Rúben Amorim Favorite as Manchester United’s New Coach

Sporting's coach Ruben Amorim applauds prior the Portuguese League Cup quarter final football match between Sporting CP and CD Nacional at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, on October 29, 2024. Patricia De Melo moreira/AFP via Getty Images

Manchester United is focused on Rúben Amorim becoming the new manager to get the storied club back on track after several disappointing seasons.

Amorim is currently the coach of Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon and led the club to two championships in the Portuguese Primeira Liga Standings since 2020. He also has experience coaching in Europe’s most elite competition, the Champions League, where Sporting advanced to the knockout round in the 2021–22 season.

“Manchester United have expressed their interest in recruiting coach Rúben Amorim and have said they are ready to pay the 10 million euro release clause,” Sporting Lisbon said in a statement.

Manchester United, which has currently lost four of its first nine EPL matches, is looking for a manager to turn around its fortunes this season.

The legendary club fired Erik ten Hag on Monday. He was hired by Manchester United from Dutch power Ajax in 2022 to much fanfare, but the team never managed to find much success under Rhim.

While ten Hag had some success, winning two domestic trophies—the Carabao Cup in 2023 and the FA Cup in 2024—Manchester United is having its worst start to a season, mired in 14th place in the English Premier League.

However, Ten Hag had been under pressure to get the club back atop the EPL standings and faced criticism from former Manchester United stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, who said the club needed a complete overhaul to win championships.

Ruud van Nistelrooy took over as interim head coach, supported by the current coaching team, and led Manchester United to a 5–2 victory over Leicester to reach the quarterfinals of the English Carabao Cup. However, the team is not interested in van Nistelrooy taking over the club full-time because of his lack of experience as a manager.

“It’s going to be a short job as an interim,” van Nistelrooy said in a statement to the club. “That was communicated very clear and I was happy with that. I felt that I was called upon to help the club forward in this situation.

“Obviously, it was difficult, Erik had to leave, I was very disappointed with mixed feelings but after that, you have to switch the mindset to win because 75,000 people are waiting and celebrating and millions are watching at home.”

Amorim will look to have more success at Manchester United than an impressive list of former managers who could not find success, including David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and ten Hag.

The coaches failed to live up to the lofty expectations set by Sir Alex Ferguson, who won a record 13 Premier League titles over his 27 years as Manchester United’s manager.

However, Amorim is regarded as one of the top rising coaches in Europe and was in the running to take over Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp stepped down but the club ultimately hired Arne Slot as the new manager and he has had success at the club, which is currently in second place in the English Premier League.

Amorim has declined to talk about taking over Manchester United.