Sporting CP president Frederico Varandas reacts to Manchester City swoop on Hugo Viana | OneFootball

The president at Portuguese giants Sporting has now reacted to confirmation of the club’s Director of Football agreeing to join Manchester City in 2025.

Manchester City confirmed earlier this month that after a 12-year stay with the club, Txiki Begiristain would be bringing an end to his tenure in the role of Director of Football, in what could be the first of several major changes at the top of the club’s hierarchy.

The 60-year-old had been planning to leave City for a number of years, but extended his stay out of enjoyment at working on the club’s project and alongside close friend and colleague, Pep Guardiola.

However, his work will not fade out any time soon, as Begiristain secured his successor and has committed to working alongside incoming director, Hugo Viana from early in 2025 to smoothen the transition to a new name and face from next summer.

Speaking to Portuguese news outlet Record this week, as translated and relayed by Sport Witness, Sporting president Frederico Varandas revealed his belief that Viana’s exit for Manchester City is a hugely positive reflection on their own organisation and success.

“It was a fundamental triangle for the growth and recovery of the true Sporting. This is history. It has remained. It will remain forever. Ruben Amorim and Viana were fundamental, fundamental, in this start,” Varandas said.

“Obviously, Hugo Viana is the talk of the town. Hugo Viana, obviously, and here from a personal point of view, deserves everything. Not only from a professional point of view, from a human point of view. He’s going to, probably on a par with Real Madrid.”

Continuing on the subject of the move to Manchester City, Varandas said, “He’s going to one of the most powerful clubs in the world. Something that has never happened in Portugal, a Portuguese manager going to the highest of the highs, and that’s to his credit, but it’s also very much to the credit of how Sporting is seen abroad today.

“And here in Portugal we often focus too much on the drama, on that soap opera, but abroad, the organised clubs, the winning clubs, look and see a club that has reinvented itself, they see a club that makes a financial profit and they see a club that wins titles and that values ​​its assets.”

He continued, “So, obviously, this is the level of excellence at which Sporting is seen abroad. And for us, Sporting, it is very important that Hugo Viana is successful at Manchester City. Very important because that is what we want, to be seen abroad in this way.”

It remains to be seen whether change and movement for both Hugo Viana and Txiki Begiristain could have an impact on the managerial positions of both Sporting and Manchester City’s current head coaches.

Ruben Amorim has been tipped as a potential successor to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, such is his close relationship with Hugo Viana. Some reports have gone as far as to state that the two are ‘like brothers’ in their professional and personal lives.

As for Guardiola, there had been a feeling earlier this year that both he and Txiki Begiristain were likely to leave the club at the same time – with a date then-unknown. However, the belief is now that Begiristain’s departure will have no impact on Guardiola’s thinking.