The real Ruben Amorim – how he overcame rejection to land the Man Utd job

Ruben Amorim feared his football career would be cruelly snatched away before it had started. On the astroturf pitches of Clube Atletico e Cultural, overlooked by tower blocks and a rickety stand, his hopes were fading.

He was just six miles away from his beloved Benfica, who had released him, but a world away from a playing career taking him to the World Cup, to Portuguese titles and to a Champions League match against Sir Alex Ferguson in which he was on course for a shock win until the floodlights cut out.

It was on those pitches that he started asking what he calls “The Whys” – the principle that underpins his journey from the Lisbon suburbs to coaching the biggest football club on the planet. Amorim now believes young players do not ask enough questions like he did growing up.

He kept probing his coaches as his career got back on track, that is abundantly clear when talking to those who worked with him. A special one? No other player would ask as many questions and he was fascinated by the sport that nearly booted him out. His coaching principles were published in September, in a chapter Amorim wrote for Hugo Leal’s book It’s Not Just Football, Stupid.

“There’s an expression I think about a lot but have never said out loud: a coach is the master of the ‘whys’,” Amorim wrote, before detailing what he sees in young players making the step into senior football.

“The truth is that they also arrive a little too ‘programmed’. I feel that what’s missing is an understanding of the game, being able to grasp the reasons, the ‘whys’ rather than just relying on ‘because I can’. It’s important for them to realise that talent alone doesn’t solve everything. When they arrive in professional football, they lack some of those ‘whys’ and end up feeling a bit lost.”

Early coaching promise and an eye for detail

Amorim was in the football wilderness as a teenager. Released by Benfica at 13, he played at Clube Atletico e Cultural but the commute across the Tagus River was too much. He chose to play for Ginasio de Corroios where he began his climb back to the top.

“Everything became more stable – I had more time for school and other stuff, and, strangely enough, that made me a better player,” he said. “Having time for myself helped me grow as a footballer. It was there that I thought, ‘maybe I can still be a footballer’ because I had lost that hope at CAC.”

There is a fabled story of how Amorim started in professional football at Belenenses. He was looking for an opportunity to get into football but had a broken arm – he played in a trial match anyway.

He was reunited with his childhood friend Bruno Simao and they were back in the same team after both having been released by Benfica. By the age of 23, Amorim returned to Estadio da Luz and the club he adored as a child which had broken his heart as a teenager.

This love for Benfica made his work as a coach at Sporting Lisbon all the more remarkable – he changed the club and changed opinions on himself. “He was not a Sporting fan and normally everyone would attack him for being a Benfica fan but now everyone at Sporting likes him,” explains Jose Peseiro, his coach at Braga.

Amorim’s time at Benfica was punctuated by two loan spells, one of them at Braga under Peseiro when he showed early signs of being a coach in the making.

“He showed some capacity to be a coach even then; he asked questions about how we used the ball,” Peseiro says. “Some players have no interest in that, they come for training and do their preparation and then their recovery after the game. They don’t show interest in the details, the tactics, the model, about the condition of the game. They don’t ask the coach: ‘Why do I believe in that?’ Ruben was a player who liked to question the coach. ‘Mister, I don’t like to play in this position.’ I’d say that he had to play in that position for the team.

“Yes, he did not like playing out of position and would complain about it,” Peseiro reveals. “It was always a calm conversation and another example of wanting to know the ‘whys’.

“In his career his coaches played him in several positions. He played midfield No 6, No 8, No 10,” Peseiro says. “At right-back. At left-back. He didn’t like to change position but he would show good performances in those positions. He complained to me but every time he did it and adapted well.

“He is a kind guy. He liked to joke and create a good harmony. The team-mates listened to him as he was a leader. He had an opinion about everything. He liked to speak and get opinions to create a good atmosphere. But he also accepted the opinions of others, which is good for the team.”

Previous brushes with United

Amorim has history with United as a player: Braga were drawn against them in the Champions League group stages during his season there.

His side were winning by a goal until the floodlights failed and then United staged a late comeback. “He [had] a very good match against Manchester United home and away,” said Peseiro. “In the home game it wasn’t the same after the lights. We scored and then after 72 minutes the lights went off and it went from 1-0 up to 3-1 down.”

During that season Amorim formed a friendship with team-mate Hugo Viana, which they maintained until they were both at Sporting as head coach and sporting director. Peseiro had his own history with United having recommended Nani to them from his own time at Sporting. Ferguson was so pleased that he invited Peseiro to the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow.

Earning his badges and internship at Carrington

Amorim’s other loan spell was at Al Wakrah in Qatar before his playing career ended with three Portuguese titles from his time at Benfica.

The coaching journey to Old Trafford started at Casa Pia, only six years ago, when he took all of his knowledge from his playing career to the third-tier club. But his move into coaching came too quickly and he was threatened with punishment for not having his Uefa qualifications.

He undertook them in Belfast with the likes of Gabby Agbonlahor, Christopher Samba, Lee Cattermole, Craig Gardner and Alex Bruce. Amorim, it is said, was laser-focused on learning his trade during a 12-hour working day starting at 8am. Others went out for beers in the evening, but Amorim’s eyes were on the prize as he completed the fast-track course.

Part of his education was also the master’s in High-Performance Football Coaching at the University of Lisbon, co-designed by Jose Mourinho and also involving an internship at Manchester United’s Carrington HQ.

Amorim was there in 2018 for a week and Professor Antonio Veloso, who designed the course with Mourinho, told The Manchester Evening News: “Ruben always had strong opinions, [while also] being able to listen to other people’s opinions and learn and incorporate different ideas from the students.

“He is really passionate about football and the thing that he always said that he likes the most is to see games and to analyse games. He said: ‘When I have time, what I do for fun is to see a Premier League game and analyse the different options and how the different coaches approach the game and so on’.”

His players must give maximum effort

At Sporting Lisbon he was hoisted into the air after the final whistle in his last game. His team had won two titles in four years and they showed the best parts of an Amorim team by defeating Manchester City 4-1 less than three weeks ago.

Players have said their farewells, almost all of them to a man believing they are better than before they worked with Amorim. Players were weighed every month and Amorim was “very strict” about how heavy his players had to be, according to a first-team source.

“He demands a lot. Mentality, focus, attention and a fighting spirit,” they added. “He’s very detailed in his training and goes into every detail.

“He doesn’t allow us to be below our level. He gives us a lot of confidence, but he also demands a lot. In defence, he wants us to be perfect. Offensively, he gives us more freedom but he wants the team to be intelligent when playing.”

United’s players have been warned. Amorim will want them training to the absolute limit with no let-up. Those who have fallen foul of him at Sporting included Abdul Fatawu, now at Leicester.

“He is a player with a lot of talent, but sometimes team dynamics and coaches cannot bring out the best in players,” was Amorim’s explanation of Fatawu fading from his first-team plans. Gonzalo Plata was another  who fell out of favour under Amorim.

Others have flourished, such as Viktor Gyokeres, who arrived from Coventry City and is now scoring at a rate of which Erling Haaland would be proud. Morten Hjulmand took his form under Amorim to the Euros in the summer and scored a stunner against England.

“When you get a clear picture of the way he sees football and the way he wants you in the team, that is very important for a player,” the Denmark midfielder said. “The way he manages outside and inside the pitch is not like anything I’ve seen before in my career. Manchester are in good hands.”

Football obsessive who analyses everything

Put together the “whys” and his detailed analysis of everything and it goes some way to explaining what Amorim has achieved aged 39. As his professor at university revealed, he watches everything and is consumed by football.

“This is where watching football games becomes a huge advantage,” Amorim wrote in Leal’s book. “It might seem odd to bring this up, but I think young players nowadays – and even older ones – don’t watch enough football, and that’s a major limitation for them. I used to watch all my games because my dad would record them.

“I’d spend the entire weekend at home, watching them from back to front. That, combined with the fact that I played in multiple positions, perhaps helped me develop this broader perspective on the game, shaping the type of coach I’ve become.

“When I see young players arriving at my training sessions, I feel there’s still so much they haven’t experienced or discussed. Only a player who understands all the nuances of the game can be a complete player.”