Rúben Amorim

At 39 years old, Rúben Amorim has this physical status:

Rúben Filipe Marques Amorim (born 27 January 1985) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a midfielder, and is the manager of S.C. Braga B. He spent most of his professional career with Belenenses and Benfica, signing with the latter in 2008 and going on to win ten major titles, including three Primeira Liga championships.

During 12 seasons, he amassed totals in the competition of 221 matches and 13 goals. Amorim represented Portugal in two FIFA World Cups, earning a total of 14 caps.

After retiring, he worked as a manager.

Personal life

Amorim's cousins, David Simão and Bruno Simão, are also professional footballers.

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Club career

Born in Lisbon, Amorim made his Premiership debut in December 2003, playing one minute for hometown team Belenenses in a 2–0 home win over Alverca. He became a regular from 2005–06.

Amorim started in 28 of his 29 league appearances (2,491 minutes of action) and helped his team win eighth place in the 2007–08 season.

Amorim signed a four-year contract with Benfica in late April 2008, following his Belenenses contract's termination. In a 2–0 away victory over Académica de Coimbra during his first season as a starter, he scored his first goal on November 23rd.

Amorim played less in 2009–2010, but the team dominated the league and the League Cup as a result of a five-year absence, with new signings Javi Garca and Ramires. In the 2010–11 season, he was mainly used by manager Jorge Jesus when he was healthy. However, on 19 January 2011, he was hospitalized for several months after undergoing knee surgery.

When Amorim wasn't on staff with the national team, Amorim criticized Jesus' choices – Benfica played the majority of their games without a single Portuguese player. He refused to train with the bench players in December after being banned from playing for several minutes, but not to be used – following a game against Rio Ave on January 30, 2012, a loan was agreed with Braga until June of the following year.

Amorim played 37 games in 2013–14, including in the treble of league, Taça de Portugal, and Taça da Liga. He played for 119 minutes in his team's victory over Rio Ave in the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira in 2014, winning four titles in 2014. He was seriously injured while playing on artificial turf at Boavista on August 24th, but there was no news the next day that he had been injured until November 11th, 2015, when he was on the sidelines as a replacement in a 3–0 home loss to Vitória de Setbal in the domestic league championship's semi-finals.

Amorim joined Al-Wakrah in Qatar on a season-long contract on August 14, 2015. The 32-year-old ended his deal with Benfica on April 4, 2017, after more than a year of inactivity.

International career

Amorim was in the Netherlands at the 2007 European Under-21 Championship, a national team, before losing to Italy for the final berth for the following year's Summer Olympic Games. Despite being not on the senior squad's list of 23 players for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he was included in a backup list of six players on May 10, 2010. After the Manchester United player sustained a clavicle injury that ruled him out of the finals in South Africa, he replaced Nani on June 8. He made his senior debut on May 15th in the place of Raul Meireles, where he appeared in the last five minutes of the group stage opener against Ivory Coast (0–0) on June 15th.

Amorim was also selected by new boss Paulo Bento for the 2014 World Cup. In the last group phase match against Ghana, he made his debut in the tournament on June 26th, scoring the full 90 minutes but losing his team on goal difference.

Coaching career

Amorim joined the Lisbon Football Association shortly after leaving in order to obtain a coaching license. In addition, he took a postgraduate course in psychomotor education.

Amorim began as a manager in 2018-19 with the third division team Casa Pia. Despite being suspended shortly after, the team's six points were suspended and he was barred from all football for one year after giving instructions during a match without having the appropriate coaching experience to do so; even though the bans were suspended immediately after, the team resigned in the aftermath.

Amorim's under-23 coach returned to Benfica on May 20th. However, after a meeting at the club, he denied the possibility the following month.

Amorim was named in the third category of Braga's reserves in mid-September 2019. He replaced Ricardo Sá Pinto, the fired Ricardo Sá Pinto, at the helm of the first team on a two-and-a-half year deal, with the Minhotos finishing eighth in the league at the time of his signing. He led Belenenses SAD to a 7–1 victory over them on January 4th and then defeated Porto by a last-minute penalty by Rizinho Horta. Amorim defeated Braga's first victory away from Benfica in 65 years on February 15, with Joo Palhinha scoring the game's first goal. Since Braga drew 2–2 at home to Gil Vicente, he lost his first point in the league. Amorim only lost two games for the club in the first round of the 2019-20 Europa League, defeating Rangers 3–2 away in the first leg and 1–0 at home.

After the dismissal of Silas, Amorim became Sporting CP's boss on March 4, 2020, the first step was taken, but not before June 2023 with a €20 million buyout clause. Sporting paid €10 million for his services, the third-highest transfer fee for a manager in history, despite only having two months of top-flight experience. He led them to a 2–0 home win over Desportivo das Aves in their first game as coach in charge on March 8. Amorim won six and drew three in the rest of the season, but lost to Benfica in the Derby de Lisboa and rivals Porto at the end of the season, leading Sporting to a fourth-place finish and qualification to the Europa League third qualifying round. Despite being finished, Amorim managed to create a brand-new image for the club that had previously been lacking.

Jérémy Mathieu retired after suffering a knee injury in preparation and was replaced by Zouhair Feddal in the summer transfer window. Rodrigo Battaglia, Miguel Lus, Luciano Vietto, Wendel, And Marcos Acua have all left the club. Antonio Adán, a veteran goalkeeper, was welcomed as the first-choice goalkeeper, alongside Nuno Santos, Bruno Tabata, Pedro Porro, Jomo Mário, and Joo Palhinha, who was the last to return from his loan at Braga. Sporting signed Pedro Gonçalves, who had excelled in the previous season at Famalico, at the end of the transfer window. Amorim has welcomed Daniel Bragança, Gonçalo Inácio, Matheus Nunes, Nuno Mendes, and Tiago Tomás to the first team squad, as part of the new signings.

Amorim's second straight league final was won by the latter team on January 23rd 2021 against his previous team; both he and Braga manager Carlos Carvalhal were sent to the stands for arguing with each other. He renewed his deal for one more year on March 4th, with a revised release policy of €30 million. Following a national record of a 32-match unbeaten streak, including 1–0 home victory over Boavista on May 11, Pedro Gonçalves led the team to their first league title in 19 years, with Pedro Gonçalves named as the top scorer of the year with 23 goals and six Sporting players. Sporting only lost once on the season, losing by Benfica 4–3 away in the Derby de Lisboa on May 15th. Amorim was dubbed Primeira Liga's Manager of the Month in April and Primeira Liga's Manager of the Year after the season ended.

Amorim identified the defensive areas that needed to be changed for the team in his second summer transfer window, with his choices being shorter than Sporting's domestic counterparts, resulting in the signing of both midfielder Manuel Ugarte and defender R.ben Vinagre. Lus Maximiano was sold to Spanish La Liga side Granada, which in turn led to Sporting signing Joo Virgnia, after remaining as a back-up to Antonio Adán. Nuno Mendes, a left-back, was loaned to Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the transfer window, with Pablo Sarabia moving in the opposite direction.

Amorim started his second season at Sporting by winning the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira on July 31, 2021, his former team Braga's 2–1 loss. Sporting secured their next three games after losing their first two Champions League group matches, culminating in a 3–1 win over Borussia Dortmund on November 24th in the league's first match since the 2008–09 season. Following a 2–0 home win over Tondela on November 28, Amorim became the first manager to win 50 games in the Primeira Liga. He led his team to their first victory at the Estádio da Luz in six years on December 3rd, after losing by 3–1 away to rivals Benfica in the Derby de Lisboa.

Amorim defeated Benfica 2–1 on January 29, 2022, his third straight league cup final. Sporting was disqualified in the last 16 of the Champions League by Manchester City, 5–0 on aggregate, and failed out of the Taça de Portugal in the semi-finals by Porto, but the year before, only six points behind a new competitor.

Sporting got off to a rocky start to the season, with three-three away draws to Braga and two consecutive losses to Chaves (2–0), with the team ranked 13th in the league table following Joo Palhinha and Matheus Nunes' transfer to Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers' respective departures. Amorim said "I, as a coach, failed to plan [summer transfer window]" referring to both players' departures. We need to know where we are going right now, not to worry that we should save everything that was not changed in a one-year plan."

Despite their league form, Sporting won in Germany on September 7–0 for the first time in their history, defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 3–0 in their first group stage match of the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League, followed by a dramatic victory over Tottenham Hotspur in their next fixture. Two individual mistakes from Antonio Adán and Rigaio, which resulted in them losing twice to Marseille 4–1 and 2–0, respectively, and Amorim defended him saying "He's not one of the fans' favorite players, but he's one of mine." I will be as long as I am here, and I will shield him as long as possible. He will never be abandoned by the boss, and there's nothing you can do to Esgaio as long as I'm here. Both losses were followed by a surprise expulsion from the third round of the Taça de Portugal to Varzim's Varzim team after a narrow 1–0 loss.

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