The Leo universe began to celebrate even before the game in Famalicão ended, where Benfica went to wear their shirts and left with a humiliating defeat. Roger Schmidt’s team lacked brio and quality when handing the title to their rival, which only confirmed that Sporting had no worthy opponents this season. It was a matter of time before the fans headed to Marquês de Pombal and sang, together, with the team, “The world knows that”. It was the second national champion title in four years and the second for Rúben Amorim. Since 1966, a coach had not scored twice for Sporting and, in a personal record, he equaled the masters Cândido de Oliveira and Otto Glória.
There is no room for doubt, Sporting had one of the best campaigns ever. He was more competent, played better and justified winning the 20th national title. The Leo team has been leading the championship since the 13th round, has more wins (27) and fewer defeats (3), has gone 19 games without losing, achieved eight consecutive victories twice, won all home games (16), in 44% of the games they did not concede a goal, they scored in every match and are, by far, the most successful team (92 goals). Looking at this service sheet, we can say that the era was painted green and white. Winning like this feels so good! In sporting terms, the exhibition quality of a team that was superior to its rivals in direct confrontations (only lost in Luz and Guimarães), and devastating in games against smaller teams, stands out. This consistency was fundamental on the way to the top .
Champion with merit If we go back to the pre-season, it was clear that Sporting did everything well, but few people took notice of the work done by Rúben Amorim and Hugo Viana in preparing for the 2023/24 season. At that time, the media’s attention was on Benfica, which, adorned with champion banners, didn’t pay any attention and spent more than 105 million euros on signings, with the results that are known. Away from the spotlight, Sporting’s structure prepared the season carefully, was competent in signings and dismissals, the coach was once again an excellent communicator and created a strong team spirit and the club lived in an atmosphere of harmony throughout the season. For all that, the 20th title suits him well!
After a frustrating fourth place, Rúben Amorim did not change the team structure much for 2023/24; he signed quality players and only lost one core player. The signing of striker Gyökeres was the most expensive in the club’s history (20+4 million euros), but with the Swede on the field, Sporting was always much better. Then, the Danish Hjulmand arrived, who made us forget Ugarte who earned 60 million euros. The departures of Bellerín, Arthur Gomes, Fatawu, Jovane Cabral and Rochinha had no influence on the team’s performance and opened space for the launch of young players from the academy.
The team has always shown great identity and quality, this is due to a positive game idea, with good defensive and offensive dynamics, and there were rare moments when the organization lost. The evolution was so significant that Sporting has, on the 32nd round, 10 more points than at the end of last season, on the 34th round, and can beat its own points record if it wins the two games that missing. The title win began in July with the signing of Viktor Gyokeres, continued with the recovery of players like Paulinho, and ended in April with the victory over Benfica, in Alvalade, which opened the doors to the title. Until the 32nd round, Gyokeres is the player on the squad with the most minutes (2,986), he is the league’s top scorer, with 27 goals in 31 games, and the second best in assists for goals: 11 in 31 games, which It clearly shows the influence that the Swede had on Leo football.
In the middle of the party, Rúben Amorim, who is very skilled with words, calmed the fans by saying: “I have a contract and I am Sporting’s coach”. He spoke of new achievements, saying “now it’s time to try for a third title”, and sent a message to critics: “They said that we only won championships every 18 years and that we will never be two-time champions again, let’s see!” The coach was naturally euphoric and recognized that this title was different from the one won in 2020/21 “the first championship was very atypical, without an audience due to Covid-19, this time it had all that”, and spoke about the key moment of the championship “ the Alvalade derby. Afterwards we were very consistent.”
In the next two rounds (Estoril and Chaves), Sporting will “go after everything”, as their coach said, and want to reach 100 goals, 90 points and give Gyökeres the Golden Boot, distinction for the best scorer in the league. turns on. Winning the title guarantees direct entry into the new Champions League and a participation prize of 18.6 million euros, to this value is added the value pillar, which combines the market value with the club’s coefficient in UEFA, which still is not known.
