A FEW beers down the pub was a highlight of the day for Gabby Agbonlahor and his pals at Uefa coaching sessions in Belfast.
Yet there was one man who shunned the prospect of a few pints because he was only there to learn.
Even then, Ruben Amorim stood out from the crowd.
Manchester United’s new manager took his Uefa badges in Northern Ireland because he was able to take part in a super-intense, fast-track course.
Amorim quit his first job at Casa Pia in 2019 after initially being suspended because he did not have the necessary qualifications to coach in Portugal.
But having taken his B Licence in Belfast that same year, he was handed a job with Braga’s B team and his career then took off in spectacular style.
Ex-Aston Villa star Agbonlahor, 38, said: “In Belfast, you can do a fast-track course. In England, it takes a year but for this one, you go for a week and each day lasts from 8am to 8pm.
“I did my Uefa A and B badges there. It cost a few thousand pounds.
“I was last there in 2020. I remember enjoying the days, although the weather was always rubbish.
“Amorim first came to the course in 2019 after he resigned from his first job because he did not have the right qualifications. That is why he did the fast-track course.
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“There were about 20 on the course. Benjani, Chris Samba, Lee Cattermole, Craig Gardner and Alex Bruce were among the others on it.
“Amorim was very well-liked but you did not see him after 8pm when the course finished.
“Each night we’d go to the Irish pub but he was not like that. We were there to do our badges after retiring but it was very much a box-ticking thing. It certainly was for me.
“I had finished playing and had free time, so it was just the sort of thing you would do — but for him it was different.
“Even then, he just spoke well. I remembered him as a player and he was a year older.
“During the course, we all had to put on training sessions and his sessions were good.
“We put them on for a load of 18-year-old lads from Belfast and I was nervous.
“But Amorim came in and was completely prepared. Then it was a case of boom, boom, session done.
Each night we’d go to the Irish pub but he was not like that. We were there to do our badges after retiring but it was very much a box-ticking thing. It certainly was for me.
Gabby Agbonlahor
“You could obviously tell then he had something. He was desperate for the qualifications.”
Former Benfica midfielder Amorim made an instant impression at Braga B and was appointed first-team manager at the start of 2020.
After leading the club to a League Cup success, he was snapped up by Sporting Lisbon two months later.
Agbonlahor, now a talkSPORT pundit, said: “What I love about him is that he went to Braga, won a trophy and within a few months Sporting paid €10million for him.
“That is crazy money in Portugal. Sporting must have seen something in him at Braga.
“From being around him, I felt he had an aura. He is also no-nonsense. For me, Manchester United have got the right man as they need someone with the right philosophy.
“I know Erik ten Hag had said he could not do it with these players. Amorim knows he has to bring some sort of style of play.
“I could tell when a team is playing for their manager and I felt United were not under Ten Hag.
“Amorim’s lucky he has Portuguese players in Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes and will lean on them.
“He will want money to spend. I am not sure he will want the likes of Antony and Casemiro. He will want some legs in midfield.”
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.
