Hugo Viana didn’t make a huge impression on the Premier League as a player in his two-season stint at Newcastle but may well be about to land one of the English top-flight’s top jobs as he’s the current favourite to replace Txiki Begiristain as Manchester City’s director of football.
Begiristain will leave the Etihad at the end of the season after 12 years of outstanding service, during which time he’s signed some extraordinary footballers. Viana will have a job on his hands to even come close to matching the work of his predecessor, but City are interested for good reason.
We’ve ranked Viana’s top 10 signings for Sporting Lisbon in his six seasons as director of football.
10) Marcus Edwards
Bought: £6.5m (Vitoria Guimaraes)
Market value: £15m
Linked with a return to Tottenham – where he came through the youth ranks – and Manchester United over the summer, Edwards has racked up 44 goals and 44 assists in six seasons in the Netherlands with Excelsior Rotterdam, Vitoria Guimaraes and Sporting Lisbon.
9) Hidemasa Morita
Bought: £2.9m (Santa Clara)
Market value: £12.5m
A hugely reliable performer at the heart of Sporting’s midfield for the last two seasons and manager Ruben Amorim is a big fan.
“All coaches should manage at least one Japanese player, a player who is always ready to help the team, to help the other player, apologises a thousand times a day, and is very respectful. I have only good things to say about Hidemasa Morita.”
8) Raphinha
Bought: £5.5m (Vitoria Guimaraes)
Sold: £17.5m (Rennes)
Could be claimed that Viana should have got more for Rafinha after 15 goals for Vitoria Guimaraes the season before and given what he’s achieved since, but Raphinha struggled to make the desired impact for Sporting, claiming just four goals and four assists before Rennes were forced to stump up nearly three times his market value.
7) Trincao
Bought: £5.8m (Barcelona)
Market value: £19.2m
Didn’t work for him at Barcelona, who paid £26m to sign him from Braga in 2020, nor at Wolves, but Viana smelled an opportunity and has been repaid for his faith in Trincao, who’s got 26 goals and 19 assists in two-and-a-bit seasons since returning to Liga Portugal, earning him a recall to the national squad for the latest Nations League games after a three-year hiatus.
6) Morten Hjulmand
Bought: £16.3m (Lecce)
Market value: £33.5m
The man to put one of many dampeners on England at Euro 2024 with his stunning strike in the group stage was on Manchester United’s radar as a possible midfield partner for Kobbie Mainoo before Sporting told them they would have to pay his €80m release clause.
5) Pedro Goncalves
Bought: £11.3m (Famalicao)
Market value: £26.8m
Dubbed The New Bruno Fernandes and for good reason on the back of 81 goals and 56 assists in 185 appearances for Sporting. Wasn’t at all obvious during his time in the Wolves reserves and after one season with Famalicao that he would be anywhere near this productive, with the playmaker managing just 16 goals and 12 assists in his 88 appearances before Viana signed him from their Liga Portugal rivals.
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4) Pedro Porro
Bought: £7.3m (Manchester City)
Sold: £33.5m (Tottenham)
He wasn’t the first Manchester City prospect to leave the Premier League giants and realise his potential elsewhere, nor will he be the last, and though we’re frequently impressed by City and Begiristain’s ability to squeeze money from buyers for footballers they have no use for, Porro may a) have been quite useful to Pep Guardiola and b) was worth three times what Sporting eventually paid for him after a productive two seasons on loan.
3) Ousmane Diomande
Bought: £6.3m (FC Midtjylland)
Market value: £33.5m
Chelsea, Newcastle, Manchester United and Arsenal were all linked in the summer with the centre-back, whom Viana plucked from relative obscurity following a season on loan in Liga Portugal 2 with CD Mafra.
2) Manuel Ugarte
Bought: £20.5m (Famalicao)
Sold: £50m (PSG)
Ugarte became Famalicao’s record sale in the summer of 2021 – beating Pedro Goncalves – just six months after he arrived in Portugal from Uruguay for £6m, before becoming Sporting’s second-most expensive departure two years later, falling just short of Bruno Fernandes.
1) Viktor Gyokeres
Bought: £20m (Coventry)
Market value: £58m
There were likely a few eyebrows raised when Viana paid that much for a Championship striker, but it’s turned out to be one of the best transfer decisions made by anyone in the last few years and as Gyokeres streaks ahead in the 2024 goalscoring charts it’s probably the deal that’s persuaded one of the biggest clubs in Europe to give Viana the combination code for the Abu Dhabi war chest, particularly as the Sweden international is Pep Guardiola’s chosen one to replace Erling Haaland.
