The coach's extension is officially announced in the VIP Hall at the Estádio José Alvalade

Sporting Clube de Portugal and Rui Borges have reached an agreement for the extension of the coach’s contract, keeping him in charge of the first team until 2028. The 44-year-old's renewal was officially announced this Friday in the VIP Hall at the Estádio José Alvalade, in a ceremony attended by his family, the coaching staff, and the rest of the Sporting CP structure.

Borges took over as Sporting CP's head coach midway through the 2024/25 season – signing on December 26, 2024 – and managed to lead the team to a memorable 'double' of the Liga Portugal title and Taça de Portugal. In the present season, he took them to their best-ever UEFA Champions League campaign – ending in the quarter-finals – and to the final of the Taça de Portugal.

“Rui Borges and his coaching staff have been at Sporting CP for around 16 months. Some put high value on the results of the last 15 days, while others highly value the work of the first 15 and a half months, the back-to-back titles, the double, the best European campaign in our history, or the record for consecutive wins at Alvalade. Some also focus on the fact that we haven't won more trophies this season, having lost the Supertaça and Taça da Liga finals. We, the Board, value above all the work done, much more than the results, the trophies, or the finals we’ve lost,” stated President Frederico Varandas at the event.

“Regardless of the trophies won and lost, the process undertaken is the most decisive criterion for us to continue believing that Sporting CP have a future, being where we should be: competing for trophies,” he said, also highlighting Rui Borges' “behaviour and human side.”

“He is a serious man, intellectually honest, free thinking, who protects his own and -something I value very much-, communicates using his head. We value all of that and, therefore, he will continue to be the coach of Sporting CP,” Varandas added.

Moving on to answer questions from the journalists present, the president addressed the renewal process.

“Sporting CP make decisions based on convictions and believing in work processes. We have no doubt that the coach is the right man for the job.”

Regarding the expectations for the future, the president outlined a clear objective: “to continue in the fight for trophies and in the title races. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. We have won more than we have lost, and what we want is to be in the finals, as we were this year. These gentlemen -and the great group of players we have had- have raised the bar for Sporting CP. I don't forget that this is the most successful group in the last 70 years of the club,” he highlighted.

Finally, when questioned about what went wrong in the pursuit of a third consecutive league title, he considered that “the failure to do that was the result of the success of this season on all fronts. In seven days we had three games, against Arsenal, SL Benfica and FC Porto, of unique difficulty. Am I going to condemn my coach and my players for believing it was possible to reach the Champions League semi-finals? Even more so, for playing two games against the Premier League leaders, a team with six times our budget? We were fighting for that qualification until the very last second. I think that would be very unfair.”

“The competitive demand on this squad was huge. Nowadays, with the new competition model, the Champions League is a huge step up from the UEFA Europa League. Credit to our rival, because they intelligently understood their abilities and limitations and were only playing for one trophy.”

After the joint photograph of the president and coach next to the mythical Gate 10 A, Rui Borges also made statements of his own, initially emphasizing the “great pride and satisfaction” that this contract renewal represents after 81 games leading the team.

“As the president said, everything that defines this coaching staff is encapsulated by the word 'work,' so it's a sign that our efforts are recognised, and that makes us very happy. It's a continuation of the commitment, rigour, and enormous ambition to, above all, make history at Sporting CP -and that in the future we feel honoured to have been here,” he stated.

“I’m very happy at Sporting CP and I will continue to be so, because here our day-to-day life is very honest and happy.”

Looking ahead to the new chapter in his tenure, Borges says that he aims to “work harder and better, with an ambition equal to that which we brought on the first day. Every day that passes, we learn from the good and the not-so-good things that we’ve done, and it’s up to us to work hard. We are where we want to be, thanks to our journey. We are fortunate.”

“Sporting CP, regardless of who the coach is, will always have very good professionals to honour the club and compete in everything they are involved in. We can still finish second in Liga Portugal, and that’s what we’re focused on. In my mind is the next game against Vitória SC, in which we want to continue fighting for second place and achieve access to the UEFA Champions League, and then we will focus on winning the Taça de Portugal,” he said.

“Sporting CP have their path, with a purpose and sustained growth, and that’s how it will continue to be,” guaranteed Borges.