Starting a new job can be scary, but when Ruben Amorim walks through the doors at Carrington next week, he’ll already know where the toilets are, having spent a week there as part of an internship six years ago.
As per The Athletic, the new Manchester United head coach studied for a master’s degree in high-performance football coaching at the University of Lisbon, which was developed in partnership with Jose Mourinho – who in 2018 was himself in the United hotseat.
A high-flier on the course, Amorim was rewarded with a week-long stint shadowing Mourinho in the build-up to Arsene Wenger’s final visit to Old Trafford (a 2-1 United win secured by a stoppage-time Marouane Fellaini header).
In that week, Amorim and two other interns observed six training sessions, spent time soaking up Mourinho’s wisdom and, crucially, “Learning what the average week is like when you are the manager of one of the biggest clubs in European football.” It was a glimpse into his future, whether he knew it then or not.
The Athletic report that Amorim would arrive at Carrington around 8am and spend time with players and staff in the canteen. Amongst those players were two former team-mates from his playing days in Benfica, Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof, who will be in the frame to line up under Amorim in the coming months.
Amorim and Lindelof shared the pitch three times, as per transfermarkt.
His days were spent speaking to Mourinho and his assistant Rui Faria in their downtime between leading training sessions, and working on a report as coursework.
But in the evenings things were less formal with the legendary manager sometimes taking the interns to his private room in the basement of Tapeo and Wine, a tapas restaurant owned by Juan Mata.
With Champions League football on the screens, the interns listened to Mourinho hold forth on the players they were watching who he had coached as he shared his knowledge with the group.
He got on particularly well with Amorim. Geoff Labine, a fellow intern, told The Athletic, “You could tell they were having more private conversations.”
“I think he was just giving Ruben pieces of advice, little things about how to run a professional team. I think before the course even started, they had identified Ruben as one of the next great Portuguese coaches.”
That’s certainly how he is viewed now, at this most pivotal moment in his career, although Labine points out that he is “less pragmatic” than the Special One.
“He is much more diplomatic and less authoritarian, even the way that he’ll speak to people is a little less abrasive and more like a team, more together,” he said.
“We’re on the same team. Although they have similar philosophies, I think there was a lot different.”
Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
