Rui Borges leaves Sporting with a first football league and a Portuguese Cup won, but also with the best campaign ever in the Champions League, in which the ‘lions’ reached the quarter-finals.
In almost two years of stay in Alvalade (he arrived in December 2024 from Vitória de Guimarães), the 45-year-old coach oscillated between great performances, such as the 5-0 victory against the Norwegians Bodo/Glimt, which earned them passage to the quarter-finals of the ‘Champions’, and the label of ‘king’ of wasted advantages, with a total of 19, the most recent with LASK Linz, (3-2) also in the Champions League.
In his first spell at a ‘big club’, after a career built at clubs such as Académico de Viseu, Académica, Nacional da Madeira, Moreirense and Vitória de Guimarães, Borges benefited from Ruben Amorim’s ‘inheritance’ to soon reach the national title and a Portuguese Cup, in 2024/25, later ending up not confirming the expectations that were created with the ‘double’.
In the following season, starting from scratch, the coach born in Mirandela still fought for a historic third championship, but was beaten by FC Porto, and fell with a bang in the Portuguese Cup, losing the final at Jamor against Torreense, from the II League.
The excellent campaign in the ‘Champions’ was worth it, first by placing in the top eight in the league phase and then by only falling against Arsenal, in the ‘quarters’, in a very balanced tie.
This resulted in the renewal of the contract (June 2028) and its continuation in 2026/27 for the management led by Frederico Varandas, but the nine points that already separate Sporting and the leader FC Porto in the championship, as well as the recent irregular performances, such as the home draw with Arouca (2-2) and the defeat in Alvalade with Académico Viseu (2-1) ended up dictating the end of a ‘relationship’ that has existed for a long time. Much was known that it would not last much longer.
Borges definitively closes his locker in Alvalade and Academia de Alcochete with a total of 99 games to remember, of which 64 were wins, 22 draws and 13 ended in defeats.
Sporting will soon announce Rui Borges’ successor, and Paulo Fonseca, who has guided French side Lyon since January 2025, assumed today that there is a possibility of being the next ‘Leonine’ coach.
Rui Borges leaves two days before Sporting’s visit to the Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, in a match on the fourth round of the Champions League league stage, which will be played in London, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at a time when it was under increasing opposition in the ‘lions’.
Sporting was the ninth club in the career of Rui Borges, who started this journey with his home club, Mirandela, went through Académico de Viseu, Académica, Nacional, Vilafranquense and Mafra, until making his debut in the I League at the helm of Moreirense, in 2023/24.
A few months followed at the service of Vitória de Guimarães, but enough to place the Guimarães team in the round of 16 of the Conference League in 2024/25, in anticipation of the transfer to Lisbon.
