Assistant managers are people who don’t normally get a lot of attention from the sports press, but the future of Rui Faria has been quite an interesting subject in the past few days.
Leaving José Mourinho at Manchester United, the Portuguese coach has now been linked to several destinations. On Monday, the English media claimed he could be taking charge of Benfica, which would obviously be a big deal.
But although we expected front pages and big stories about it in the Portuguese media today, the truth is the local press isn’t buying it.
Starting with newspaper A Bola, they had a short story about the matter, with a source from Benfica telling them there’s been no contact with the manager, and that Rui Vitória isn’t leaving the club.
Over at Record, Faria gets two mentions on the front page alone.
In a Benfica story, the newspaper says the same as A Bola. The Eagles haven’t made any contact with him, and apparently have no intention to let Rui Vitória go.
But as you can see, the big attention in Portugal today goes to Jorge Jesus, who should be leaving Sporting this summer. The relationship between him and president Bruno de Carvalho has reached a point where the manager is about to get suspended, believe it or not.
Record lists three guys who could be replacing Jesus at the club: Rui Jorge, Miguel Cardoso and Manchester United’s Rui Faria. There are no details on how advanced talks are, as they’re just making the shortlist for the job for now.
So instead of becoming an eagle, it seems Faria would be closer to turning into a lion. At least for the Portuguese press.
