After living in Portugal for a year now I'm back in England I always keep track of the Portuguese League. I noticed a very interesting prospect in the current Porto manager - Andre Villas Boas. After Benfica won the League last season and denying Porto their 5th consecutive title they sacked the manager and bought Villas Boas into the role.
Unlike most coaches he was never directly connected to football, never played the game, nor had a father connected to football. He was nothing more than a studious fan who once had the nerve to approach Sir Bobby Robson (they were neighbours) and question him on some of his choices. For some reason Sir Bobby was particularly impressed with his knowledge and invited him to go and visit FC Porto's installations so he could learn something about coaching. Eventually the kid stayed working in the observation department at the very young age of 16 or 17. When Mourinho came to manage Porto, Villas-Boas became his main observer of opponents and was known for making detailed, technical and accurate reports. He's been with Mourinho ever since, working with him on Chelsea and Inter, at which point he was released to pursue a managerial career on his own.
At 33 years old, being (probably) the youngest ever coach in Porto's history he's been given the task of bringing the league title back to them. He's doing brilliantly so far with Porto flying high in 1st place 13 points ahead of 2nd place Benfica and 28 points ahead of 3rd place Sporting.
For me it's a very exciting story and I think we will be hearing alot more from him over the coming years.
