RUBEN AMORIM will take the reins at Old Trafford as one of the most feted and fawned-over young bosses in football.
Yet the latest man charged with dragging Manchester United off the canvas was once so convinced he would not cut it as a boss that he tried to quit… after only two games.
It was 2018, and Amorim, then just 33, had begun his management career at Portuguese third-tier outfit Casa Pia with two defeats.
And as he walked into the dressing room after the second of them, his mind was made up. It would be best for everyone if the relationship came to a swift end.
As a rookie still chasing his Level 1 coaching qualification, Amorim felt the club needed a bigger, more experienced name. And with brutal honesty, he told his astonished players so.
Among them was Evandro Roncatto, a team-mate from their playing days at Belenenses and signed by his close pal.
Brazilian Roncatto, now sporting director of Oliveira do Hospital, remembers it well.
Amorim may have had huge doubts, but his players had already seen enough to have none — and they wasted no time giving president Victor Franco a brutal message of their own.
Roncatto revealed: “I was playing for Kalamata in Greece when Ruben called and right away I was very impressed.
“But he had doubts as he did not have a professional coaching qualification.
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“He was so honest with his concerns and worried about harming the team because he wasn’t a big-name coach.
“And that day he came into the dressing room when we were still getting changed, in front of the president and vice-president and said, ‘I’m leaving’.
WHEN Ruben Amorim took charge of Sporting Lisbon in March 2020, one club official compared their situation to the “walking dead”, writes Jordan Davies.
Optimism and hope was at an all-time low.
But the Amorim-effect was almost instantaneous, guiding the Portuguese sleeping giants to their first league title for 19 years in 2020/21, losing just once and only conceding 20 goals.
Since then, Sporting have lifted another league title in 2023/24 – as well as two League Cups – and currently sit top with nine wins from nine this term.
He may be young, but Amorim already has an eye for rebuilding and revitalising fallen super powers with his infectious charisma and intense tactical philosophy that hardly ever wavers.
The “walking dead” at Manchester United must be praying for a similar sort of revival.
And they may just get it from one of the most talented young coaches on the continent – a man accustomed to breathing new life back into crumbling institutions such as Old Trafford.
Amorim has spent the last decade dreaming of one day gracing England’s Premier League, such was his admiration for an ex-United boss in Jose Mourinho growing up.
Often nicknamed ‘Mourinho 2.0’, Amorim spent a week with his coaching idol in an internship capacity at United’s Carrington training base in 2018, going on to cite him as his “reference point”.
United should not be expecting a mini-Mourinho, as Amorim said himself: “Mourinho is one of a kind. There won’t be another Mourinho. Mourinho is unique.”
And yet, you cannot help but compare the two.
For all the mismanagement in the Old Trafford hot seats over the years, this would be a real get – finally a slap in the face United’s Prem rivals have no answer for.
“In an instant, all the players stood up and told the president if he let Ruben go, all of them would leave the club along with him.
“We told the president we were with the coach to the death. We were all emotional and all defending Ruben
“When the president found himself in that situation, I think any idea of firing Ruben disappeared in seconds!
“All the players were with Ruben to the death, no matter what.”
The belief in that dressing room was well founded, as Casa Pia went on to win the title and Amorim’s coaching career took off.
That day he came into the dressing room when we were still getting changed, in front of the president and vice-president and said, ‘I’m leaving’.
Evandro Roncatto
A year later Braga had poached him as their reserve boss, three months later he was in charge of the first team, and after only 13 games, Sporting Lisbon paid £8million to get him.
It was also an indication of the loyalty so many who have worked under Amorim insist he inspires in players — Roncatto more than most.
He had grown close to the new United chief when he arrived at Belenenses in the noughties.
Amorim became his unofficial guardian, from meals at the family home to easing him into a new life in Portugal.
Roncatto, 38, added: “The way he treats his players is spectacular.
“When he left Casa Pia for Sporting Braga I said, ‘This is where the story of an elite coach begins’.
“I wasn’t wrong and United have picked the ideal person.”
