Man United hires Ruben Amorim as coach

Manchester United hired Ruben Amorim on Friday, gambling on a young manager unproven in Europe's top leagues to turn around the fortunes of the fading English power.

At age 39, Amorim, who has joined from Portuguese champion Sporting Lisbon, will be the youngest person to coach United since the 1960s and the sixth permanent manager since the retirement of Alex Ferguson in 2013.

Amorim will take charge on November 11, after completing his commitments to Sporting, and has signed a contract until June 2027, with United having an option of an additional year.

“Ruben is one of the most exciting and highly rated young coaches in European football,” United said.

United, the record 20-time English champion, hasn't won the Premier League since Ferguson's final season in charge. Amorim's task will be to revive the glories of a club that has fallen way behind the best in England and Europe — something that has been beyond the likes of Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and most recently Erik ten Hag, who was fired on Monday.

Amorim, a former Portugal midfielder who spent the majority of his club career at Benfica, joins after United paid 11 million euros ($12 million) to release him from his contract at Sporting, which he led to two Portuguese titles in four full seasons in charge.

Sporting also said in a statement it will receive around an extra 1.66 million euros ($1.8 million) because of contractual reasons and commissions.

Amorim has only worked in Portugal and has no experience of managing some of the game's top players under the constant glare of the world's media.

“He comes from a big club in Portugal,” United defender Diogo Dalot said of Amorim on British broadcaster Sky Sports, “but I always say it almost quadruples the amount of intensity, the amount of pressure (at United).”

Amorim ended Sporting's 19-year title drought in the Portuguese league in 2021 to end the dominance of rivals Benfica and Porto, and won the League Cup that year, too, in his first season in charge.

Sporting also won the league last season and has won all nine of its league games in this campaign, bolstering Amorim's status as a burgeoning coaching prospect. In his only other top-flight role, at Braga, he won the League Cup in a stint lasting less than a season.

Amorim will finish his time at Sporting with a game against Estrela da Amadora on Friday, at home to Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday and with a trip to Braga on November 10.

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