António Miguel Nunes Ferraz Leal de Araújo (born 22 April 1965), known as Miguel Leal, is a Portuguese football
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
.
He had several spells in charge of
Penafiel
Penafiel ( or () is a municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the northern Portuguese district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion, the population was 72,265 in 2011, in an area of .
History
The region ...
Porto District
The District of Porto ( pt, Distrito do Porto ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro and Viseu districts to the south, Br ...
, Leal only played amateur football, retiring in 1998 after a three-year spell with Sport Clube Salvadorense. His first head coaching spell arrived midway through the 2002–03 season, and he was able to help F.C. Marco narrowly avoid relegation from the Segunda Liga.
From 2004 to 2009, Leal worked mainly as an assistant manager, representing in that capacity
U.S.C. Paredes
União Sport Clube Paredes is a Portuguese sports club from Paredes. The men's football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normall ...
,
S.C. Beira-Mar
Sport Clube Beira-Mar () is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Aveiro FA First Division 2018/19 ...
,
Aliados Lordelo F.C.
Aliados Futebol Clube de Lordelo is a Portuguese football club from Lordelo, Paredes. Founded in 1929, it currently plays in Porto
Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the ...
Gaziantepspor
Gaziantepspor was a Turkish football club located in the city of Gaziantep. Formed in 1969 and dissolved in 2020, Gaziantepspor were nicknamed the ''Şahinler'' (The Falcons). The club colours were black and red, and they played their home matche ...
.
On 28 May 2012, after another youth spell with Penafiel, Leal was appointed as coach of the first team. He led them to the ninth position in his first year, achieving promotion to the Primeira Liga in
the following
''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
The first season follows former FBI agent Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon) ...
after a third-place finish as the runners-up
FC Porto B
Futebol Clube do Porto B, commonly known as Porto B, is a Portuguese professional football team, which serves as the reserve side of FC Porto. They compete in the Liga Portugal 2, the second division of Portuguese football, and play their home ...
were not eligible; following this success, he was voted coach of the season.
On 16 May 2014, Leal signed with Moreirense F.C. also in the top division. He left on 19 May 2016 following the expiration of his contract, after consecutively managing to lead the team into safety.
On 11 October 2016, Leal was announced as new
Boavista F.C.
Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...
manager after the club parted ways with
Erwin Sánchez
Erwin Sánchez Freking (born 19 October 1969) is a Bolivian former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder with scoring range, and is the current manager of Oriente Petrolero.
Dubbed ''Platini'',the following season, but found accommodation two days after being fired by joining second tier side F.C. Arouca.
Leal left Arouca on 26 September 2018, after four consecutive losses put the team in last place at the start of the season. The following 17 January, he came back to the league at
C.D. Cova da Piedade
Clube Desportivo Cova da Piedade is a football club established in the parish of Cova da Piedade, municipality of Almada, Portugal.
History
Clube Desportivo Cova da Piedade was founded on 28 January 1947, resulting from the merge between União ...
on a deal until the end of the campaign. When it finished, he returned to Penafiel on 4 June 2019, succeeding
Armando Evangelista
Armando Evangelista Macedo Freitas (born 3 November 1973), known as Armando Evangelista, is a Portuguese football manager and former player, currently in charge of F.C. Arouca.
Career
In the summer of 2010, three seasons after finishing his p ...
. His contract ended abruptly due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, and his team finished 15th in the aborted season.
On 19 October 2020, Leal returned to work at Varzim SC, succeeding Paulo Alves at the 17th-placed club. He left on New Year's Day, having won once in nine games and never in the league. On 22 March 2021, he returned to Cova da Piedade.
Personal life
Leal obtained an
academic
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
and
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in
physical education
Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...
, as well as completing a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...