How Viana rose from unfulfilled talent to Man City director of football

As a footballer, Hugo Miguel Ferreira Viana would let his feet do the talking.

A shy member of the Sporting Clube de Portugal side that won the Portuguese league and cup double in 2002 alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, he became Britain’s most expensive teenager when he joined Newcastle for £8.5m.

It eclipsed the £6m fee Coventry paid for Robbie Keane in August 1999, and it also set a new record for a Magpies teenager, surpassing the £5m paid to Nottingham Forest for Jermaine Jenas, then an England U21 international.

Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd declared his delight at signing ‘the best young player in the world’ on a five-year contract.

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It wasn’t a fanciful claim.

Viana – who will replace Txiki Begiristain as director of football at Manchester City at the end of the season – was named Young European Footballer of the Year, inspiring Portugal to victory over England Under-21s at the European Championships and he then joined his national team in the Far East for the first of two World Cups.

Viana was tipped to spearhead Newcastle’s Champions League bid for the coming season under Sir Bobby Robson, but he would make only 39 Premier League appearances in total, scoring two league goals and providing six assists in his four years at the club.

Viana’s biggest contribution in a black and white shirt came when he scored in one of Newcastle’s most memorable European games, a victory over Feyenoord which secured the team’s progress from the first group stage despite losing their opening three matches.

While he failed to fulfil his potential in England, the Portuguese’s time working with Robson didn’t go to waste. Even at the age of 19, he turned down offers from Celta Vigo and Liverpool in preference of working with a man of Robson’s stature in the game.

“Liverpool are obviously a huge club, and I was very confused and unsure about what I wanted to do, but then I spoke to Bobby Robson and after five or 10 minutes, I was clear about Newcastle,” the player recalled.

“I told him there would not be a big issue with my contract. Mr Robson said he knew me; he’d watched some games at Sporting and in the U21 European Championships.

“He also worked at Sporting and is a legend in Portugal, so I felt more close to him and he told me he would give me time to adapt to life in England without worrying.”

Viana later described Robson – who was Sporting manager between 1992 and 1994 – as someone who played a very important role in his career, which took him to Valencia and Braga in addition to 29 caps for his country.

Injuries would ultimately hamper his progress, and Viana announced his retirement aged 33 in October 2016.

He hung up his boots and turned his focus to excelling behind the scenes in the boardroom. He was made sporting director at Belenenses in May 2017, but held the post for just six months.

It is the work he has done in turning Sporting back into a Portuguese powerhouse over the past six years that has earned him his new position at City.

Besides the two league titles in 2021 and 2024, Sporting’s second-place finish in 2022 marked the club’s third-highest points tally in the history of the Portuguese top flight.

Begiristain has been Pep Guardiola’s right-hand man, transforming City into the four-time champions of England.

He became director of football in October 2012, having been in the same position at Barcelona from 2003-10, and was widely credited with luring compatriot Guardiola to City four years later.

It was Begiristain who backed Guardiola in his managerial big break at Barcelona, with the pair striking up a close friendship as team-mates at the Catalan club in the early-to-mid 1990s.

Tasked with maintaining these standards and preserving Begiristain’s legacy, Viana must show he is capable of repeating his recent success.

City travel to face Sporting in the Champions League early next month. When Viana takes his seat in the directors’ box at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, he will have one foot in both camps. Only the man himself won’t see it that way.

City wanted their new director of football in place for the New Year, but while Viana will work at times alongside Begiristain to ensure a smooth handover after the winter transfer window, he will still be involved in a restructuring process at Sporting, transitioning to a different model where there is no director of football. City admire such loyalty.

Sporting are top of the league following eight consecutive victories, and so Viana is determined for his departure not to disrupt the current season having steadied a financially unstable club to finish three consecutive years with a profit for the first time ever.

The emphasis has been on developing youth but at City, he will be expected to attract the world’s best players – and it is a challenge Viana will relish.

Portuguese journalist Pedro Sepulveda told Sky Sports: “Hugo is going to work with young, talented players but of course when you work on a project like Manchester City, you always have to have the big names. I’m sure he will sign those players, too.

“Hugo knows he is joining one of the biggest clubs in the world, so he couldn’t say no to this invitation.

“I don’t think Viana has set terms on the arrangement where he has demanded a certain fee to join City. He has good connections with agents when you consider he worked under Jorge Mendes. Considering the environment around him, I really feel this is the right appointment for City.

“The work Sporting have achieved over the past few years isn’t solely down to Viana, as manager Ruben Amorim deserves a lot of credit but the connection between the two is undeniable.”

Could Viana be reunited with Amorim at City?

Focus this international break has been on the future of Guardiola at City with the Catalan’s current contract expiring in the summer. Begiristain’s departure from the Etihad has raised further questions about whether Guardiola will prolong his stay in Manchester.

Naturally, with the change in director of football coinciding with that date at the end of June 2025, there have been inevitable suggestions that City may not end their raid of Sporting with Viana.

“If Guardiola does decide to leave, I’m pretty sure the first manager Hugo Viana is going to present to the board will be Ruben Amorim,” added Sepulveda.

“But I would also say that I don’t think they have brought in Viana because they think it is the easiest way of attracting him.

“Amorim has a €20m release clause in his Sporting contract, so I think they have focused more on the work of Viana over a period of time.”

In March 2020, it was he who took a punt on untested Amorim’s €10m Braga buyout clause. He had already considered bringing him to Sporting months earlier as their B team manager.

It would prove a masterstroke as the club ended their two-decade-long wait for a domestic title. The relationship has been a resounding success, with Sporting the current champions.

The likes of Manuel Ugarte and Pedro Porro have been sold for huge profit and the club announced a record revenue of €246.7m last term.

Amorim has said of their relationship: “Viana has proved, over and over, that he can do magic. We have to remember that we fight against clubs that are stronger than us financially, so we have to put much more effort, we have to present our project and show our track record in the transfer market.

“All the coaches should be lucky enough to work with Hugo Viana. Not only because of his competence but because of the loyalty he has with the coaches.

It’s like he’s a family member and he’s always ready to help the manager and the club. His role has been crucial. I speak for myself when I say Viana is essential. He plays a fundamental role and does his job like no one else.”

The Portuguese is said to hide from the spotlight – described in his homeland as ‘the shadow man’ – but there is no mistaking the impact he has had since returning to Sporting as director of football in 2018.

Alongside the Ugarte and Porro transfers, the 41-year-old was behind other key sales including Bruno Fernandes, Matheus Nunes, Nuno Mendes and Joao Palhinha.

The development of Viktor Gyokeres into a prolific goalscorer now revered across the continent following his arrival from Coventry last summer has only strengthened Viana’s reputation across Europe. Goncalo Inacio, Ousmane Diomande, Morten Hjulmand and Geovany Quenda have all flourished under his watch.

As he embarks on his first adventure outside of his homeland, the Viana-Amorim partnership could well re-emerge as early as next summer if Guardiola does call time on his City tenure.

What has been said about Viana?

Sporting president Frederico Varandas said: “We believe a lot in the work process, when I talk about this recognition, I’m not just talking about the manager. Hugo Viana is a fundamental piece and I’m very proud of this structure.”

Former Porto striker Domingos Paciencia told A Bola: “I think his work is in line with what has been happening at Sporting. The merit, of course, does not just belong to Hugo, but also to an entire structure, but his role is fundamental because he is always aware of what you can do in advance [to get ahead of clubs].

“He has that ability and he also has the ability in the selection criteria when it comes to choosing players, and the fact that he, himself was a player, he also understands their point of view, which is very important.”

Former Portugal defender Rui Fonte told Radio Renascenca: “With the resources he will have, he could do a brilliant job, considering what he’s done here with merit, due to the relationship he built with the president and Ruben [Amorim].

“And now, with so many resources at his disposal [at City], he will be able to do even more. Something rare was built here and if he manages to do it again, to have this harmony with the president and the coach, he will already be halfway to success.

“Competence is not just for the players and coaches. Here we do a lot with little. I had the opportunity to see other realities and it reflects our work. They also start to look at the people who lead, not just the players and coaches.”

Viana prepared for huge step up at Man City

Portuguese football journalist Pedro Sepulveda:

“It’s going to be a huge challenge for Viana. He’s 41 years old, he’s still young for this kind of role. He made a huge work in Sporting.

“He sold players like Bruno Fernandes, Manuel Ugarte, Nuno Mendes, Manuel Ugarte and Pedro Porro but I would say it’s easy to sell these kinds of players when they are in their prime.

“But it’s important to say he sold players from Sporting to Leicester City like [Abdul] Fatawu for €17m, Mateus Fernandes to Southampton for €15m and [Youseff] Chermiti to Everton for €14.5m.

“These players did not have that many minutes in the first division in Portugal so, huge work from Viana to get these kinds of sales for Sporting.

At Sporting, he had little money but a huge margin for failure. Now it’s going to change. At City, he is going to have more money but zero margin to fail.”

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