Ruben Amorim has emerged as the frontrunner to become the next Liverpool manager, taking over from Jurgen Klopp who is set to depart at the end of the season.
Reports have suggested that Amorim has already reached an agreement in principle to become the next Liverpool boss, with the 39-year-old set to sign a three-year contract.
But who is Ruben Amorim? FourFourTwo delves deeper into everything worth knowing about the new Liverpool manager.
Who is Ruben Amorim?
Ruben Amorim is a highly-rated young European manager, renowned for being tactically astute - and even visited Jose Mourinho in 2018 while managing at Manchester United.
But don't expect him to start acting like Mourinho in front of the media any time soon. More laidback than his countryman, Amorim refrains from entering into discourse surrounding referees, preferring instead to focus on the football and his underdog spirit.
Indeed, he has previously highlighted that he prefers creating a siege mentality within his team whereever he has worked - making him arguably the perfect candidate for Liverpool.
"I identify more with the other side, more thinking about how I am going to beat the opponent and how I am going to try to make sure they do not score goals," Amorim said.
A successful midfielder during his playing days, Amorim enjoyed a large part of his career at Benfica, winning three league titles and a further six domestic trophies. He also managed to make 14 appearances for the Portugal national team, turning out at both the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. However, injury forced him to retire at the age of 32, turning his focus to coaching.
Amorim started his professional coaching career at third-tier Portuguese side Casa Pia at the beginning of the 2018/19 season, but in January 2019 the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) suspended Amorim from all coaching activities for a year, and deducted Casa Pia six points, because he gave instructions during a game without having the required coaching level to do so.
The main coach responsible, Jose da Paz, was the only person in the Casa Pia coaching staff permitted to tell the players what to do in-game, despite not even being the manager of the team. Amorim, Da Paz and Casa Pia all faced several thousand euro fines as a result, but while the The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) later overturned Amorim's suspension, the Portuguese boss resigned from his role at the club.
Benfica attempted to get Amorim to become their U23 manager in May 2019, but despite initially agreeing to the proposal, he later rejected to join The Eagles. Instead, Braga appointed him as their reserve team coach, with Amorim provided more control in his role at the club. After just three months in charge, Braga promoted him to first team manager, following an impressive 11 games in which he managed eight wins and two draws with the reserve team.
In replacing Ricardo Sa Pinto at the helm of Braga, Amorim was tasked with taking the club from eighth in the league to European qualification - which he duly managed. Indeed, Amorim transformed the club, taking them to third and Europa League qualification.
His greatest success at the club, though, came just over a month into his first management role in the Portuguese top flight. After beating Sporting Lisbon 2-1 in the League Cup semi-finals, Braga then managed to defeat Porto 1-0 in the final at the end of January to give the club their first Cup success in three years.
Naturally, he didn't last long at Braga, with Sporting swooping in March 2020 to appoint him as their new manager, having been left especially impressed with him winning 10 games in 13. In doing so, Sporting shelled out €10m for his services - the third-highest transfer fee for a manager in history at that time, an especially fascinating decision considering he had only managed in the top flight for four months in his career.
From there, Amorim has thrived, toppling the might of Benfica and Porto in his first full season in charge to hand Sporting their first league title in 19 years in the 2020/21 season. Sporting lost just once in that entire league campaign, in a 4-3 away defeat to Benfica, with Amorim's side setting a national record of a 32-game unbeaten-streak.
In 2021/22, Amorim lifted his third-successive League Cup trophy, and while a staunch title defence followed, Sporting failed to keep pace with Porto. The season after yielded no trophies, though they did manage to beat Arsenal in the Europa League before being knocked out by Juventus in the quarters. This term, in 2023/24, Sporting are now on course to win another league title under the Portuguese boss, while they've also reached the final of the Portuguese Cup.
Amorim is also clearly a loyal manager, sticking by his players in times of need. When full-back Ricardo Esagio faced criticism for his performances, Amorim came to the defence of his player.
"He's not one of the fans' favorite players, but he's one of mine," Amorim said. "As long as I am here, I will protect him as much as possible. He will never be abandoned by the manager and as long as I'm here there's nothing you can do to Esgaio."
During his time at Sporting, Amorim has been name the Manager of the Month on six separate occasions, as well as winning the Manager of the Season award in 2021.
