FC Porto: Mini Mourinho follows in mentor’s footsteps

André Villas-Boas was Jose Mourinho’s former assistant at Porto, Chelsea and Inter and has been announced as the new manager of FC Porto. Villas-Boas left his role as Academica boss in Portugal’s top division to replace Jesualdo Ferreira as manager at the Estadio Dragao.

Before looking at Villas-Boas’ path to becoming manager of Porto, we should first look at Jose Mourinho’s early career.

José

Jose Mourinho’s career and rise to become Real Madrid manager has been less than orthodox, having never played professional football. He is the son of former Portugal international goalkeeper Felix Mourinho. Mourinho Snr only represented his country once but he was a well respected goalkeeper in Portugal, in particular at Vitoria Setubal. After his playing career had ended Felix Mourinho became a manager. It is here where the young Jose took his first steps towards management, scouting opposition matches for his father.

Jose was an average footballer but academically gifted, speaking English, Spanish, French and Italian fluently. Rather than attempting to become a footballer like his father he studied Sport Science at university. Upon graduating he became a PE teacher, but Jose was always very ambitious and soon found himself managing Vitoria Setubal’s under 16’s. His work as a youth coach impressed the manager, Manuel Fernandes who made Mourinho his assistant when he moved to Estrela Amadora.

It was a quirk of fate that saw Mourinho take his next step forward. Sporting Lisbon had appointed an Englishman who did not speak Portugese as their manager and needed an interpreter. The Englishman was Sir Bobby Robson and his interpreter was Jose Mourinho. Robson soon realised that Mourinho had much more to offer than his language skills and used Mourinho as his assistant manager.

Robson did not last at Sporting for long, but soon became manager of Porto and was very successful, winning two league titles. At Barcelona, Robson took Mourinho with him as interpreter (Mourinho also spoke Spanish) and assistant. Robson only lasted one season at Barcelona, but Mourinho stayed on as assistant to Louis Van Gaal.

Mourinho stayed at Barcelona for three more seasons before becoming manager of Benfica, an extraordinary appointment for a young manager’s first job. Perhaps too extraordinary. For mainly political reasons, Mourinho soon left the Lisbon giants and became manager of Leiria, who under him reached their highest ever league finish of fifth place.

It was this achievement that saw him become manager of Porto. Mourinho’s achievements since then are well documented, but he needed the help of his coaching staff. Baltemar Brito is Mourinho’s assistant manager, Fui Faria is the fitness coach, Silvino Louro is the goalkeeping coach; all of whom have been part of Mourinho’s coaching staff since Leiria. Possibly the most important member of Mourinho’s coaching staff however was Villas-Boas.

André

André Villas-Boas’ path to becoming Porto manager was even more unorthodox than Mourinho’s. Villas-Boas was a teenager living in Porto when Bobby Robson was manager and asked if he could join the coaching staff. Robson politely declined, but Villas-Boas would finally get his wish when Mourinho became Porto manager, becoming Mourinho’s “director of opposition intelligence”. He followed Mourinho to Chelsea where he assumed the title of “assistant coach/scout” and also to Inter Milan where he was the “chief scout”.

Like Mourinho though, Villas-Boas is supremely ambitious. As a 21 year old in 1999 (and before he joined Mourinho at Porto) he was somehow appointed as the Technical Director of the British Virgin Islands FA. In this role he was the Director of Youth Development and assistant to the national team’s head coach. After 18 months in the Caribbean he returned to Portugal to coach Porto’s under 19’s.

When Mourinho became Porto boss a year later he promoted Villas-Boas to the role of “director of opposition intelligence”. In essence, Villas-Boas was asked to scout Porto’s upcoming opponents and write dossiers for the manager and players. He performed the same role at Chelsea and Inter. When a player praises Mourinho for his thoroughness in analysing the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, they are in fact praising the work of Villas-Boas. Mourinho has often referred to Villas-Boas as “my eyes and ears”.

Villas-Boas always had ambitions of being more than a scout, and in October 2009 he left Inter Milan to become manager of Academica in Portugal’s top division. In his only season at Academica he led them to a solid but unspectacular 11th place, thus avoiding relegation. This was enough for Porto’s president Jorge Pinto da Costa to appoint Villas-Boas as Porto’s latest manager.

Villas-Boas replaces Jesualdo Ferreira as the manager and has a tough act to follow. Ferreira was the manager for four years and won three successive titles, in 2006/07, 2007/08 and 2008/09. The season just finished was less successful for Ferreira and Porto as they finished 3rd, conceding the title to fierce rivals Benfica. Ferreira paid the price for this failure and was sacked.

André Villas-Boas’ career so far has many similarities to Jose Mourinho’s early career. Both men have become managers without any playing career of note, a fact that is almost unique in world football. Both have supreme analytical skills and “read the game” well. Both pay great attention to detail and analyse upcoming opponents with unrivalled depth. Both started coaching at a very young age by coaching youth teams; Mourinho at Setubal, Villas-Boas at Porto.

Both have worked as assistant managers at top clubs; Mourinho under Bobby Robson at Sporting, Porto and Barcelona and Louis Van Gaal at Barcelona, Villas-Boas under Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea and Inter. Both got managerial jobs in the Portugese top division with minor previous experience; Mourinho managed Benfica for only nine league games before becoming manager at Leiria, Villas-Boas managed the British Virgin Islands national team for some World Cup qualifiers before becoming manager of Academica. And finally, both managed in Portugal for just one season before landing the Porto job.

However, this is where the question marks begin over André Villas-Boas. Mourinho’s only season in charge of Leiria was a resounding success, ending with their highest ever league finish. Villas-Boas’ season at Academica was less spectacular, helping them avoid relegation but achieving little more. Mourinho is a master of psychology, of mind-games and motivating his teams. He is well loved by his players and is a great leader. He has also shown himself to be a great tactician and organises his teams brilliantly.

Can Villas-Boas do all this without Mourinho by his side? He has worked closely with big players before, at Chelsea and Inter. But that was always alongside Mourinho. How will he cope on his own, dealing with the egos of Hulk, Bruno Alves and the rest?

Will he be as good with his own team’s tactics as he has been analysing those of his opponents? Does he have the charisma, and unquestionable media savvy, Mourinho possesses? Can someone with even less of a playing career than Mourinho really become a top manager? Simply put, is André Villas-Boas a “special one”?

(Photo via FC Porto website)

Andre Villas Boas, FC Porto, Jose Mourinho, Portugal, Portuguese Football