Manchester United’s recent appointment of Rúben Amorim has brought Portuguese coaching into the spotlight on the world stage once again.
From Europe’s most prestigious leagues to South America to the Middle East, Portuguese football managers have achieved remarkable success in all four corners of the globe. But, including those who never left the shores of their home country, who are the best?
José Ricardo Leite lists the 10 greatest Portuguese managers of all time.
10. André Villas-Boas
Currently, André Villas-Boas is the proud President of Futebol Clube do Porto. However, he coached FC Porto in 2010/11 for a single year, which ended up being one of the most amazing seasons ever for any Portuguese team.
Villas-Boas was an observer for José Mourinho and he was an integral part of Mourinho’s coaching team that won the 2004 Champions League with Porto and then won back-to-back Premier League titles at Chelsea. After José moved to Inter, Villas-Boas had his first shot as a head coach, at Académica, in the 2009/10 season. His work in Coimbra was more than enough to earn him a move to his “dream chair” as the manager of FC Porto. There, not only did he win the League without a single loss, but he managed to conquer the Portuguese Cup, the Super Cup and the third and last international title for FC Porto in this century, the Europa League.
That season led him to go to the Premier League where he was not as successful as expected after poor seasons at Chelsea and Tottenham. He then moved to Zenit in Russia where he found some smiles. After that, he bowed out of management after a stint at Marseille and now he is the President of FC Porto, finding his true “dream chair”.
9. José Maria Pedroto
Even though José Maria Pedroto does not have the most titles, he deserves a spot in this list for changing the country’s football paradigm. The historic FC Porto manager is an inspiration for many of the clubs’ figures, such as Sérgio Conceição, Pinto da Costa, Fernando Santos and many more.
“Master Pedroto” was a symbol of the “resistance” that FC Porto represents. He bipolarized the war in Portuguese football as FC Porto vs everyone else. And it worked: Pedroto conquered the Portuguese League in 1978, after 19 years without winning the trophy. “Zé do Boné” (another nickname meaning “José of the Cap”) had a slogan: “When we were good boys, we were eaten alive. We are not good boys anymore”. The aggression, the passion, the fighting for the region was so strong that even Benfica and Sporting united their supporters.
Master Pedroto was an agent of change in Portuguese football and his conquests both on and off the field deserve to be remembered.
8. Abel Ferreira
Maybe one of the most underrated Portuguese managers ever. Currently in Brazil, coaching Palmeiras, Abel Ferreira is already a legend in the great city of São Paulo. Home of some of the biggest Brazilian clubs, such as Santos and Palmeiras, São Paulo laughed at the arrival of Abel Ferreira. Being Portuguese and with no proven titles to back up his signing for one of the most iconic clubs in South American football, Abel Ferreira was mocked for five days between his arrival and his debut as Palmeiras’ manager. Never again was he mocked.
Abel conquered two Copa Libertadores consecutively, the most important title in South America, adding 2 League titles, 3 state cups, one Brazilian cup and one south American Super Cup. Abel Ferreira is for sure the most successful Portuguese and European manager in South America.
7. Rúben Amorim
Rúben Amorim is probably the best Portuguese manager right now. His recent move to Manchester United was a long-expected move for the brilliant young manager. After rebuilding Sporting and making the Lisbon team the best in the country after years of being mediocre at best, he was more than ready for higher flights.
Amorim ended his professional footballer career early, to embark on his coaching career. He started at Casa Pia, where he promoted them to the second tier. After that, he went to Braga. In the north, he found success immediately, causing the Sporting administration to pay 10 million euros in a risky move for a manager with no proven track record. Even though he didn’t have the experience or the expertise, he managed Sporting like no other coach this century.
The most impressive thing about Amorim is his masterful communication skills, enabling him to motivate his players like no other and deal with the press seamlessly. Everyone is looking forward to his debut for Manchester United next week.
6. Jesualdo Ferreira
Another not so well-known name, which only goes to prove that he is one of the most underrated managers of all time. Jesualdo Ferreira started as a player, but at the age of just 20 years old, he retired. Why? He fell in love with coaching.
His best years as a coach were for sure at FC Porto, where he won three League titles in a row, along with two Portuguese Cups and one Super Cup. However, his time at Portugal under 21s may be the key for his success when working with young players at Porto such as Quaresma, Pepe, Raul Meireles and Anderson.
He was fired after the 2009/10 season after losing to an up-and-coming manager: Jorge Jesus. However, the media said that if it were not for Hulk being unfairly punished, he would have won a fourth League title in a row for Porto, maybe being considered one of the best of all time for the Invicta city club.
5. Fernando Santos
The first Portuguese manager ever to coach the Big Three. The Penta Engineer. The first manager to coach Portugal to glory.
Fernando Santos was a controversial manager in terms of style. His teams did not play well, and whoever says they did is lying. However, it is undeniable that he was one of the most successful Portuguese managers ever. He never won anything at Sporting or Benfica, but he coached Porto to a unique Penta – a fifth title triumph. He made it five titles in a row for Porto (Bobby Robson and António Oliveira had each guided the Dragons to two titles each prior to Santos) and Fernando Santos wrote his name in its history. After that, he went to Greece to coach AEK, coming back to coach Sporting and Benfica, before he took over the Greece national team.
After a poor performance by Portugal in 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Fernando Santos took over the Portugal national team. His critics were right: Portugal were playing badly with one of its best generations. However, Fernando was aware of his abilities and promised the title to the country. The result? Portugal won Euro 2016 under Fernando Santos, the first major trophy in the nation’s history.
Even though he wasn’t the best Portugal coach or played the best system, he was maybe the most important one.
4. Artur Jorge
No, it is not the current Artur Jorge that managed Braga and now is on the verge of winning the Libertadores coaching Botafogo. This is Artur Jorge, the first ever Portuguese manager to win a European Cup/Champions League. He won it with Porto in 1987 after an amazing final against Bayern Munich in Vienna. At Porto he also guided the team to three league titles, two Portuguese Cup wins and three Super Cups.
Jorge also managed Benfica, PSG (becoming the first Portuguese manager to win in championship title in a major European league), Académica, Al-Nasr and Al-Hilal. He then turned to the national teams of Switzerland, Cameroon and obviously Portugal.
Artur Jorge died earlier this year, and he will be remembered as one of the best Portuguese managers of all time.
3. Sérgio Conceição
This was a tough one to choose. It is very close with number two but it is undeniable that Conceição is the best FC Porto manager ever.
It is unparalleled what he accomplished with such a thin budget. Three league titles in seven years with mediocre players under his orders. He is also one of the most charismatic managers ever: his aggression, his way of communicating is something that Portuguese football had not seen since the Master Pedroto.
Conceição arrived at an FC Porto shorn of its identity and he restored it! He launched players from the youth setups (under 19s and under 21s) and improved players under his wing who are now indispensable for the most powerful clubs in Europe, such as Vitinha at PSG or Luis Díaz at Liverpool.
Sérgio Conceição left at the end of last season a legend of the club. It would not surprise anyone if he later takes over the presidency of FC Porto.
2. Jorge Jesus
Jorge Jesus is a world-renowned manager. His most high-profile successful years were at Benfica, putting an end to FC Porto’s hegemony in the 2009/10 season. With Jesus, Benfica divided the main stage with Porto for several years. Not only did he win three league titles with Benfica, but he led them to two European finals in the Europa League, both of which they narrowly lost.
After Benfica, he joined Sporting in a not so successful stint. However, everything changed when he arrived at Flamengo, in Brazil. Jesus is still considered the best manager to ever grace the most impactful club in Brazil. His year in the “Vera Cruz” land was outstanding, winning not only the league, but the Copa Libertadores, Brazilian Super Cup, South American Super Cup and the state championship. The only title missing was the Brazilian Cup.
He then moved to Fenerbahçe where he did not find success. Instead of leaving football with an amazing career, he took over (for the second time) Al-Hilal, winning the league title, qualifying for the Club World Cup in 2025 and being the favourites to win the AFC Champions League, on the way setting an outright world record of 34 consecutive victories.
Jorge Jesus is still an amazing manager and maybe, who knows, still has a lot to give in the Portuguese League.
1. José Mourinho
Not only is he the best Portuguese manager ever, he is also the best manager ever. I accept people that say that Guardiola is better or that Ancelotti is better. It is an acceptable argument. But none of them did what Mourinho did with the clubs Mourinho managed.
Winning back-to-back league titles with Porto. Winning the UEFA Cup in 2003 and the Champions League in 2004 with Porto.
Going to Chelsea, calling himself “The Special One”, being arrogant about it and gifting Chelsea their first title in 50 years. Oh, and back-to-back, again!
Then he decided that he needed some pizza and went to Inter, giving them a Champions League after humiliating probably the best club team ever (Barcelona 2009) in the semi-final. Everyone doubted that he could win against Guardiola again, so he went to Real Madrid (a cemetery of managers at the time). He broke the La Liga points record and his team scored 121 goals in one season in the league.
He then goes back to Chelsea, just because someone said that Arsenal might win the league (and he cannot abide Arsene Wenger). He wins it again.
He then goes to Manchester United, giving them the only title that they did not have (Europa League) and his accomplishments in difficult circumstances at Old Trafford made him United’s best manager since Alex Ferguson.
He decided that he loved pizza too much to be away from Italy, and what’s better than a pizza from the capital Rome? He went to Roma to become the only manager to win the three main UEFA competitions: Europa League, Conference League and Champions League.
Mou is now at Fenerbahçe, where he hopes to win the Turkish League. But even if he doesn’t. Even if he had retired 15 years ago, he would be the best Portuguese manager ever and maybe still be in the conversation for the best manager in general.
It is true that the game evolved and Mou is stuck in the past. But he is undeniably the most charismatic manager of all time and he is arguably the best manager ever.