Keifer MacDonald takes a look at the extraordinary rise of Sporting CP manager Ruben Amorim and why he has been linked with succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool
To describe Ruben Amorim's start to his managerial career as anything other than spectacular would be quite a disservice.
The failure to land any notable blows on either club - outside of ad hoc Taca da Liga triumphs, Portugal's equivalent to the League Cup - led to Sporting acquiring an unwanted reputation as a 'cemetery for coaches'. Those brave enough to chance their luck at the poisoned chalice usually enjoyed success either side of their tumultuous - and often short - stints at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
Funnily enough, it was only Steven Gerrard's Rangers that were able to defeat Braga in his brief stint at the Municipal Stadium, doing so both home and away in the round-of-16 stages of the 2020/21 Europa League. In trading Braga for Lisbon in March 2020, it was a testament to Amorim's infectious persona and style of play that he was able to, as a former player of arch-rivals Benfica, quickly restore a feel-good factor that had been missing from the Jose Alvalade Stadium for nearly two decades. As was the case at Braga, the buy-in from the players to his attack-minded philosophy was instantaneous as he lifted a dawdling Sporting outfit's points per game average from 0.58 to 1.
Those characteristics would underline his success in his first full campaign with Sporting as he ended the club's 19-year longing for a Primera Liga title. He did so in style, his side becoming the first in the league's 87-year history to go 31 games unbeaten and only tasting defeat in the penultimate week of the 2020/21 season.
In dethroning Lisbon neighbours Benfica and historic foes FC Porto, the nature of the former Portugal international's achievements completed quite the turnaround for a club whose toxicity stooped to ridiculous lows in 2018 when a group of masked ultras broke into the training ground and attacked several players. It was an incident in which 41 people were later convicted for.
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