Only the beginning

I am proud to have made it to the Portuguese first division at the age of 32.

But I feel that I am only at the beginning of my coaching story, so I won’t claim to have control of what is to come. In fact, everything still feels very new to me. Being head coach of Casa Pia is my first experience in the Portuguese top fight. I don’t want to have any illusions about anything, nor to think too much about whether or not I will be successful as a coach. I am aware that everything can change from one moment to the next.

My cautious outlook was intensified during the pandemic. At that time I was with the Mozambique national team, as assistant coach to Luís Gonçalves, when I contracted Covid and developed a serious heart condition.

Suddenly, I could no longer work. Those months, not knowing what was going to happen, changed my view of the world. I realised that work was the most important of the less important things in life.

Don’t get me wrong, I am passionate about what I do. At a very young age I discovered in myself the desire to be a coach. And when you love what you do, extreme dedication comes naturally. But before work comes health. Before the coach, there is the person.

Elite football is very competitive, and that means that we coaches are always on the edge. We want to help the player, the club and be the best version of ourselves. Therefore, you also have to take similar care of the players. You need to eat well, rest well and surround yourself with people who help you develop as a professional. Every detail counts in the fierce competition that is top-level football. But you also need to be able to switch off from time to time. As they say: “If you only know about football, you don’t know anything about football.”

“After Mourinho’s success, the transfer market for Portuguese coaches became much more generous”

My playing days were short-lived. When I was still in youth football, injuries cut short my time on the pitch. In any case, I had already recognised my desire to become a coach.

I realised how much training influenced the game, and was fascinated by the different profiles of the coaches. Some coaches came with less tactical ability, but with a strong leadership profile. Others had more difficulty getting the message across to the group, but had good technical attributes.

At that time, I was 17 years old, and my great reference as a coach was José Mourinho. Someone who combined leadership ability with an enormous talent for the strategic side of football.

In fact, Mourinho is a reference for all the Portuguese. After Mourinho’s success, the transfer market for Portuguese coaches became much more generous to the professionals from our country.

The decision to stop playing and start training as a coach was very well thought out. It was much more rational than emotional, even though I was only 17 years old – a stage of life in which everything goes very fast. But I was clear about the path I wanted to follow.

It was in this context that my first opportunity as a coach arose. Grupo Desportivo da Mealhada, who were in the Portuguese third division, invited me to lead their Under-9s. Well, leading is not exactly the right word when you talk about coaching eight or nine-year-olds, because you don’t really lead anything – you are there to help the kids develop. That made me realise how much I enjoyed guiding training sessions.

“Futsal also offers many tools on tactical details of the game and individual player development”

However, I felt that something was still missing: competition. As much as I enjoyed helping the kids, I wanted to experience the competitive side of football. That should not be the priority in youth football, so I realised I had to try something new.

My next steps were in futsal. I had the opportunity to work for different clubs at different levels, with experiences that were fundamental to my learning process as a coach.

I went through third and second-tier teams, which satisfied my need to compete at a high level. Futsal also offers many tools on tactical details of the game and individual player development. Tools that can then be useful, in different contexts, in conventional football.

I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to tap into different sources of knowledge. This diversity can be summed up in my time at FC Porto. I spent six years at the club in various roles: scout, performance analyst, assistant coach, development coach and B-team analyst. Without a doubt, Porto was a school in my coaching life.

There I had the opportunity to coach players like Vitinha, Fábio Vieira, Fábio Silva and João Mário when they were about to join the first team. Nowadays, it is common for 16 or 17-year-old players to make their debut in the first team. When you coach players of that quality, you learn from them. You realise what solutions they find for certain situations. And you can use that experience to help other players in the future.

The same thing happened to me when I worked with Reinildo, an Atlético Madrid player in the Mozambique national team. Watching one of the best left-backs in the world train and play, up close, gives you another perspective on how a full-back should behave with and without the ball.

“We often forget how privileged we are and live in a bubble”

If the coach is attentive and absorbs these details, they will become a better-prepared professional. And the coach must also learn from their colleagues.

My time as assistant coach with the Mozambique national team was very satisfying. And when I entered the world of international football, my previous experience as a scout was an advantage.

After all, a scout’s job is to find players who fit into a given squad – and in the national team it is much the same. You also have to analyse the characteristics of the squad and imagine whether one player will perform better than others.

Mozambique may not have been among the best teams in the world, but the competitive context of playing against big teams in major competitions was a great professional learning experience for me.

The time in Africa was also interesting from a human point of view. Mozambique is, unfortunately, a country of huge social inequalities. We often forget how privileged we are and live in a bubble. Since then I have made it a point to warn my players about this situation.

The heart problem I suffered in Mozambique as a result of Covid kept me away from competitive football for months. But I didn’t stand still. I took advantage of the time out of action to visit several clubs and get to know their work dynamics. That included Manchester City, Betis, Sevilla and Eintracht Frankfurt.

“I became the youngest coach in the history of Portuguese football to win a national championship”

As well as learning, you end up making new contacts, and that is also fundamental in the career of any professional. On these trips, I met the president of Amora FC, in the Portuguese third division, where I would have my next challenge.

It was a successful job at Amora. We fought for promotion to the second division, although we did not achieve our goal. At the end of the season, Alverca, also in the third division, contacted me. I accepted the new project.

What we experienced in Alverca was really very special. Not only did we achieve promotion to the second division, but we were also champions of Liga 3. I became the youngest coach in the history of Portuguese football to win a national championship.

But I was only one of the pieces of that victorious project. We had a board who were aligned with us and helped in the difficult phases of the journey. It was a process in which we also remodelled the squad. Although we had negative results during the season, we stuck together.

Now I am lucky enough to experience the same situation at Casa Pia. When everyone is rowing in the same direction, the work flows naturally. And the turbulent moments are dealt with more clearheadedness.

For this to happen, it is essential that the club knows the coach they have hired. My coaching staff and I were interviewed by Casa Pia and we presented a dossier on our working methodology.

“At Casa Pia we are having a campaign above expectations in the Primeira Liga”

I am not saying that our presentation is better or worse than that of other coaches, but I can assure you that it is different. It involves a lot of data analysis, training sessions and matches, individual player analysis. It is very detailed to the point of exhaustion, but worth it for the club to understand what we think.

At Casa Pia, we are having a campaign above expectations in the Primeira Liga. Despite being in the top half of the table, we still have the same objective as at the beginning of the season – to avoid relegation.

The good results have also provided the club with opportunities to sell players. That is part of football, which the coach has to adapt to and reinvent their team.

Today, at the age of 33, I am grateful for everything I have experienced in my short time in professional football. I have many dreams for the future; I would like to work in the Premier League and hear the Champions League anthem from the pitch.

On the other hand, I am not afraid to go back to the Portuguese third division if necessary. I was already there and was very happy, being able to do a very rewarding job.

Football just requires adapting to the context, and that is what I am trying to do. We shall see what happens with my next chapters.