Who is Manchester City's new director of football Hugo Viana?

The Portugese director will join Manchester City after the end of the season.

We examine the 41-year-old’s professional path from a Portuguese footballer to his success as a director of football after it was announced that Hugo Viana will succeed Txiki Begiristain as Manchester City’s director of football at the end of the current campaign.

Viana wasn’t ever an outspoken man; as a player, his elegance and grace spoke for him, and now that he has “moved upstairs,” and continues to do so.

It’s easy to forget that Viana and fellow youngster Cristiano Ronaldo were part of the Sporting Clube de Portugal team that won the Portuguese Liga in 2002. Sporting have returned to the top thanks to his penmanship and boardroom judgments, not the sweeps of his talented left foot.

During his four years with Newcastle, Viana played in 39 Premier League games, contributing two goals and six assists.

Viana’s stint in the Premier League had a significant impact on him, even if England didn’t fully suit him as a player. He trained under Sir Bobby Robson, who turned the then-European Young Footballer of the Year into a personal project.

Despite being hindered by injuries, Viana’s playing career was successful because of the skills he gained in England, particularly at Valencia and Braga. Since then, he has continued to watch English football with a voracious appetite from a distance.

How did Hugo Viana fare as Sporting CP director?

After taking over as Sporting CP director in 2018, Viana oversaw a dysfunctional team that was in serious need of some loving care.

The Hugo Viana Era. 🇵🇹🔜🧳 pic.twitter.com/dAhThNgeyk

— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) October 12, 2024

Viana was given time to work, in contrast to his English mentor Robson, who was fired as coach in December 1993 (and went on to have great success at rivals Porto). In the six years that followed, Viana generously returned President Frederico Varandas’ trust.

Yannick Bolasie, a former winger for Crystal Palace and Everton who joined Viana’s project in 2019, did, in fact, comment that the sports director “always had good talent ID.”

The most notable recent example is Viktor Gyokeres, who joined from Championship team Coventry City for a rumoured club-record cost of €20 million in the summer of 2023. After scoring 43 goals the previous season, Gyokeres became one of the continent’s most sought-after attackers.

In other news, Sebastian Coates, the longtime former Liverpool defender, left and was replaced as captain by Morten Hjulmand, a Danish midfielder who also joined that summer. Hjulmand has smoothly transitioned into the position.

However, Viana’s greatest acquisition at Sporting wasn’t a player. He risked paying Braga a reputed €10 million release fee for Ruben Amorim in March 2020, a little over two months after the 35-year-old took over as manager of Viana’s former club.

Viana received two championships from Amorim in a span of four years. Sporting had their first title since Viana’s vintage around 19 years prior in 2021, which was followed by their 2023–2024 victory the previous season.

Sporting have surpassed relative financial heavyweights Benfica and Porto to become the finest team in Portugal thanks in part to Amorim.

Viana helped Sporting make enormous profits by selling players like Bruno Fernandes, Pedro Porro, Joao Palhinha, and Manuel Ugarte and brought their perfect replacement with the signing of Gyokeres, Hjulmand, Pedro Goncalves, and Francisco Trincao, who might easily be the next major sales of the club.

Now Viana will return to England, where as a player it didn’t work out for him but as a sporting director, he will certainly make it work for one of the biggest teams in the league.

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