Facts About Andre Villas-Boas

Andre Villas-Boas, or more commonly known as AVB, is one of a growing number of top-level managers who have never played football professionally and one of the few managers to have never played beyond youth football. Everyone knows about his managerial abilities, but few know about AVB’s life. Now, without further ado, let’s explore facts about Andre Villas-Boas.

Facts About Andre Villas-Boas

Let’s begin by going through AVB’s childhood.

Andre Villas-Boas Childhood

As our first fact, we want to talk about 

Andre Villas-Boas Childhood

.

His full name is long and complicated, but let’s give it a try. Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas. See? It’s too long, and excruciatingly difficult to remember. Let’s call him Andre Villas-Boas, or AVB. He was born on 17th October 1977 in the city of Porto in Portugal. He is the second child and the first son. He has spoken fluent English since his childhood thanks to his grandmother who taught him English.

At the age of 16, Villas-Boas found out that he was living in the same apartment block as Sir Bobby Robson, who was then manager of

. Following a heated discussion about football between the two, Robson appointed then 16-year-old Villas-Boas to Porto's observation department.

Andre Villas-Boas career

There are many thing to talk about on

Andre Villas-Boas career

. Robson arranged for Villas-Boas to acquire the FA coaching qualification, the UEFA C coaching license in Scotland and for him to study the training methods of Ipswich Town football club. He attained his C license at the age of 17, and his B license at 18. He received his A license at the age of 19, and later acquired UEFA Pro License under the teaching of Jim Fleeting.

Villas-Boas had a short spell as technical director of the British Virgin Islands national team at the age of 21, before he moved on to a career as an assistant coach at Porto under José Mourinho. As Mourinho moved clubs to Chelsea and Internazionale, Villas-Boas stuck with him.

At the start of the 2009–10 season, Villas-Boas left Mourinho's team to trail a career as a manager, and he found a job in the Primeira Liga with Académica de Coimbra, filling a post created by Rogério Gonçalves' resignation in October 2009.

At the time of his appointment, Académica were at the lowermost of the league and still without any wins, but their luck started to change as he presented a new style, not only leading them to a safe 11th place, but also ten points clear of the relegation zone. In addition to that, Académica also reached the 2009–10 Portuguese League Cup semi-finals, losing against Porto at the Estádio do Dragão to a late goal from Mariano González.

His influence at Académica was immediate, not only because of excellent results, but also because of the gorgeous football displayed by the team, which led to penetrating media conjecture linking him with the vacant jobs at Sporting CP and FC Porto in the summer of 2010.

Here are more specific details on Andre Villas-Boas career and the clubs he has on his resume. 

Porto

Villas-Boas signed a contract to become the new manager of Porto on 2 June 2010. Two months later, he won his first title as a manager when Porto defeated Benfica 2–0 to win the Portuguese Supercup. Villas-Boas went on to huge success with Porto, leading them to an undefeated season in the Primeira Liga—only the second time this had ever been accomplished—and winning the championship by more than 20 points, having conceded only 13 goals all season.

Villas-Boas went on to follow up this success by leading Porto to win both the Portuguese Cup and the UEFA Europa League, thus finalizing a treble in his first season in charge. By doing so, Villas-Boas became the third-youngest coach ever to win the Primeira Liga and the youngest manager ever to win a European competition, at the age of 33 years and 213 days. On 21 June 2011, Villas-Boas handed in his resignation as Porto manager.

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Chelsea

Chelsea established the appointment of André Villas-Boas as their new manager on a three-year contract with immediate effect on 22 June 2011. They indirectly paid Porto a world record €15 million (£13.3 million) compensation via Villas-Boas to activate his release clause and free him from his contract with Porto. On 30 July 2011, during the pre-season, Villas-Boas won his first piece of silverware with

, the 2011 Barclays Asia Trophy. Villas-Boas won all of his pre-season fixtures with Chelsea, with the team conceding only one goal in all six games.

On 18 September 2011, Villas-Boas's Chelsea lost to Manchester United 3–1 at Old Trafford. It was Chelsea's first defeat of the season and Villas-Boas's first defeat in 39 league matches, a run stretching back to his spells as manager of Académica and Porto. On 29 October, Chelsea lost their second derby under Villas-Boas in a 5–3 defeat at home to

after dwindling on a 1–0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers.

On 11 February 2012, pressure began to mount on Villas-Boas as Chelsea dropped out of the top four teams in the Premier League following a 2–0 league defeat against Everton. Villas-Boas responded by cancelling his team’s day off and called them in for an enquiry, which provoked several senior players to question his tactics in front of owner Roman Abramovich.

On 4 March 2012, following a 1–0 league defeat against West Brom which left Chelsea three points adrift of Arsenal in the battle for fourth place in the Premier League, Villas-Boas was relieved of his managerial duties by Chelsea, with assistant manager Roberto Di Matteo being appointed as caretaker manager on an interim basis until the end of the season.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 3 July 2012, it was announced that Villas-Boas had been named

head coach after successful talks with the club, replacing Harry Redknapp and signing a three-year deal with the Spurs’ football team. Villas-Boas' first competitive game in charge of Tottenham came on 18 August 2012 in the opening day of the Premier League season, losing 2–1 to Newcastle United away from home. His first competitive win came on 16 September 2012, a 3–1 victory away to Reading.

One of the interesting

facts about Andre Villas-Boas

is that, on 29 September 2012, Villas-Boas became the first Tottenham manager to win at Old Trafford in 23 years after his side beat Manchester United 2–3. Villas-Boas took charge of his first North London derby against Arsenal on 17 November 2012 at the Emirates Stadium. Despite taking the lead early on, goalscorer Emmanuel Adebayor was sent off just eight minutes later, and Tottenham eventually lost 5–2.

Villas-Boas earned his first piece of personal Tottenham individual award when he won the Manager of the Month award for December. The team managed to gain vital points in order to pursue their top four ambition. Promising big scorelines away from home such as against Fulham, Aston Villa and Sunderland along with home wins against Swansea City and Reading, left Tottenham in third place going into the new year.

In February 2013, he guided Tottenham to the last 16 of the Europa League after a last-minute goal from Mousa Dembélé, securing a 1–1 draw against Olympique Lyonnais at the Stade Gerland. Spurs won the tie 3–2 on aggregate, after a 2–1 win at home the previous week. Following a 3–2 away win at West Ham United, Tottenham's third win from three Premier League matches that month, Villas-Boas picked up his second piece of personal Tottenham silverware of the season as he was awarded the Manager of the Month award for February, along with Gareth Bale who picked up the Player of the Month award for February as well.

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On the final day of the Premier League season, Tottenham sat one point behind archrivals Arsenal, knowing that in order to qualify for the 2013–14 Champions League, they would need a win and hope that Arsenal would either draw or lose. Tottenham won against Sunderland, but did not qualify due to Arsenal's 0–1 win at Newcastle United. Even though Tottenham finished a point behind the Champions League playoff spot, they set a new club record by finishing with 72 points. This was also the highest points run ever achieved by any club in the

to consequently not finish in the top four.

Villas-Boas claimed he was approached by both Paris Saint-Germain and

to fill their managerial vacancies but insisted he rejected these offers to remain with Spurs for a second successive season, something which he had not previously done as a manager. Following the sale of star player Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a world record fee of £85.3 million, Villas-Boas was active in the transfer market before the start of the 2013–14 Premier League season. Key acquisitions included defensive midfielder Étienne Capoue, midfielder Paulinho, striker Roberto Soldado, the versatile Nacer Chadli, ball-playing defender Vlad Chiricheș, winger Erik Lamela and playmaker Christian Eriksen. Departures from the club included Tom Huddlestone, Clint Dempsey, Steven Caulker and Scott Parker.

On 16 December 2013, Tottenham announced that Villas-Boas had left the club "by mutual consent." The dismissal, with Spurs lying seventh in the Premier League and having won all six of their Europa League group games, followed a series of disappointing domestic league results that included a 6–0 defeat away to Manchester City and culminated in a 0–5 home defeat to Liverpool. Villas-Boas left the club with the highest percentage of league wins of any Tottenham manager in the club's Premier League era. Although he didn’t win any trophies in Tottenham, he ran a successful reign there.

Zenit Saint Petersburg

On 18 March 2014, Villas-Boas signed a two-year deal with Zenit Saint Petersburg, replacing Luciano Spalletti, and took the reins the day after the club's Champions League round of 16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund. A month later, he went on to become the first coach in Russian Premier League history to win his first six matches in charge.

He continued to pursue the title but on 3 May, Zenit lost their first points in a 1–1 away draw with Lokomotiv Moscow being followed by a 2–4 loss at home to Dynamo Moscow which dictated the league advantage to CSKA Moscow. In the final fixture of the Russian Premier League on 16 May, Zenit won 4–1 away against Kuban Krasnodar but it was not enough to win the championship, as CSKA defeated Lokomotiv and were crowned champions, by only one point ahead of Zenit. However, the St. Petersburg club clinched a place in the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round.

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In the 2014–15 season, Zenit qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stage by beating AEL Limassol in the third-round qualification and Standard Liège in the playoffs. On 17 May 2015, Villas-Boas led the club to the fifth league championship in its history, securing it after a 1–1 draw against FC Ufa with only two games left to play.

On 10 September 2015, Villas-Boas announced he would return to Portugal because of his family and therefore be leaving Zenit at the end of the 2015–16 season after turning down a contract extension. In the 2015–16 Champions League Zenit finished top of the Group H, being eliminated by Benfica in the Round of 16. On 2 May 2016, Zenit won the Russian Cup by beating CSKA Moscow 4–1 in the final in Kazan, this was AVB’s last achievement for the Russian side, leaving at the end of the season.

Shanghai SIPG

Next on our list of

facts about Andre Villas-Boas

, we want to talk about his journey to China. 

On 4 November 2016, Villas-Boas became the manager of Shanghai SIPG, replacing Sven-Göran Eriksson for the Chinese Super League club. In spite of not winning any major silverware during his tenure at the club, Villas-Boas has been credited with turning a relatively inexperienced side into a true title contender. Reinforced by the talents of Brazilians Hulk and Oscar as well as star Chinese attacker Wu Lei, his only season at the helm saw SIPG finish second in the league, losing to rivals Shanghai Shenhua in the final of the Chinese FA cup, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League, the club's best result in the competition to date (as of November 2019).

Villas-Boas' spell at SIPG was also marred by a number of controversial remarks he made during the campaign, some of which were in response to star midfielder Oscar's arguable 8-match suspension for kicking the ball at an opponent during play. He also repeatedly lambasted match officials for favoring eventual league champions Guangzhou Evergrande, notably following a game between Guangzhou and Yanbian Funde where Guangzhou defender Liu Jian scored following a handball gifting Guangzhou a crucial victory. By the time of his departure from SIPG, he was yet to serve out his suspension for these remarks.

On November 2017, Shanghai SIPG announced Villas-Boas left the club by mutual termination clause after he refused to extend his contract for another year.

Marseille

On 28 May 2019, Villas-Boas signed a two-year deal to be the new manager of Marseille, replacing Rudi Garcia.

Upon his arrival, Villas-Boas admitted that he may have been “too ambitious” early on in his career, perhaps recognizing that he had been moving too rapidly. Although it may not have been an exciting appointment, the coach had a point to prove and fixing Marseille’s problems would’ve fixed his broken reputation. But the journey wasn’t going to be easy. Villas-Boas is finding his true self in

, and despite the mess the club are still in, this marriage is beneficial for both of them.

Andre Villas-Boas wife

Time to talk about

Andre Villas-Boas wife

on our list of facts about Andre Villas-Boas. In 2004, Villas-Boas married Joana Maria Noronha de Ornelas Teixeira. In case you wonder about 

Andre Villas-Boas children

, you have to know that the couple has two daughters, Benedita (born August 2009), Carolina (born October 2010) and a son, Frederico (born May 2015).

However, there isn't much more information about Andre Villas-Boas children and personal life, as he likes to play things pretty close to the chest.

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Andre Villas-Boas transfermarket

Another important fact about Andre Villas-Boas is the number of matches he has been in charge. According to transfermarket website, Andre Villas-Boas has been coaching for 409 matches. He has been in charge at Zenit Saint Petersburg for 101 games, setting a record for most games in charge, and 30 games at Academia, setting the record for the least games in charge.

Andre Villas-Boas net worth

Next item on our list of facts about Andre Villas-Boas, is about his net worth. According to the website taddler.com,

Andre Villas-Boas net worth

is estimated at 67 million dollars, gaining most of this when Chelsea tried to convince Porto to release him.

Andre Villas-Boas achievements

Here you can see

Andre Villas-Boas achievements

, listed based on the club.

Porto

• Primeira Liga: 2010–11

• Taça de Portugal: 2010–11

• Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 2010

• UEFA Europa League: 2010–11

Zenit Saint Petersburg

• Russian Premier League: 2014–15

• Russian Cup: 2015–16

• Russian Super Cup: 2015

Individual awards

• CNID Breakthrough Coach: 2010

• CNID Best Coach: 2011

• Globos de Ouro Prémio Revelação: 2011

• European Coach of the Season: 2010–11

• Premier League Manager of the Month: December 2012, February 2013

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