Don't mix life with football
It was 2 a.m. and Bruno Simao couldn’t sleep. He took a pill. When he woke up the next day, his phone was buzzing with calls and messages. He had missed training with Casa Pia, the third-tier Portuguese team then coached by Ruben Amorim. “Because of Ruben, I left the team forever,” Simao said, sitting on a chair and staring out at the Atlantic.
Simao’s teammates begged Amorim, in his first coaching job, to let him stay. “The next day, I went to training,” Simao said, “He called a meeting and told me: ‘You have to thank your friends and colleagues because for me, you are out.’”
Simao stayed and their relationship remained intact, but he cannot say he had not been warned. Amorim did not want to sign his childhood friend, whom he had met at Benfica’s youth team when he was nine and had visited in hospital after a motorbike accident that almost ended Simao’s football career. He said bluntly: “Don’t mix our outside lives with football. Four months ago you were in a coma, you were 33. I have three left-backs in my team and you are very expensive.”
But when Amorim saw Simao training from videos he posted on social media, he changed his mind. Simao said: “At Manchester United, I am sure he will be the same because that is his character. He treats everyone like that. You don’t have time to joke around with work. He is really strict, but that is why he is a winner.”
Amorim, 39, has taken over as Manchester United manager. But while times have changed, his personality has not. Amorim’s stern face is juxtaposed with a man who, according to some of those closest to him, has a great sense of humour and a hearty laugh, is a master communicator and a natural leader who can bring people together.
People talk about Amorim
For Paula Abreu, Amorim’s primary school teacher, the boy remains indelibly etched in her memory. “He was a very happy boy,” Abreu told The Athletic. “I remember his smile to this day. He loved football, he was a leader with his friends. He was always preparing for the game at recess, telling the other kids where to play. He loved to talk. When I saw Ruben talking on TV, he was like a child, his smile was big, what he said was who he was.”
Standing behind the counter of a key-cutting shop in Alverca, Amorim’s father Virgilio sifts through hundreds of photos that highlight his son’s playing career. In one, Amorim clutches the captain’s armband, which has slipped down his skinny arm. Amorim’s leadership skills were evident even in his time at Benfica’s academy. It was there that Amorim met Simao, as well as Joao Pereira, who would replace Amorim after he joined United; and Jose Morais, Jose Mourinho’s former assistant at Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea, who coached Amorim for four years.
Morais told The Athletic of Amorim's "gentle confident energy" as a child, who conveyed "calm" and "maturity". "He became captain because of his ability to interact with his teammates; he was a positive influence on others, a role model," he said. "In the emotional derbies - Benfica vs Sporting - he was always the one who pushed the others and had the belief to win. He led by example. He was a runner, a fighter, very active, defensively and offensively. He never gave up, gave his all - a kid with character."
Competitiveness and leadership qualities
At 17, thanks to Simao, Amorim got a trial at Belenenses – with a broken arm. He was injured in the last 20 minutes of the last game of the season against Gimnasio de Corroios, when they became champions. Amorim was deployed as a centre-back rather than a midfielder, but still amazed the coach.
His mother and Simao knew not to contact him the next day after a loss. "He was in tears, unable to accept that things could go wrong. But then he would be the one hugging the others, rallying them together and getting ready to fight for the next match," Morais said.
On December 18, 1997, Morais accompanied a group of youth captains from Sporting, Benfica and Belenenses to a tournament. Cristiano Ronaldo was part of the group. “A former Manchester United player and future Manchester United manager!” Virgilio said, pointing to the two boys.
As players, according to Morais, the two are incomparable. “Ronaldo is a goalscorer with a different personality. Ruben brings people together.” Morais’ admiration for Amorim as a child was so strong that nearly 20 years later, after leaving Chelsea and Mourinho to forge his own path as head coach of Antalyaspor in Türkiye, he tried to sign Amorim but could not complete the deal in time.
“When I heard he was coaching it made sense because he was influential in that way. He helped others,” Morais added.
First Journey
Carlos Pires wanted a change at Lisbon-based club Casa Pia. The third-tier side had reached the play-offs twice in the past three years but had never made the final step. The sporting director was looking for a new coach and in April 2018, met Amorim in a cafe near Sporting’s stadium in Lisbon.
The year before, at the age of 32, Amorim had hung up his boots, having won 10 trophies and played in two World Cups. Having never been a head coach before, Amorim had learned from his playing days what he liked and disliked about the way coaches behaved.
Pires convinced Amorim to come to Casa Pia, despite not having a license, because he saw "the perfect coach". "Ruben asked me why", Pires said, "I said, 'I have this feeling'. He is special, like a magician. He knows what to say in every moment of the game. He understands every moment off the pitch and he knows how to lead like no one else".
From day one, the young coach – on a contract worth less than half the minimum wage – was respected. “Everyone loved him,” Pires said. “He had an aura, he was completely different.”
But Casa Pia lost their first two games of the season and Amorim told Pires that if they lost the next game, he would quit. “We tried to calm him down, convince him to continue working and that will bring results,” Pires said.
Casa Pia won the next match, but Amorim decided to change from a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3, a system he used throughout his managerial career at Braga B, Braga and Sporting. The team then went on an unbeaten run.
Explode but still be yourself
Bringing people together was a golden thread that ran through Amorim’s life. However, things fell apart at Casa Pia when the Portuguese Football Federation banned Amorim for a year for not being eligible to be a head coach. Although those sanctions were later overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Amorim resigned in January 2019.
After turning down jobs at Benfica and Estoril U23s, Amorim was appointed Braga reserve team coach nine months after leaving Casa Pia and promoted to the first team, replacing Ricardo Sa Pinto just three months later. Since his first game in January 2020, he has gone 11 games unbeaten in 13, losing only to Rangers in the Europa League.
In March 2020, with just two months of experience in the First Division, Sporting hired Amorim. They paid Braga €10 million to activate his release clause, at the time the third most expensive coaching transfer in the world.
“Many people, grown men, cried when he left Braga,” said Jose Chieira, former director of scouting at Sporting. “Sporting had a lot of problems. Every department had to be rebuilt from scratch. When Ruben arrived, he brought a different culture to the club, to the management, to everyone there. He was a very complete person, larger than life in a good way.”
Chieira had already started building a proprietary big data scouting model when Amorim arrived, but the new coach was “curious” and “humble enough” to listen, push himself out of his comfort zone and understand something unfamiliar. “The club had a lot of communication and leadership problems from the board, he solved 90% of those problems. Like most coaches, he is quite stubborn in his principles, but you can understand because he knows how to win.”
When asked about Amorim's weaknesses, many were confused. "I'm still trying to figure it out," Ribeiro said. "Maybe he's too honest. Sometimes in the world of football, that can be a problem."
Within six years, Amorim's career had exploded, but those close to him believed he would always be himself.
