Ricardo Manuel Nunes Formosinho (born 9 September 1956) is a Portuguese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, currently assistant

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

club Fenerbahçe.

Playing career

Born in

Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

, Formosinho spent most of his career with Vitória de Setúbal, making his

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

debut during 1974–75 and finishing the season with only two league appearances. In the following years he became a regular for the Sado River club, scoring a career-best six goals in 26 matches in 1976–77 as it finished in sixth position. After three years in the top flight, two with Varzim and one with Amora, Formosinho returned to Vitória for a further five campaigns, the last being spent in the Segunda Liga. In the 1987 off-season, the 31-year-old returned to the latter tier and joined Farense, appearing in 27 games in his first year (one goal) and being relegated in his second. Formosinho retired from football in June 1991 after one season with another

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

side,

Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association First Division, the fifth tier of ...

, in division three. He appeared in 286 top-division matches over 14 seasons, netting 20 times.

Coaching career

Formosinho started working as a manager with his last team, acting as

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

in the 1990–91 season and leading them to promotion to the second tier. For the remainder of the decade, he coached in the second and third divisions, attaining another promotion to the former competition in 1999 with Imortal. Formosinho continued working in the same leagues in the 2000s, his biggest achievement being leading

Penafiel Penafiel ( or ) is a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the Norte Region, Portugal, northern Portugal, Portuguese Porto District, district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion ...

to the fifth position in division two 2000–01. In 2003–04, he was also part of

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

's coaching staff at

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, with the campaign ending in national championship and

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conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

. In the 2004–05 season, Formosinho was in charge of Santa Clara in the second division, being appointed for the last seven rounds and helping the financially troubled

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

club finally avoid relegation, winning three games, drawing one and losing three. In the following campaign, he returned to his main side Vitória and worked as both technical director and reserve team coach. Late into the decade, Formosinho also plied his trade in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

; he also worked with Mourinho at

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

in the

scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

department. In July 2013, he was sacked as

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

's Recreativo da Caála manager. Formosinho was appointed as head coach of Malaysian club Kuala Lumpur City for the 2015 season, being relieved of his duties after less than three months in charge due to poor results. In the summer of 2016 he again paired with Mourinho, acting as his assistant at

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

; in November 2019, they reunited at fellow English

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

team

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, with Formosinho leaving on 6 August 2020. In March 2021, Formosinho became manager of Al-Hilal in the Sudan Premier League. Two years later, he joined inaugural Egyptian League Cup winners Modern Future from The Strongest in the Bolivian Primera División. On 26 December, he led the former to the final of the

Egyptian Super Cup The Egyptian Super Cup is Football in Egypt, Egyptian football's annual match contested between the champions of the Egyptian Premier League season and the holders of the Egypt Cup. If the Egyptian Premier League champions also won the Egypt Cup ...

after beating

Pyramids A pyramid () is a Nonbuilding structure, structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a Pyramid (geometry), pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid ca ...

14–13 on penalties; he was dismissed in January 2024. Formosinho reunited with Mourinho once again in June 2024, at Fenerbahçe in the Turkish

Honours

Manager

Amora *

Segunda Divisão : : The Segunda Divisão Portuguesa ( English: ''Portuguese Second Division'') was a football league situated at the third level of the Portuguese football league system. The division had previously been the second level of the Portuguese pyrami ...

: 1993–94 Imortal *Segunda Divisão: 1998–99 Al Hilal * Sudan Premier League: 2021 The Strongest * Bolivian Primera División:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links