The extraordinary timeline of Ruben Amorim's astonishing managerial career
It is the moment that Sporting fans have long been dreading; the inevitable yet painful reality of bidding farewell to the figure who revitalised, rejuvinated and reenergised their flailing club as they reemerged a triumphant outfit reconstructed in his image, rebuilt in his own specific and enterprising vision.
Ruben Amorim’s tenure at Sporting CP has been nothing short of spectacular, transforming a club in utter turmoil - still reeling from the chaotic scenes of supporters storming the training ground and attacking their own players just two years before his arrival - into a powerhouse nationally, and a competitor continentally. It is perhaps easy to forget just how bad things were at the club when Amorim arrived. The toxic atmosphere, a fanbase divided, disillusioned, and entirely starved of belief. Rudderless, confused, virtually broken. The turnaround has been mesmeric.
At the age of 39, Amorim’s managerial career is still in its relative infancy, which makes what he’s already managed to achieve scarcely believable. Perhaps most startling of all is that it very nearly ended before it had even begun. Here’s a review of the sensational rise of a managerial icon.
Humble and tumultuous beginnings - self-doubt, thoughts of quitting and a one year ban from coaching
Ruben Amorim’s first venture into football management came at Casa Pia, then in the third division of Portuguese football. Truth be told, things got off to a difficult start. Indeed, after losing his two opening matches, Ruben Amorim almost called time on his managerial career before it had barely started, doubting whether he was able to implement his vision successfully from the touchline. A tactical tweak which has since become synonymous with how his side's play completely revitalised Amorim’s belief, and completely transformed Casa Pia’s fortunes.
Despite the success at the club though, things unravelled midway through the season after Casa Pia were given a six point deduction due to Amorim instructing his side without having the requisite coaching qualifications, while Amorim was also handed a year-long ban from coaching as a result. Amorim left his role in the aftermath, though ultimately his ban and Casa Pia’s points deductions were both suspended and effectively voided soon after. His work at the club ultimately contributed to their hugely impressive season though, which saw them promoted to the second division, and was the trigger that enabled them to begin their ascent to the top division of Portuguese football for the first time in 83 years when they earned a second promotion in 2022.
Record-breaking, ceiling-smashing, expectation-defying triumphs at SC Braga
People will point out the heroics Amorim has overseen at Sporting as the main success story of his managerial career thus far, but trust me, his spell in charge of Braga, though ridiculously brief, is arguably far more impressive, and is well worth a read.
After his impressive, albeit short, stint at Casa Pia, Amorim moved on to coach Braga’s B side in September 2019, a perfect role for a manager still finding his feet in football management. Staying in the 3rd division of Portuguese football, Amorim would have likely expected to be given time to develop his managerial philosophy outside the spotlight of the media for a year or two before working his way up the managerial ladder. That, however, never happened, and, after winning 7 of his 8 matches at the helm of the Braga B team, Amorim, aged just 34, was thrust into the managerial hotseat of the Braga senior team after Ricardo Sa Pinto was dismissed just four months into the season, with Braga languishing in 8th in the Primeira Liga standings.
It was an appointment that was met with… scepticism. How could this boy, thrown into the deep-end and literally lacking the managerial credentials to be given such a job, possibly succeed?
The doubters were rapidly and emphatically silenced, however. Ruben Amorim went on to lead a rampant Braga side to a sensational 7-1 away victory over B SAD in his very first match in charge - equalling Braga’s biggest ever margin of victory in a competitive football match. It was a scintillating - and record-equalling - display that made everyone sit up and take note. Immediately, it felt as though something very special was happening here.
Anyone curious to see just how dominant Braga were in that outing, and eager to get a taste of how Amorim likes the game to be played, need to look no further:
That was just the beginning though, and what was to come made that triumphant opening fixture pale into insignificance. Extraordinary doesn’t do justice to what was to come. Just 34 days on from taking the Braga job, Ruben Amorim had achieved more than most managers in Portugal will achieve in their entire careers...
After a seismic statement away-day victory over heavyweights FC Porto, Amorim went on to lead his side to another remarkable win, defeating Sporting CP in the Portuguese League Cup to reach the Final of the competition, giving him the chance to taste silverware barely a month into his top-flight managerial career. He went on to do just that, guiding his team to yet another incredible win over Porto in the final to lift one of the biggest prizes Portuguese football has to offer before he had even turned 35. It was difficult to comprehend exactly what was happening, and quite how it was happening. Fans and reporters alike were in a state of shock and awe.
Ruben Amorim. What a sensational start to his managerial career.
— Alex Gonçalves (@Aljeeves) January 25, 2020
- Became Braga manager 34 days ago.
- 5 wins in 5 matches
- Oversaw the biggest win in Braga's history (1-7) & victory over Porto (twice!) & Sporting
- League Cup champion.
In just 34 days for the 34-year old. 👏 pic.twitter.com/LKdY36yMbV
If defeating Porto and Sporting wasn’t enough, Braga would go one better and defeat SL Benfica to make it a clean sweep of Os Três Grandes - the ‘Big Three’ - in Portugal in under 60 days. Braga were genuinely and objectively the best team in Portugal at that time, a statement that had previously never been uttered with any sincerity before.
Domestically, things could hardly be going better for Ruben Amorim, though Europe was a different story, Braga eliminated from the Europa League by Rangers. But the absurdity of Amorim’s success in his homeland was made all the more evident by the fact that Amorim actually wasn’t the official manager for those games against Rangers, as he hadn’t even earned the required coaching badges to manage in UEFA competitions yet…
Nevertheless, Amorim’s achievements domestically were reverberating not just across the nation, but across the continent, and intrigue in his managerial exploits continued to grow. And there was yet another twist before the 2019-20 season concluded, with Sporting CP, a club in virtual crisis, making the bold decision to trigger Amorim’s 10 million euro release clause and prise him away from Braga in March 2020, just before the season was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. Amorim, having overseen barely a dozen top flight football matches, suddenly became one of the most expensive managers in football history. Despite his surreal success at Braga, this represented a risk for Sporting, and there was immense pressure on their underfire club president to make the right call.
OFFICIAL: Sporting confirm the appointment of Braga's Ruben Amorim as manager for a fee of €10million, making him the 3rd most expensive managerial appointment in football history.
— Alex Gonçalves (@Aljeeves) March 5, 2020
That's despite the fact he only has 10 weeks of top flight managerial experience to his name. pic.twitter.com/NFMqHbOOtB
Sporting’s humble saviour
This represented a big risk for Amorim too. While he was thriving at a Braga side who had bought into his ideas and were flying high in the league, Sporting were in a state of chaos, and it’s easy to forget just how bleak things were looking in the green side of Lisbon at the time.
And despite a positive start at the club, it certainly wasn’t all plain-sailing. Ultimately Sporting ended up finishing 4th in the league in the 2019-20 season, below SC Braga, raising further questions about whether the move to Sporting was the right one for Ruben Amorim to advance his managerial career. The 2020-21 season started poorly too, with Sporting crashing out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages after a humiliating 1-4 home defeat to LASK Linz.
And yet…. And yet….. Somehow, it became a season of unexpected and extraordinary jubilation for Sporting, who proved to be virtually unbeatable domestically. After that shocking loss to LASK Linz, and with all the turmoil, division and frustrating surrounding the club, fans and pundits alike would have laughed in your face if you were to suggest Sporting would go on to have one of the greatest season’s in the club’s history. And yet that’s exactly what happened.
It started with a League Cup triumph…
Then followed a contract extension to bring some much-needed stability to a club that had become far too accustomed to disappointment and chaos…
And it finished in the most spectacular and unexpected wats possible. Sporting built up a knack for scoring late goals, always finding a way to turn defeats into draws and draws into victories, and they not only won their first league in nearly two decades against all the odds, but did so in style, almost going the entire season unbeaten in the process.
Sporting would ultimately go on to lose to Benfica in the penultimate league game of the season to be denied a historic unbeaten season - a feat never achieved in Portugal across a 34 game campaign - but supporters didn’t particularly care. Seeing their side end their long and painful wait for a league title was more than enough.
Champions League football beckoned for Sporting, a year on from their humiliating exit at the hands of LASK Linz in the Europa League playoffs, so there was real intrigue to see how they would fare. It’s fair to say that things went rather well…
And the good times in Europe continued two years later…
And three years on from Sporting’s ultimate Primeira Liga triumph, Ruben Amorim proved it was no fluke by doing it again in the 2023-24 season, truly leaving his mark on the club.
As he gets set to take the managerial hotseat at Manchester United, he leaves Sporting far and away the best team in Portugal, sitting top of the league table with 30 goals scored and just two goals conceded from the opening 9 league games of the season, having won all nine so far.
