“Maybe I chose the most difficult challenge, but it was what I wanted”, assured Ruben Amorim in March 2020, when he was surprisingly announced as Sporting’s coach.
“What if it works?” he asked at the time. It went extraordinarily, but the connection ended this Sunday in Braga, precisely where it all began, just over four and a half years ago, when the “lions” bet 10 million on the young coach’s record to remove him from Minho.
Four and a half years later, with two championships (and well on the way to the third), two League Cups and a Super Cup, Amorim said goodbye to Alvalade as one of the greatest coaches of all time for the Lisbon team, but sobriety returned to the agenda. the coach’s speech on the way to the Manchester United bench.
“It was an unbelievable adventure”, he admitted in flash interview from Sport TV, right after the end of the Pedreira match. “I have more uncertainty about my future [em Inglaterra] than in the future of Sporting”, he highlighted, considering that the team has everything to be successful without his presence.
“The coach who arrives [João Pereira deverá ser apresentado como seu sucessor esta segunda-feira] will do the same job, because these players are very special”, he continued, envisioning that Sporting’s challenge in his coaching career was “much more risky” than the one he is thinking about going to live in Manchester.
The great work that the coach did in Alvalade is indisputable, managing to recover Sporting’s “great” status on a competitive level.
And he promoted an authentic revolution since taking over the “lions”, particularly in terms of value and solutions in the squad. Of the group of players he found in 2019-10, only young players Gonçalo Inácio and Eduardo Quaresma remained, which is enlightening in relation to the team’s profound transformation.
In farewell, Ruben Amorim thanked the president of Sporting Frederico Varandas, but also the Braga leader António Salvador, who launched him at a very young age as a coach in the top circles of Portuguese football.
Working for the “arsenalistas”, Amorim had beaten Sporting twice in 2020, on the eve of heading to Lisbon. They eliminated Sporting, coached by Silas, from the semi-finals of the League Cup, 2-1, in January and, less than two weeks later, they beat the Alvalade team again at the Pedreira stadium, in the championship, 1-1. 0, with a goal by Francisco Trincão.
He now arrives in Manchester with a CV incomparably superior to the one he presented in the “Leonine” group, but he promises not to change anything. “In Manchester I won’t become a different person.”
But the words of affection and gratitude continued to focus on Sporting. “I have always been very happy and, in five years, I have never felt alone, even though I stayed for a season [2022-23] not fifth place.”
Asked about potential signings in the “Lions” squad for his new club during the opening of the next winter transfer market, Amorim did not commit to anything, but always said that certain contexts cannot be replicated in different clubs.
With strong reinforcements or not at the new club, Amorim guarantees one thing: “I’m ready for Manchester.”
