Ruben Amorim pictured at Man Utd as Sporting Lisbon boss closes on manager’s job

Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim is in pole position to become the next Manchester United manager, as the Red Devils look to agree a deal with his club to make him Erik ten Hag’s replacement

Perhaps it was written in the stars. Perhaps it was always meant to be.

Ruben Amorim is in pole position to replace Erik ten Hag as Manchester United manager. And perhaps he was always destined to be the main man at Old Trafford.

The Portuguese coach, who has done outstanding work at Sporting Lisbon since they paid what was then an eye-watering sum to snatch him from Braga after mere months as a senior head coach, is no stranger to Old Trafford, nor even United’s Carrington Training complex.

After retiring from football and cancelling his Benfica contract, Amorim began a postgraduate degree at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Human Kinetics and duly spent time with Jose Mourinho at the club six and a half years ago. At the time, Mourinho was a coordinator and lecturer on the High Performance Coaching course. He duly chose the top students to intern with him and his coaching staff. With hindsight, Amorim was unsurprisingly one of the three chosen.

This internship came the week after United reached the FA Cup final with a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in their semi-final at Wembley, followed by a victory of the same scoreline against Arsenal at Old Trafford in the Premier League.

Amorim, who never played for or worked with Mourinho during his coaching career, and the now-Fenerbahce boss happily posed for a photograph inside one of the office at Carrington.

Ruben Amorim has produced sensational results at Sporting (PA)Image:

“I like United because Mourinho is my role model,” said Amorim back in November 2017. “There are coaches who have a way of watching the game that I like, like Guardiola. But for me, the role model is Mourinho because I watch the ball in a way that’s more similar to Mister Mourinho.”

“He analyses the opponents very well and sets his team up, not just with a certain style of play but thinking a lot about how to adapt to win. And I’m a bit like that.”

Source- Mirror UK