With extensive experience in the top tier of Portuguese football, Luís Freire is the new manager of the Vitória Sport Clube main team, succeeding Daniel Sousa.

The board of directors of Vitória Sport Clube, Futebol SAD agreed with the 39-year-old professional to sign a sports employment contract to run until the end of the 2025/26 season.

Born in Ericeira, Freire embraced a career as a football manager (at the age of 20) in 2008/09, when he held the position of assistant for the under-13s of Juventude de Évora. In the following three seasons, he was assistant at Mafra, Tondela and Oriental, making his debut as manager in 2012/13 at Ericeirense, a club he would leave in 2015 to join Pêro Pinheiro.

After two years he returned to Mafra and ended up being associated with winning the title of Champion of Portugal (2017/18). After a season (2018/19) at Estoril, he transferred to Nacional, having led the Madeiran club to the first division in 2020, which earned him the distinction of best manager in the Second Division in 2019/20.

Two seasons ago, he signed with Rio Ave (a club he represented until November 2024) and repeated the feat achieved while playing for Nacional, guaranteeing the promotion of the Vila-Condenses in the first season (2021/22), also becoming champion of the Second Division.

In total, he has won six promotions in his first eight seasons as manager. Having reached an agreement with Vitória SC, Freire will now lead the main team’s training session on Wednesday morning in preparation for the home match against Arouca on Saturday.