FC Porto - Andre Villas Boas

[ant london]

I was just listening to the Football Weekly show and they had a journo from Portugal telling the tale of Porto having won the Portuguese championship this week, clinching the title in an away match at Benfica (notable for the fact that the churlish Stadium of Light club's management turned all the stadium lights off straight after the final whistle in an effort to prevent Porto and their fans being able to celebrate the win on their pitch.)

The real story for me though is the Porto manager Andre Villas Boas.....his first season in the job after moving from the lowly side Academia in Portugal and prior to that a short stint as coach of the British Virgin Islands. This is impressive enough but add to that the fact that he has never played professional football at all. And the fact that he is 33 years old. And you have quite a story!

Turns out that he was one of Jose Mourinho's staff at Porto and then Chelsea and latterly Inter and was the main man credited with Jose's famously detailed scouting reports on opposition teams, so he has worked with the very best.

Funnily though he credits himself with being more heavily influenced by one of Mourinho's predecessors, the great Sir Bobby Robson. He and his parents lived in an adjacent apartment to Robson when he was coach at Porto and the young kid used to always be talking to Sir Bobby and asking him insightful questions about football. This lead to Robson pulling a few strings and getting him accepted (at much too young an age per the rules) on a UEFA coaching course in Scotland and him ultimately getting a job on the backroom staff at Porto and the rest is history.

Mental

[Rag_hater]

I was just listening to the Football Weekly show and they had a journo from Portugal telling the tale of Porto having won the Portuguese championship this week, clinching the title in an away match at Benfica (notable for the fact that the churlish Stadium of Light club's management turned all the stadium lights off straight after the final whistle in an effort to prevent Porto and their fans being able to celebrate the win on their pitch.)

The real story for me though is the Porto manager Andre Villas Boas.....his first season in the job after moving from the lowly side Academia in Portugal and prior to that a short stint as coach of the British Virgin Islands. This is impressive enough but add to that the fact that he has never played professional football at all. And the fact that he is 33 years old. And you have quite a story!

Turns out that he was one of Jose Mourinho's staff at Porto and then Chelsea and latterly Inter and was the main man credited with Jose's famously detailed scouting reports on opposition teams, so he has worked with the very best.

Funnily though he credits himself with being more heavily influenced by one of Mourinho's predecessors, the great Sir Bobby Robson. He and his parents lived in an adjacent apartment to Robson when he was coach at Porto and the young kid used to always be talking to Sir Bobby and asking him insightful questions about football. This lead to Robson pulling a few strings and getting him accepted (at much too young an age per the rules) on a UEFA coaching course in Scotland and him ultimately getting a job on the backroom staff at Porto and the rest is history.

Mental

Never really heard of him.Sounds like he might be the next "Special One".
I think they showed a clip of him living out the header one of the Porto guys scored.
Showing a bit of passion.
Was that him?

[Dameerto]

Mourinho himself was heavily influenced by Bobby Robson, by the way.

[dazby]

Thanks for putting me on that podcast Ant. It's top notch and generally both interesting and amusing.

[CityFanFromRome]

I was just listening to the Football Weekly show and they had a journo from Portugal telling the tale of Porto having won the Portuguese championship this week, clinching the title in an away match at Benfica (notable for the fact that the churlish Stadium of Light club's management turned all the stadium lights off straight after the final whistle in an effort to prevent Porto and their fans being able to celebrate the win on their pitch.)

The real story for me though is the Porto manager Andre Villas Boas.....his first season in the job after moving from the lowly side Academia in Portugal and prior to that a short stint as coach of the British Virgin Islands. This is impressive enough but add to that the fact that he has never played professional football at all. And the fact that he is 33 years old. And you have quite a story!

Turns out that he was one of Jose Mourinho's staff at Porto and then Chelsea and latterly Inter and was the main man credited with Jose's famously detailed scouting reports on opposition teams, so he has worked with the very best.

Funnily though he credits himself with being more heavily influenced by one of Mourinho's predecessors, the great Sir Bobby Robson. He and his parents lived in an adjacent apartment to Robson when he was coach at Porto and the young kid used to always be talking to Sir Bobby and asking him insightful questions about football. This lead to Robson pulling a few strings and getting him accepted (at much too young an age per the rules) on a UEFA coaching course in Scotland and him ultimately getting a job on the backroom staff at Porto and the rest is history.

Mental

Reminds me of the story of Jose himself; I've seen it on Sky Italia some time ago, he was interviewed and talked about the start of his career; he followed the same exact path of Vilas Boas; he was first the assistant of a couple of very high profile managers at Barcelona, I think one was Van Gaal and the other was Robson; he compared the very different methods of the two managers, and what he had been able to pick up from them; Robson left Mourinho in charge of the training sessions, Jose planned them from start to finish and lead them team through it while Robson watched, while Van Gall was almost the opposite.

Then he left to try his hand at actual management at Leiria, and the rest is history; great first season there and then the jump midseason to Porto who were struggling; the next season he wins the league and the UEFA Cup with Porto, etc.