Manchester United hired Ruben Amorim as their manager on Friday, putting the Portuguese in the hot seat. Ruben Amorim, at the age of 39, thus becomes the youngest person to coach Manchester United since the 1960s.
Ruben Amorim is United’s sixth permanent manager since the retirement of Alex Ferguson in 2013, following in the footsteps of David Moyes (June 2013-April 2014), Louis van Gaal (May 2014-May 2016), Jose Mourinho (May 2016-December 2018), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (December 2018-November 2021), Ralf Rangnick (December 2021–May 2022) and Erik ten Hag (July 2022-October 2024).
But what is even more remarkable is the fact that Ruben Amorim (born on January 27, 1985) is just nine days older than Manchester United legend Cristiano Ronaldo (February 5, 1985).
The Ronaldo links don’t end there. After Manchester United made the announcement that Amorim had been hired as the manager, a clip surfaced on social media showing Ruben Amorim replacing Cristiano Ronaldo as a substitute in a football match for the Portuguese national team.
Ronaldo OUT
Amorim IN
🔄 pic.twitter.com/ALrZgu3e3j— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) October 31, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Amorim has played for Portugal’s U18 and U20 teams. But for the senior national team, he has only 14 appearances to his credit. The former midfielder was in fact a part of the Portuguese team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
At Manchester United, Ruben Amorim has a task to fulfill that he might find more onerous than replacing Ronaldo on the football pitch: that of leading United to their 21st Premier League title which they last won in Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge.
Besides being young, Amorim is also untested outside Portugal as he has never managed a club away from his native country. He also spent the majority of his club career at Benfica.
Despite this, Manchester United forked out 11 million euros to lure him away from Sporting, which he led to two Portuguese titles in four full seasons in charge.
Portuguese giants Sporting are also expected to receive an extra 1.66 million euros because of contractual reasons and commissions.
