go out for a drink or a bite to eat in Lisbon, trying not to be spotted.

“Let’s go have fun — one or two hours, nothing crazy,” says Ribeiro. “It was funny because he was undercover with a hat.”

Amorim used to play padel, go to the gym and box, but time outside football is precious these days. Instead, he is happiest spending time with his family — his wife Maria Joao Diogo and two young sons, Miguel and Manuel. “Since he started to be a coach, he is giving back what his mother gave to him: the life she deserves,” says Simao.

Amorim goes to the barber shop to keep his beard perfectly trimmed and likes to look presentable. “Now he is going to the best league in the world, he has to,” says Simao.

Within six years, Amorim’s career has exploded, but his inner circle believe he will stay true to himself.

As one person close to him, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, commented, he has a “boyish” view of himself akin to a “superhero” who can achieve anything. “He thinks no challenge is beyond him.”

Additional reporting: Thom Harris

(Top photos: Gualter Fatia/Getty Images; images courtesy of the Amorim family and Bruno Simao; design: Eamonn Dalton)