13 Best Players Ruben Amorim Has Managed [Ranked]

Ruben Amorim nurtured players at Sporting CP, leading them to success and transfers to big clubs. The Portuguese tactician's top players included Trincao, prolific goalscorer Viktor Gyokeres, and playmaking winger Pedro Goncalves. Players like Pedro Porro, Matheus Nunes, and Joao Palhinha thrived under Amorim, earning moves to top European clubs.

Ruben Amorim is widely considered one of the best young managers in world football right now , and after relieving Erik ten Hag of his managerial duties, Manchester United were aggressive in their pursuit of the Portuguese manager. Having worked with the club completing an internship under then-manager Jose Mourinho , Amorim bounced around Portugal with Casa Pia, Braga B, and Braga , before settling down as manager of Sporting CP in March 2020. In his first full season with the side, Amorim led Sporting to their first Primeira Liga title in 19 years, following it up with another title in the 2023/24 campaign, while also leading them to two League Cup victories and a Super Cup.



But, the team's success was down to how Amorim nurtured and helped his players improve when playing under him, with some moving on to some of the biggest clubs in Europe, while others have ascended into superstardom, and are some of the hottest tickets in world football today. With that said, here is GIVEMESPORT's list of the top 13 players to have played under Amorim during his time at Sporting CP, with the ranking order graded according to the following criteria: Ahead of his first game as Manchester United boss, here is a look at Ruben Amorim's managerial career so far. Statistical data - appearances, goals, assists etc.

Improvements made from performances at previous clubs to working under Amorim Superstar level/potential 13 Best Players Ruben Amorim Has Managed Ranking Player Position 1. Viktor Gyokeres Centre-Forward 2. Pedro Goncalves Left Winger 3.

Paulinho Centre-Forward 4. Trincao Right Winger 5. Nuno Santos Left Winger 6.

Pablo Sarabia Right Winger 7. Sebastian Coates Centre-Back 8. Goncalo Inacio Centre-Back 9.

Pedro Porro Right-Back 10. Marcus Edwards Right Winger 11. Matheus Nunes Central Midfielder 12.

Manuel Ugarte Defensive Midfielder 13. Joao Palhinha Defensive Midfielder 13 Joao Palhinha Despite signing with Sporting in 2016, before Amorim arrived at the club in 2020, Joao Palhinha was loaned out twice, to Belenenses and Braga for the first three seasons. It was only when Amorim took charge that the Portuguese midfielder was reinstated with the club, and saw playing time for the Lisbon outfit.

Making 87 appearances, scoring seven goals, and providing an assist, Palhinha won the Primeira Liga, two Portuguese League Cups, and a Portuguese Super Cup under Amorim. After having got into some of his best form, he relished a new challenge, earning a move to the Premier League to join Fulham . After 79 appearances for the Cottagers, scoring eight goals, he would get his move to German juggernauts, Bayern Munich , in the summer of 2024 in a deal worth £42.

3 million , where he has seen limited playing time. 12 Manuel Ugarte The arrival of Amorim to Old Trafford has seen the manager link up with one of his former players in Manuel Ugarte. The defensive midfielder left the club in 2023, joining Paris Saint-Germain for a season before making the switch to the Premier League.

But, during his time under Amorim, the Uruguayan made 85 appearances, scoring a goal and creating three more. The one caveat of his time there was the sheer number of yellow cards he picked up (23), by far the most he has racked up compared to when under any other manager, though the argument can be made that, at 23 years old, he is a much more mature player now. Uruguayan media have been split on the performance of Man Utd star Manuel Ugarte for the national team after he was fielded as a centre-back.

11 Matheus Nunes Before making the switch to the Premier League to join Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2022, Matheus Nunes featured 101 times under Amorim, amassing 6,331 minutes for Sporting. During the manager's tenure, he earned his first call-up to the first team in 2020, having previously been playing for the club's under-23s, and his impressive performances in central midfield saw him awarded a contract extension , which increased his release clause from €45 million to €60 million. In his century of appearances, he would contribute 17 goal involvements (eight goals, nine assists), and in their round of 16 tie of the Champions League against Manchester City , manager Pep Guardiola praised Nunes' performance, and hailed him as 'one of the best in the world' .

Little did Nunes know then that he would make the switch from Wolves to City in 2023 , in a deal worth £53 million. 10 Marcus Edwards Having come up through the youth ranks of Tottenham Hotspur , Enfield-born Marcus Edwards struggled to get into the senior side. As a result, he was loaned out to both Norwich City and Excelsior before departing permanently to join Portuguese side Vitoria de Guimaraes.

It was during his time there that he caught the attention of Sporting executives, and after three seasons, he joined the Lisbon club to work under Amorim. The 25-year-old winger who stands at just 5-foot-6, got off to a rampant start under Amorim, recording 18 goals and 23 assists in his first two seasons. He totalled 117 appearances under the new Man Utd manager, in which he tallied 22 goals and 28 assists in all competitions.

He has since been linked with a move to Old Trafford , with reports that Amorim would be keen to bring him over to England to work under him again. 9 Pedro Porro Pedro Porro is currently considered one of the best right-backs in the Premier League , applying his craft at Spurs under Ange Postecoglou . But before he made his loan move to north London permanent in 2023, the Spaniard made 98 appearances under Amorim, in which he netted 12 times, and created another 20 assists, in what is a superb return for a defender.

Now, he and his former manager will meet again, but this time on opposing sides, with a couple of fixtures between Spurs and Man United to come in the 2024/25 season, including the League Cup quarter-final. 8 Sebastian Coates Sebastian Coates is the first of two centre-backs to feature on this list, with the defender having made the fourth-most appearances under Amorim (179 appearances). Having started his career with Uruguayan club Nacional, Coates joined Liverpool in 2011, though he would make just 13 appearances in four years at Anfield, before joining Sunderland on loan before making the move permanent in 2015.

His career wouldn't pick up at the Stadium of Light, seeing the field just 15 times before he was loaned to Sporting CP, making the move permanent in 2017, three years before Amorim's arrival. But, Coates is proof that the environment and personnel around a player can change them, and under Amorim, he became a mainstay in Sporting's back-line, captaining the side to the 2020-21 Primeira Liga title. He even provided some goalscoring, netting 22 times and providing three assists.

After playing 369 total games for Sporting - the most of any foreign player for the side - he returned to his home country to re-join Nacional, where his career first began. 7 Goncalo Inacio After eight seasons in Sporting's academy between 2012-20, Amorim opted to integrate centre-back Goncalo Inacio into the first team, where he has since flourished into one of Europe's top defensive prospects. Still only 23 years old, Inacio made 187 appearances for Sporting under Amorim, in which he has added 17 goals and 12 assists.

In just nine appearances this season before Amorim's departure, Inacio had helped his side keep six clean sheets in his nine outings. He could yet follow his former manager to the Premier League , having attracted interest from both Man United and Liverpool . It seems just a matter of time before a top club pays his €50 million release clause.

6 Pablo Sarabia Pablo Sarabia is the player on this list who has seen the least time under Amorim, only joining on loan from PSG for the 2021-22 season, but his impact on the team that year was seismic. Making just 45 appearances for the Portuguese outfit, the winger recorded 21 goals and 10 assists in 45 appearances in all competitions, helping Sporting to win the League Cup. While his time was brief with Amorim, he had one of the best goal involvement outputs of his career, recording similar numbers during his time with PSG but with half the number of appearances.

The season after he returned to PSG, he made just 19 appearances before moving to Wolves, scoring just one goal in 32 appearances, And, with five goals and 10 assists in England, from 43 appearances, it is clear that Amorim maximised the potential of Sarabia, with the 32-year-old looking a shell of the player he was during that one season working under the manager. 5 Nuno Santos With 197 appearances, Nuno Santos was Amorim's most-used player during his time at Sporting. Having spent his whole career in the Primeira Liga, the 29-year-old has played his best football with Sporting, having joined the side in 2020 from Rio Ave.

While listed as a left-winger, Amorim often used a 3-5-2 formation, which saw Santos deployed as a left wing-back, where he burst down the left flank, and created 49 goals, while scoring 34 of his own in all competitions. Thus, he was instrumental in Sporting's run to claim five major trophies in Amorim's spell with the club. 4 Trincao Francisco Trincao is still just 24 years old, but he has already made a plethora of moves around Europe, starting at Braga before earning a move to La Liga giants Barcelona in 2020.

However, he would make just 42 total appearances for the Catalan side in his first season, before being loaned out to Wolves and being loaned out again to Sporting. Despite struggling in his loan spell, Amorim kept the faith in the young talent and kept him in his starting XI. That trust would eventually be rewarded, with him making a permanent switch in 2023, where he rebuilt his confidence under the manager.

Having made a total of 118 appearances, he contributed 26 goals and 23 assists for the side in Amorim's reign, and before the manager's departure, he had earned the starting right-winger spot over Marcus Edwards. 3 Paulinho Paulinho spent three-and-a-half seasons under Amorim, having joined the side from Braga during the winter transfer window in 2021, for a club-record €16 million fee . His best season came in the 2023/24 campaign, whereby he scored 21 goals in all competitions, which was the second-most on the team, as well as six assists.

Leading the line, he notched 59 goals and 31 assists in 156 appearances between 2021-24, which has some believing he was a bargain buy all along. Now, the 32-year-old is playing his football in Mexico with Toluca, where he has 20 goal involvements in 20 matches. 2 Pedro Goncalves Pedro Goncalves is an undeniable talent, and it is clear that Amorim felt the same, using the left-winger 190 times during his reign as manager at Sporting.

Under Amorim, he has been one of the key cogs of Sporting's machine, scoring 81 goals and providing an additional 61 assists, which saw his former manager call him a 'special player' , As such, it comes as no surprise whatsoever that he is attracting the interest of some of the top clubs around Europe , while he has also been linked to West Ham United and Aston Villa , among others. It appears as though it is going to come down to who blinks first on triggering the 26-year-old's £67 million release clause. 1 Viktor Gyokeres Viktor Gyokeres is the player that has undoubtedly thrived the most having Amorim as his manager.

With his move to Brighton & Hove Albion being disastrous, failing to make a single appearance for the Seagulls, the Swede would go on loan to St. Pauli and Swansea City , where he had a mediocre time, scoring eight times in 40 total appearances. But as the old saying goes, third time's a charm, Gyokeres would be loaned out once again in 2021, and this time it would be to EFL Championship side, Coventry City .

With him impressing in his brief loan spell, Coventry would make the move permanent in the summer, and in 116 appearances with the club, he scored 43 goals and added 17 assists, with his name beginning to circle Europe. But, his rise to the pinnacle of European football would come once Sporting, and Amorim came calling in 2023. Breaking the club-record , previously held by Paulinho, Gyokeres would ascend into superstardom in Portugal, scoring 66 goals in 68 appearances under Amorim, while also contributing 19 assists.

Now, the 26-year-old is considered one of the best number 9's in world football . In Amorim's final game before departing for Man United, Gyokeres scored a hat-trick in Sporting's 4-1 win over Man City at home, giving his manager one final send-off, and in glorious fashion. All statistics via TransferMarkt and FBRef - correct as of 20/11/2024.

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