Twenty years ago it was Jose Mourinho. Now it is Ruben Amorim who appears set to move from Portugal to the English Premier League with a reputation as Europe's next coaching superstar.
The Portuguese has emerged as the favourite to take over at Manchester United following Erik ten Hag's exit. His club Sporting Lisbon have confirmed that the Red Devils have triggered his €10 million (S$14.3 million) release clause.
Amorim is 39, two years younger than Mourinho when the latter left Porto and took over a Chelsea side poised to dominate English football.
Other coaches have come from Portugal with huge reputations, but not all have succeeded. Andre Villas-Boas, for example, failed to live up to expectations after following Mourinho's path from Porto to Chelsea in 2011.
But everything about Amorim, who was also linked to the manager's job at Liverpool in 2024, suggests he could be something special, just as Mourinho famously claimed he himself was in 2004.
As long ago as 2017 when Amorim confirmed his intention to become a coach, he told Tribuna Expresso: "I don't know if I am going to be good or bad, but that is what I am going to be."
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