Augusto Soares Inácio (born 30 January 1955) is a Portuguese retired

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

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

, and a

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 ...

. Having represented both Sporting and

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 ...

as a professional player, he went on to have a lengthy managerial career that would last more than 30 years in eight countries including his own (in this capacity, he also worked with both clubs). A

Portugal international The Portugal International in badminton is an international open held annually in Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost po ...

for one full decade, Inácio represented the country at the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had ...

Playing career

Born in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, Inácio started playing for

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

, signing at the age of 27 for

and winning several

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 ...

championships and domestic cups with both clubs. With the latter, he started in both European competition finals played in the 80s, the 1–2 against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

in the

1983–84 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1983–84 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup was won by Juventus in a final against Porto. The next year, the club went on to complete a full complement of European trophies with the European Cup. Aberdeen were the defending champions, bu ...

and the

1986–87 European Cup The 1986–87 season was the 32nd season of the European Cup, Europe's premier club football competition. The tournament was won by Porto, who came from behind in the final against Bayern Munich to give a Portuguese club its first title since 19 ...

, won at the expense of

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. Inácio earned 25

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, mainly for Porto. His debut came on 5 December 1976 in a 2–1 win over

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

in the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It wa ...

qualifiers, and he represented the nation at

UEFA Euro 1984 The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

and the

, playing his last international in the latter, a 1–3 group stage loss to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

on 11 July.

Coaching career

After ending his career, Inácio became a manager. One of his first stops was at former side Porto as part of the

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English football player and coach. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich Town. ...

-led coaching staff, helping the northerners to back-to-back league conquests; his first head coach assignment arrived with another former club, as he led Sporting to its first title in 18 years, in 1999–2000; subsequently, he managed Chaves, Marítimo,

Vitória Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

and

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its Association football, football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth natio ...

. In the 2005–06 season, the Aveiro team won the second level, thus achieving promotion. However, Inácio would be sacked just nine matches into the following campaign, leaving them with only six points; he then went on to manage Ionikos in the

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

, but resigned on 15 January 2007 after a heavy defeat against

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club based in the City of Athens. Panathinaikos is one of the mos ...

. Inácio moved to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

just ten days later with Foolad, signing until June. Despite suffering relegation to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

he signed a contract extension for the next season; in May 2008, he took the reins of Interclube in

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

, Angola. Inácio was sacked in the summer of 2009 and, on 13 September, he reached an agreement with Associação Naval for a return to Portugal, in a one-year deal. At this time in the season, Naval had just one point from four games and dismissed Ulisses Morais, but ultimately easily retained their top division status, finishing in eighth position. In late January 2012, Inácio signed a contract with

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

team

Vaslui Vaslui (), a city in eastern Romania, is the seat of Vaslui County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia. The city administers five villages: Bahnari, Brodoc, Moara Grecilor, Rediu, and Viișoara. History Archaeological surveys indicate t ...

. After three months at the helm of

Moreirense Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim d ...

late into the 2012–13 campaign (four wins in 14 matches, team relegation), he returned to Sporting as

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

; in June 2015, still with the latter club, he was appointed director of international relations. Inácio returned to head coaching duties in late November 2016, when he replaced fired

Pepa Performance Evaluation Process Algebra (PEPA) is a stochastic process algebra designed for modelling computer and communication systems introduced by Jane Hillston in the 1990s. The language extends classical process algebras such as Milner's ...

at the helm of former side Moreirense. The following month he led the team to their first ever major trophy, conquering the

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

after the 1–0 win over

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

at the ''

Estádio Algarve The Estádio Algarve (') is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé municipalities, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The stadium has a total capacity of 30,305 spectators and was purposely built for the UEFA Euro 2004 ...

''; previously, they disposed of Porto in the group stage of the competition and Benfica in the semi-finals. Inácio was however fired on 20 March 2017, due to a poor string of league results. On 7 April, he succeeded

Mohamed Helmy Mohamed Helmy (born 29 October 1962) is an Egyptian football manager and former football player who spent the majority of his playing career with Zamalek. He is currently Zamalek's Head of Junior Sector. He also competed with Egypt in the men's ...

at the helm of

Egyptian Premier League The Egyptian Premier League (), also known as the Nile League () for sponsorship reasons, after the addition of title sponsor Nile Developments, is a professional association football league in Egypt and the highest level of the Egyptian football ...

side

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

; he terminated his one-and-a-half-year contract in late July, being subsequently held in the club's facilities and requesting help from the Portuguese embassy in the African country until the situation was eventually solved. On 16 January 2019, Inácio was appointed at

Aves Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

. He was relieved of his duties seven months later, after only collecting one league win in eight matches and being ousted from the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

by Farense (5–2 loss). Inácio became manager of

Avaí Avaí is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 5,436 (2020 est.) in an area of 540 km2. Media In telecommunications, the city was served by Companhia Telefônica Brasileira until 1973, when it began to be serve ...

at the

Campeonato Brasileiro Série B The Campeonato Brasileiro Série B (commonly referred to as the Brasileirão Série B, the Série B or the Brazilian Série B to distinguish it from the Italian and the Ecuadorian Serie B), and currently officially called Brasileirão Série B ...

on 18 December 2019. The following February, after four losses in seven games, he was dismissed.

Honours

Player

Sporting *

: 1979–80, 1981–82 *

: 1977–78, 1981–82 Porto *

: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1987–88 *

: 1983–84, 1987–88 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

: 1984, 1985, 1987 *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

: 1986–87 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

: 1987 * Intercontinental Cup: 1987 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

runner-up: 1983–84

Manager

Sporting *

: 1999–2000 Beira-Mar * Segunda Liga: 2005–06 Moreirense *

: 2016–17

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inacio, Augusto 1955 births Living people Footballers from Lisbon Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers FC Porto players UEFA Champions League–winning players Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers Rio Ave F.C. managers FC Porto non-playing staff FC Porto managers C.S. Marítimo managers G.D. Chaves managers Sporting CP managers Vitória S.C. managers C.F. Os Belenenses managers S.C. Beira-Mar managers Associação Naval 1º de Maio managers Leixões S.C. managers Moreirense F.C. managers C.D. Aves managers Super League Greece managers Ionikos F.C. managers G.D. Interclube managers FC Vaslui managers Zamalek SC managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série B managers Avaí FC managers Foolad F.C. managers Portuguese expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Qatar Expatriate football managers in Greece Expatriate football managers in Iran Expatriate football managers in Angola Expatriate football managers in Romania Expatriate football managers in Egypt Expatriate football managers in Brazil Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Iran Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Angola Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Egypt Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Persian Gulf Pro League managers 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen