Ruben Amorim has been appointed as Manchester United’s new manager following the sacking of Erik ten Hag but he has long been eyeing a switch after falling in love with a popular BBC show
Ruben Amorim has been appointed as Manchester United’s new manager following the sacking of Erik ten Hag but he has long been eyeing a switch after falling in love with a popular BBC show Ruben Amorim has been appointed as Manchester United’s new manager following the sacking of Erik ten Hag but he has long been eyeing a switch after falling in love with a popular BBC show
Ruben Amorim fell in love with Manchester while binge-watching his favourite TV show… set in Birmingham.
The new Red Devils boss became so obsessed with Peaky Blinders he watched the first three series back-to-back within days as he desperately waited for the next instalment. And although the show is set in the West Midlands in the 1920s, where it follows the exploits of a family of Brummie gangsters, Amorim will now have its iconic set on his doorstep, as much of the filming is carried out in and around Manchester.
Portuguese journalist Tiago Carrasco spent months researching Amorim’s life while writing a biography about him. His extensive research included carrying out interviews with some of the star’s closest pals, including some off the record, after Amorim gave his approval.
Giving an exclusive interview to the Mirror, Carrasco revealed: “Ruben describes Peaky Blinders as his favourite programme. He told friends how he became addicted to watching it. I know it’s a big show in England, but it’s also famous here in Portugal and is one of the biggest on Netflix.”
Filming locations for the popular BBC show include streets in Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter and elsewhere in the city centre. The real-life location of crime boss turned MP Tommy Shelby’s mansion is Arley Hall & Gardens in Cheshire, near where it is understood Amorim is now searching for a home.
And scenes have also been filmed at nearby Stockport Town Hall, as well as Stockport Plaza. Lisbon-born Amorim, who at 39 is just 15 months older than Man Utd ‘s current oldest player Tom Heaton, was appointed the club’s head coach on Friday and will officially start work on November 11.
He has become one of the most sought after managers in European football since becoming the youngest Portuguese coach to win two league titles and the first to win twice for Sporting Lisbon since the 1950s. He will be paid a lucrative salary at Old Trafford, understood to total around £7million-a-year – nearly triple the £2.7million salary he is believed to have been on at Sporting.
But just like Tommy Shelby, Amorim is from humble beginnings. His dad Virgilio is known to locals as ‘The King of Keys’ after opening his own key cutting firm 35 years ago, and his mum previously worked as an accountant.
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After his parents split up when he was aged just one, Amorim spent his early years living in a modest flat in tough Alverca do Ribatejo, 15 miles north of Lisbon city centre. The Mirror visited his old haunts, including his former primary school and the streets and pitches where he first honed his skills, just hours after he was finally announced as Man United’s new boss following days of speculation on Friday.
We discovered the former midfielder, who went on to be capped 14 times by the national team, is still fondly remembered by locals, who are proud of his rise from the working-class area to the pinnacle of world football. But many smiled as they recalled how Amorim’s future career could have been very different due to him showing promise in roller-hockey as a seven-year-old before quitting the sport to concentrate on football.
Joao Catalarranas, 61, trainer at the area’s youth football club, remembers Amorim playing for their sister roller-hockey club, which has since disbanded. He said: “He was small and was a goalkeeper for the hockey team before he started playing football.
“After that he played football on the street all the time. He was playful and used to love playing football like any other kid. He was a very good player and you could tell he had talent when he was young.
“He was also very clever and people could already see in him he had the personality to become a coach. He is a good observer and shows attention to detail.”
Amorim’s dad Virgilio nurtured his son’s football talent by driving him to youth training sessions in his Ford Transit van adorned with advertising for his key-cutting business, which he still runs below a block of flats despite now being aged in his 70s. He also inspired his son’s love for Benfica, who he joined aged nine after coaches there described him as “a little genius”.
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And pals say he and his dad still remain supporters and members of the club, despite his success with their arch-rivals Sporting, who recruited him as manager in March 2020. Retired aeronautics worker Joao Bone, 67, is pals with both Virgilio and Amorim’s mum Anabela, who he says is also aged in her 70s and still working.
He said: “I think Ruben probably got his work-ethic from them, they’re very hard working even now. They are both lovely people…jewels! I know them very well. They are extremely kind and pleasant. They are five-star people. His father was very influential on Ruben becoming a footballer. He took him everywhere.”
Amorim’s gritty upbringing included him being mugged as a teenager, leading to him to start hiding money in his socks before leaving home. Such experiences are understood to have formed his world view and beliefs and close pals say that just like Shelby, he has a keen interest in politics and is “on the centre-left side.”
Amorim showed his socialist beliefs in Qatar, where he played for Al-Wakrah during his final season as a player, when he was left outraged when his teammates went unpaid while he, as a foreigner, continued to receive his hefty salary. In an interview at the end of 2017, he revealed: “I told them it couldn’t happen, that they had to put their foot down and stop training”.
While coaching at Portuguese club Casa Pia in 2018, he personally paid a year’s rent for central defender Deritson Lopes after he discovered he was working nights at a fast-food company to support his three children. And while working at Braga B, where he won the 2020 Taca da Liga, he also supported his assistants after they were left without pay for a few months.
Amorim, whose wife of eleven years Maria Joao is a qualified electrical engineer, is not a stereotypical ex-footballer. Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who was a former team mate both as a youngster and in the Portuguese national team, nicknamed him “poet” due to his eloquence while speaking.
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He doesn’t use social media and he rarely drinks alcohol, constantly drinking water instead. He also prefers to stay at home rather than go out to flash restaurants.
In 2019, he consulted a psychologist in order to take control of his anger, while taking a post-graduate degree in High Performance Football Training at Portugal’s Faculty of Human Motricity. And he enjoys reading books about history and philosophy as well as biographies of inspirational leaders, including Barack Obama and Steve Jobs.
Amorim was forced to retire from playing aged just 32 after he suffered a complete rupture of the cruciate ligament in his right knee. But pals say he still wakes up at 6am every day to go to the gym and also plays tennis, padel and golf.
And he takes part in kickboxing “to release pent-up energy”. Amorim was reportedly a regular player of computer video-game Championship Manager in his youth and now spends hours diligently watching back tapes of his team’s performances in a bid to further improve them.
He suffered a blow when he was released by his beloved Benfica as a teenager, but fought back and after turning pro as a player for Lisbon’s third biggest club Belenenses in 2003, he later returned to Benfica, making 95 appearances between 2008 and 2017.
In September 2000, when he was aged 15, Benfica loaned him to youth feeder side Ginasio Clube de Corroios, where he played a starring role in their 2001 County Cup winning team. Officials at the club, based south of Lisbon city centre where his mum now lives, still fondly remember him and his down-to-earth attitude.
The club’s president Miguel Godinho, 51, said: “As a boy here he was a very good player. He was very humble and very respectful and always really calm and tranquil. He was always a good friend to his friends and very loyal. Exactly what we see now. He hasn’t changed.”
It was suggested by some locals we met that despite his influence on his career, there are rumours Amorim has a difficult relationship with his father. But it is understood he remains very close to his older brother, who owns a car dealership, and his mother, who he helped financially to follow her dream of opening her own spa. Godinho said: “They are very present and very important people in his life and they are all very down-to-earth.”
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Former club director Eduardo Rocha, 62, said: “When he played here you could tell he was very good. He had very good vision and clear ideas of what to do next. The way he played it was almost impossible for him not to become a coach. He was very clever and very polite.
“He has never managed outside Portugal and it’ll take him time to get used to the conditions, like the rain, in Manchester. He will wear less short sleeves, but I have no doubt he will adapt and he will eat for free whatever he wants to eat at Portuguese restaurants in England!”
Standing in the club’s trophy room, Rocha added: “All of us trust he’s going to do an amazing job at Manchester United. He will choose and shape the team and make them a success. It’s what he does. We are all very proud of him.”
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