Only 16 days after being shown the door at Tottenham, Jose Mourinho is back in management after agreeing to take over as head coach of AS Roma next season.
The Portuguese’s reign lasted just 17 months in north London after he was brutally axed by Daniel Levy less than a week before the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City.
Typically, Mourinho tends to enjoy a short sabbatical away from the game before regrouping for his next position.
But the 57-year-old is back in Italy for the first time since his Treble-winning season with Inter Milan in 2009/10, ready to whip the Giallorossi into shape in 2021/22 after a disappointing campaign under Paulo Fonseca.
He will not be in the dugout for the Europa League semi-final second leg against his former club Manchester United, with Roma trailing 6-2, but will surely be keeping a close eye on events at the Stadio Olimpico.
The move to appoint Mourinho on a three-year deal, which has taken pundits and fans by surprise, was engineered by the club's newly-appointed general manager Tiago Pinto.
But just who is the man responsible for pulling off arguably the biggest managerial appointment in the club's history?
Background
The 37-year-old hails from the town of Peso da Regua located in northern Portugal.
Having graduated from the University of Porto with a degree in Pedagogy and a Masters in Economics & Human Resources, Pinto spent the majority of his early career across management consulting and education.
He was a member of Benfica’s General Assembly and first appeared on their radar when he submitted his ideas on changes to the club’s operation.
He was offered the chance to lead its business operations across multiple sports in 2012 and Benfica won titles across the board under his guidance.
Pinto was promoted to director of football in 2017 and was credited with establishing a culture based on results-driven performance at the club.
He was then poached by Roma in November 2020 to become their new general manager and began the role in January this year.
Reputation
Pinto has quietly made his way up the football hierarchy and is not a widely-known figure in European football.
But it seems the management expert did enough to wow his new employers, with Roma’s chairman Dan Friedkin describing Pinto as “a world-class talent”.
Pinto is thought to favour the process of nurturing academy players into becoming star names for the club, with Benfica famous for producing high-quality players such as Renato Sanches, Joao Felix and Ruben Dias in recent years.
That may conflict with Mourinho’s view on youth, but the pair are perfectly aligned with his compatriot in terms of sharing a ‘win-at-all-costs’ philosophy.
“When I arrive I will understand the work that has to be done,” Pinto said. “They [Roma] wanted me for me for what I did here at Benfica. I’m going there to modernise their sporting department.
“Serie A is a very unpredictable league, like all the most important ones in Europe. Big sides are suffering from lack of audience. The most important thing is to create a winning mentality, play game by game and then achieve our targets.
Achievements at Benfica
Considering his stance on homegrown players, it’s surely no coincidence that Benfica drove such a hard bargain when selling the best of their academy crop.
The Primeira Liga champions raked in nearly £250 million from the sales of Felix, Dias, Ederson and Nelson Semedo, while making a handsome profit on imports Raul Jimenez and Luka Jovic during his tenure.
As ever, they have made some shrewd signings in that time too from South America, with Brazilian talents Pedrinho and Everton arriving last summer along with Uruguay international Darwin Nunez.
The club also won the domestic title in 2018-19 ahead of rivals Porto, but expectations will be vastly different at Roma, where they currently lie sixth in Serie A.
Role in Mourinho appointment
Mourinho’s confrontational style of management means he is prone to falling out with his superiors and the tactician has previously gone toe-to-toe with Florentino Perez, Roman Abramovich and Ed Woodward.
But early signs suggest this relationship has the potential to blossom into something positive after Mourinho, upon his arrival in the Italian capital, singled out Pinto as the main influence in convincing him to take over at Roma.
“After meetings with the ownership and Tiago Pinto, I immediately understood the full extent of their ambitions for AS Roma,” Mourinho said.
“It is the same ambition and drive that has always motivated me and together we want to build a winning project over the upcoming years."
Should the Mourinho appointment work wonders for Roma like it did for their rivals Inter 11 years ago, Pinto will be the man lapping up the plaudits.
