Ruben Amorim has already received the backing of his "role model" Jose Mourinho in the form of a private text message – and it speaks volumes about his fledgling career.
The 39-year-old is on the verge of succeeding Erik ten Hag as the new Manchester United manager after Sporting CP confirmed United's interest in recruiting the highly-rated Portuguese coach.
There is a €10 million [£8.43m] release clause written into Amorim's contract at the Estadio Jose Alvalade but it appears the Premier League club are willing to spend that amount to get their man.
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Last night, after Sporting's 3-1 win over Nacional in the Portuguese League Cup, Amorim broke his silence on the United links.
“I was expecting that question and obviously I’m not going to talk about the future, because otherwise I’ll always have to comment, so it’s not worth it," he said. "I won’t comment. I’m very proud to be the coach of Sporting, that’s all.”
Amorim has plenty of admirers in the world of football. Portugal's all-time top goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo has given him the nickname 'poet' because of the way he speaks to his players.
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And back in May, Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho backed Amorim to succeed in a top job.
"I like him [Amorim] as a person, I like him as a coach," he told Mais Futebol. "I think he has the conditions to be able to coach in any league and he has the conditions to be able to coach in any club. But he's in a good league and he's in a big club."
Mourinho added: "The decision is his and it will be up to the clubs that want him or not, to convince him with more or less arguments. What is clear from my side is that I like the person and I like the coach."
Mourinho and Amorim briefly worked together at Manchester United, when the latter was among three students to be selected to intern at Carrington towards the end of the 2017/18 campaign.
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At the time, Mourinho was a coordinator and lecturer on the High Performance Coaching course, while Amorim was studying a postgraduate degree at the Faculty of Human Kinetics in Lisbon.
Last year, after Sporting knocked Arsenal out of the Europa League, there were suggestions that Amorim could be the next Mourinho.
"Mourinho is one of a kind," the Sporting boss told reporters in his post-match press conference. "He's already texted me, [saying]: 'The old and the new [Mourinho] are still in, I'll see you in the next stage!'... [Am I] the new Mourinho? There will never be a new Mourinho."
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Amorim is a huge fan of the former Real Madrid and Inter Milan boss. In fact, during a 2017 interview with Tribuna Expresso, he that Mourinho was his role model.
"I like United because Mourinho is my role model. There are coaches who have a way of watching the game that I like, like Guardiola. But for me, the role model is Mourinho because I watch the ball in a way that's more similar to Mister Mourinho.
"That is, he analyses the opponents very well and sets his team up, not just with a certain style of play but thinking a lot about how to adapt to win. And I'm a bit like that."
Topics: Jose Mourinho, Manchester United, Ruben Amorim, Premier League
Jack Kenmare