Cristiano Ronaldo’s nickname for Rúben Amorim has already become obvious to Manchester United fans

Cristiano Ronaldo’s nickname for new Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has already become obvious to fans.

Ruben Amorim will replace Erik ten Hag at the helm of Manchester United, with the Portuguese boss set for a big challenge at Old Trafford.

The 39-year-old has already had a stellar start to his managerial career after his early retirement from football at the age of 32.

He won Braga’s first piece of silverware in four years before ending Sporting Lisbon’s 19-year wait for the Primeira Liga title in his first full season at the club.

Last term, Amorim added a second league-title and looked certain to repeat the feat this season as Sporting have won all of their opening 10 fixtures.

Instead, the young manager has decided to test himself by moving to the most difficult job in football at Old Trafford which has left more experienced managers with mud on their face.

Amorim will come against many new experiences. The intensity and competitiveness of the Premier League simply cannot be compared to that in Portugal.

However, one challenge that he has already began to face is the overwhelming scrutiny of being the Manchester United manager.

We all have watched the recent clip of Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill trying to pressurise the Portuguese manager to speak English ahead of his final home game in charge for his Portuguese club in Portugal.

Amorim’s press officer told Cotterill that he would only be speaking in his native tongue during that press conference before the entitled English reporter pushed again. “They will miss me in Portugal, so I have to speak Portuguese,” smiled Amorim, with a thumbs-up shortly afterwards.

The BBC wrote on the exchange and their headline read, ‘Amorim’s language barrier’. The head coach can speak better English than any of these journalists can speak Portuguese. Context goes out of the window when speaking about United and Amorim will quickly realise this.

Thankfully, while United fans have not yet been able to see how impactful the manager can be on the pitch, he has already produced some great moments while speaking to the press, including his calm response to Cotterill’s nonsense.

Once he is settled in Manchester, we could also get used to hearing Amorim speak in detail about areas of the game which Erik ten Hag was often uncomfortable detailing.

He is a charismatic character and also has that touch of arrogance we’ve previously seen by his idol, Jose Mourinho. “I had three days to decide on something that would completely change my life. It’s not the first time that I’ve had my clause paid by another club. Nor the second.”

It seems like Amorim has the right tools to deal with the fire from the media in England and Cristiano Ronaldo’s nickname for his former teammate is starting to make complete sense.

Ronaldo, who played with Amorim in Sporting’s youth academy and for the Portugal national team, called the new United head coach ‘the poet’ and with how he deals with the media, it is easy to see why.

Portuguese football reporter Marcus Alves has explained: “The Manchester United job may look like an impossible one right now, but so did Sporting’s when Amorim was unveiled as their head coach on March 5 2020.

“Eloquent and outgoing, Amorim is irresistible and dominates the words in such a way that Cristiano Ronaldo used to call him ‘poet’ in the national team.

“Above all, the 39-year-old doesn’t tolerate lack of professionalism. This is a man who has pacified a team who seemed to be at war with itself once. He surely can do that twice if he’s allowed to.”

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