SPORTING LISBON boss Ruben Amorim is the hottest coaching talent from Portugal since Jose Mourinho.
Amorim has the opportunity to prove he too is a “special one” tonight when he leads his side against Manchester City in the last 16 of the Champions League.
As SunSport first revealed, Amorim’s achievements have put him on the radar of Manchester United.
And when Guardiola calls it a day at City, Amorim could even be in the frame to take charge at the Etihad.
Filipe Dias, a senior editor at Lisbon-based sports newspaper Record, said: “Since Mourinho there hasn’t been a manager as captivating here in Portugal as Ruben Amorim.
“We’re a small country but we have had good managers, like Mourinho and now Bruno Lage, in the Premier League.
“I think Amorim is something special as well.”
But the 37-year-old’s personality is more like Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s, than Mourinho’s.
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Dias added: “Portuguese football is very belligerent. We’re like a small Brazil or Argentina. There’s a lot of enmity and acrimony, especially between the three big clubs.
“But Amorim is on a whole other level. He is always calm, always positive, he doesn’t feel the need to say something bad to spite an opponent.
“Sporting is a madhouse but he changed it overnight.
“Amorim was a Benfica supporter as a kid. He played for Benfica. He was a Benfica man through and through. But now he is worshipped at Sporting.”
That is because Amorim led them to their first title for 19 years last season, in his first full campaign.
That justified Sporting’s willingness to spend £8.4million — the third highest ‘transfer’ fee for a coach — to prise him from Braga in March 2020.
Amorim is renowned for his stubbornness. He applied essentially the same tactics and principles in his new job that he had been told (wrongly) would not work at Braga.
Where the existing first-team squad did not have the players able to make his 3-4-3 system work, he promoted youngsters from Sporting’s respected academy to play alongside experienced heads like former Liverpool defender Sebastian Coates.
I think Amorim is something special as well.
Filipe Dias, Record editor
Joao Palhinha came back from loan to anchor the midfield, and £6m signing Pedro Goncalves, formerly of Wolves, defied all expectations by finishing the season as top goalscorer in the Primeira Liga.
Earlier this season, Amorim became the fastest coach to reach 50 wins in Portugal’s top flight.
But the defence of that long-awaited title suffered another blow on Friday night in an extraordinary game of four goals and five red cards.
Sporting led 2-0 at leaders Porto, only for Coates to be sent off early in the second half.
Porto equalised with 12 minutes to go and then both teams had two players dismissed after a mass brawl at the end of ten minutes of stoppage time.
The 2-2 draw kept Porto six points clear at the top but Amorim has already made Champions League history for Sporting by leading them to the last 16 for the first time since 2008-09.
Guardiola’s City will be a big step up in class. But Sporting’s ability to switch between pressing high, then inviting opponents on the next should cause them problems.
Whatever happens both Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Chelsea and all the giants of European football are sure to keep a close eye on Amorim.
Dias said: “It’s only a matter of time before Amorim moves on to bigger things in bigger leagues.
“If you put Manchester United in front of him, it would be a big thing.
“But he might say no, if he doesn’t feel it’s the right thing to do. It’s his way or no way.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
