Man United appoint Amorim as manager from November 11 in a bid by the waning English power

Manchester United signed Ruben Amorim on Friday, banking on a manager unproven in Europe’s top leagues to turn around the fading English power’s fortunes.

Aged 39, Amorim, who joined from Portuguese champions Sporting Lisbon, will be the youngest person to manage United since the 1960s and the sixth permanent manager since Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013.

He will take charge on November 11, having completed his commitments to Sporting, and has signed a contract until June 2027, with United having an option for an extra year.

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

United, the 20-time English champions, have not won the Premier League since Ferguson’s last season in charge. Amorim’s task will be to revive the glories of a club that has fallen far behind the best in England and Europe – something that has eluded the likes of Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and most recently Erik ten Hag, who was sacked in on Monday.

United are currently 14th in the 20-team Premier League after losing four of their first nine games.

Amorim, a former Portuguese midfielder who spent the majority of his club career at Benfica, joins after United paid 10 million euros ($10.8 million) to release him from his contract at Sporting, which he led to two Portuguese titles for four full seasons. .

He 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.

But Amorim ended Sporting’s 19-year Portuguese league title drought in 2021 to end the dominance of rivals Benfica and Porto, winning the Liga Cup that year also in his first season in charge.

Sporting also won the league last season and have won all nine of their league games this campaign, cementing Amorim’s status as a rising coaching prospect. In his only other top-flight role, at Braga, he won the League Cup in a stay that lasted less than a season.

Amorim ends 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.

Meanwhile, Ruud van Nistelrooy will remain in temporary control of United and take charge of three games before the international break, all of which are at home: against Chelsea and Leicester in the Premier League either side of a Europa League tie against PAOK.

Amorim’s first game with United is away to Ipswich on November 24.

He reportedly held talks with West Ham last season before the London outfit signed Julen Lopetegui, and was also linked with replacing Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool before Arne Slot was appointed.

Now he takes charge of one of the world’s best-known clubs, which has been in decline for the past decade and is in a period of upheaval following the arrival of a new football-focused management team led by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe.

Ratcliffe will be hoping he has signed the latest managerial gem, with Amorim the youngest United manager since a 31-year-old Wilf McGuinness took charge in 1969.

Following on from the appointment of Ten Hag, who came from the Dutch league, it continues United’s shift away from hiring high-profile coaches such as Van Gaal and Mourinho.

___

AP football: