We have talked about this before and I’ve shared all my respect for multiple Portuguese Coaches (and athletes) that made Portuguese Methodology and Coaches known and recognizable worldwide. 

Naturally, José Mourinho is our biggest flag when considering Portuguese Coaches. Comparing any Coach with José Mourinho is, at a minimum, a challenge not everyone is ready to take. 

However, Ruben Amorim as presented a very different way to do things. 

Let’s start from the beginning and understand where the differences start. 

Firstly, Ruben Amorim, as opposed to José Mourinho, had a good career as a Professional Football Player, playing for Clubs as CF “Os Belenenses”, SC Braga and, mainly, SL Benfica – where he gather majority of the trophies won during his career. Additionally, Ruben Amorim didn’t spend time looking for an Assistant Coach role after his career as a Professional Player. In fact, he spent roughly more than 1 year – according to the transfermarkt website, he retired from Professional Football as a player on April 4th 2017 and joined Casa Pia AC in July 2018 as Head Coach at the age of 33 – getting his career as a Coach to start at a relatively low level (Portuguese 3rd Tier – equivalent to League One in UK or Primera Federation in Spain). Here, is also relevant to realize that José Mourinho, although he appears to Coach Youth Vitoria FC Teams in the late 80’s, started his Head Coach career at SL Benfica with only 37 years old. 

A big difference here!!

Nevertheless, Ruben Amorim joined Sporting CP at the age of 35, after winning his first title as a Head Coach with SC Braga, meaning he reached one of the biggest Portuguese Clubs slightly younger than José Mourinho, even taken into consideration the differences between Clubs and the contexts within each move and Clubs’ moment at each time.

Both progressed their careers very differently, with José Mourinho’s impact being very relevant nationally – his move to FC Porto happened just after 1 year of leaving SL Benfica and he still managed to coach UD Leiria for only 6 months – and internationally from very soon, mainly with the European achievements with FC Porto to fast leverage his career towards a Chelsea FC ready to make a big investment to become Premier League Champions. 

Ruben Amorim developed a Style of Play that enjoys multiple Offensive options and variables, so many that all the Clubs throughout the last year consider the Sporting CP team to be the best and most difficult team to face against, being more and more dominant at the field. All without losing his Defensive discipline!

On the contrary, although Ruben Amorim journey at SC Braga was quite fast, entering the Club to Coach the 2nd Team in September of 2019 and leaving the club in March 2020 already with a title with the 1st Team in the pocket! Ever since, he’s been very consistent with his career, staying at Sporting CP for the past 5 Seasons (ie. Since Season 2019/2020). At these 5 Seasons, Ruben Amorim has become League Champions at the Season 2020/2021, League Cup winner in 2021 and 2022 and Portuguese Supercup winner in 2022, totally of 4 titles at the Club. 

At the moment, Sporting CP is on the edge of becoming League Champions and at the Portuguese Cup final, facing FC Porto in the end of May at the National Stadium in Lisbon.

“Don’t criticize top scorers, because they will shut your mouth”

Pep Guardiola

However, the big differences are both in the Style of Play and Media Communication.
Although José Mourinho FC Porto Teams were very dominating and complete both Offensively and Defensively, from then his teams were not as dominant in the Offensive side, adopting different Offensive strategies during the days and depending on teams, but with the main focus being on the compactness and readiness of his teams on the Defensive and Defensive Transition Moments.

Ruben Amorim started differently, completely different to be honest! He implemented from the start the Defensive line of 5 players, providing multiple supports and cover when defending and it was all build from then. The team that became League Champions in 2021 was a team that was very compact defensively and aggressive on transitions, but wasn’t definitely a team that was known for its impact on the Positional Offensive Game. From then, Ruben has helped the club to implement a new Transfers Strategy, buying only players that were clearly identified with the Teams’ Tactical approach and selling multiple players for record-breaking values, from Nuno Mendes, Joāo Palhinha, Pedro Porro, Manuel Ugarte to Matheus Nunes and many others, this cycle at the Sporting CP represents 5 presences at the Top10 sales of the Club history (Bruno Fernandes was sold just before Ruben Amorim joined the Club, although during the same Season). Along with the success on the Financial status of the Club, Ruben Amorim developed a Style of Play that enjoys multiple Offensive options and variables, so many that all the Clubs throughout the last year consider the Sporting CP team to be the best and most difficult team to face against, being more and more dominant at the field. All without losing his Defensive discipline!

It required the time and the right environment surrounding him and the Club, but it’s just to prove that Structures well organized and close communication between different Departments are always closer to achieve success.

Finally, their Media Communication Methodology and Style are completely different. José Mourinho is known for his mind-games and strategies to boost confidence or provoking, both his own teams or others, his provocative style was always more relevant and he was considered a genius in the matter. For sure, it brought him a lot of exposure and the kind of hate/love relationship with the media and the fans and an impossible figure to ignore.

On the contrary, Ruben Amorim approach was (and still is) kind of a fresh air within the Football industry. All his press conferences seem to be genuinely answered, with no agenda behind, no hidden strategies, deep thoughts or proactiveness efforts to fuel any controversies, etc.

The facts are simple, Ruben Amorim started his career in a more controlled manner, starting from the bottom and taking one step at the time, had the capacity to stay longer at a single Club and having the capacity to be acknowledged by all fans (even from the direct opposing teams as SL Benfica and FC Porto) as a good Coach. But never hated. On the other hand, José Mourinho went for a different journey, allowing him to be at top Clubs as an Assistant Coach since young ages and, already as a Head Coach, to have an immediate impact always at all fronts, from the Training Methodology, Press and Media Communication, Titles, etc, which is quite remarkable at every level. Naturally, this exposure and strategy brings some bitter rocks along the way, specially when the field and teams successes don’t go in hand with the provocative manners with the Football Institutions or Media. 

I believe we are seeing a new Communication era, one where Players and Coaches are now more open and genuine in regards to their opinions and more conscious of the environment to have in the Sportive setup. For sure, a more exposed era where access to information is at a click distance and in first hand, no need to wait for a Press Conference. Best examples to be Bernardo Silva, Jude Bellingham, Kevin de Bruyne, Declan Rice, Erling Haaland, Ilkay Gundogan, Robert Lewandowski and many others. 

More politics, perhaps. Less provocative, for sure.

Regardless of the Communication style, I truly believe that Ruben Amorim has all to become a great Coach, the next Big Portuguese Coach at the International stage!

Regarding José Mourinho, although I think he made some Club choices in the recent past that cost his ability to have more success, I would use a phrase of his biggest rival Pep Guardiola (when talking about Erling Haaland) to describe my thoughts on his career moving forwards: “Don’t criticize top scorers, because they will shut your mouth”. I would say the same about Mourinho, if he has the ability to choose better. 

And, if not Mourinho, who can have multiple options to Coach?

In summary, to finalize, for me, yes!
Ruben Amorim is the next Big Thing in the Portuguese Coaches environment worldwide and (along with good Club choices) he has all it takes to really become important!

Let’s just wait and see what the next step will be.

But let’s not take José Mourinho out of the picture just yet.

The greatest are never over.