Vítor Bruno Clara Santos Motas Fernandes (; born 2 December 1982), known as Vítor Bruno, is a Portuguese professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 ...

and former player who played as either a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

or a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is currently without club.

Playing career

Born in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, Vítor Bruno joined the youth sides of Académica de Coimbra in 1990. After making his senior debut with

Terceira Divisão : The Terceira Divisão Portuguesa (in English: ''Portuguese Third Division'') was a football league in Portugal, situated at the fourth level of the Portuguese football league system. The Third Division was initially the third level of the Por ...

side Bidoeirense in 2001, he subsequently represented , Mirandense, Tourizense, Marialvas, Gândara and Valonguense. He retired with the latter in 2008, aged just 25.

Managerial career

Assistant

After retiring, Vítor Bruno graduated in

sports science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally i ...

at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

, and subsequently joined

Augusto Inácio Augusto Soares Inácio (born 30 January 1955) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a left back, and a manager. Having represented both Sporting and Porto as a professional player, he went on to have a lengthy managerial career that ...

's staff at Angolan side Interclube in 2009, as his assistant. After short periods working under his father at 1º de Agosto in the same country and USMB in Algeria, he followed Inácio to Associação Naval and

Leixões The Port of Leixões (, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto. Leixões Sport Club, commonly known simply as ''Leixões'', is Matosinh ...

. In 2011, Vítor Bruno joined the technical staff of

Sérgio Conceição Sérgio Paulo Marceneiro da Conceição (; born 15 November 1974) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who mostly played as a right winger. Throughout his career, he played for ten teams in five countries. After gain ...

Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association First Division, the fifth tier of ...

, as a fitness coach. He remained under the same role at Académica,

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 ...

Vitória de 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 ...

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

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 ...

; at the latter, he only officially became an assistant in 2021. Vítor Bruno was in charge of Porto's senior squad in a professional match for the first time in April 2019, in a 2–0 win over Boavista as Conceição was suspended. In the following five years, he replaced Conceição in a further 16 matches, winning 14 of them and having other two draws. In May 2024, several media outlets reported an altercation between Vítor Bruno and Conceição, after he was not included in Conceição's agreement with Porto president

Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa Jorge Nuno de Lima Pinto da Costa (28 December 1937 – 15 February 2025) () was a Portuguese sports executive, who was president of Portuguese sports club FC Porto, Porto from 1982 until 2024. He was the president with most titles won (69) in t ...

for a renewal. Vítor Bruno left Conceição's staff on 30 May, and released a note in the following day stating that no altercations between himself and Conceição existed, as he previously stated a desire to pursue a managerial career.

Porto

On 6 June 2024, Vítor Bruno was announced as manager of Porto on a two-year contract, becoming the first manager of new president

André Villas-Boas Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas (; born 17 October 1977) is a Portuguese sports executive, and former professional Manager (association football), football manager, who is currently the List of FC Porto presidents, president of Port ...

' tenure. He was sacked on 20 January of the following year, after only seven months at the club; he led the side for 29 matches, winning 18 of those and lifting the

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 ...

trophy.

Personal life

Vítor Bruno is the son of former player and manager Vítor Manuel. He is married to Elsa Varela, a former player of the Portugal women's national rugby union team, with whom he has three children.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Porto *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Individual *

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 ...

Manager of the Month: December 2024

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruno, Vítor 1982 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Portuguese football managers C.D. Primeiro de Agosto non-playing staff S.C. Braga non-playing staff FC Nantes non-playing staff FC Porto non-playing staff FC Porto managers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Angola Expatriate sportspeople in Algeria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Primeira Liga managers