Tag Heuer Aquaracer Automatic Anthracite Guilloche Stainless Steel Men's Watch WAY2113BA0910

WORLDTEMPUS - 17 June 2011

Controversial coach Jose Mourinho and mercurial forward Cristiano Ronaldo have been two of the biggest stars of the international soccer scene for a while now, but in the last year another Portuguese character has emerged as one of the very best football managers in the world: Andre Villas-Boas, who was recently announced as Franck Muller ambassador.

Villas-Boas was Mourinho's deputy at Chelsea and Inter Milano before returning to Portugal to start his own career as head coach, winning everything that he could win at the helm of FC Porto this past season: the National Championship, the Portuguese Cup, the Super Cup and also the Europa League. Thus, just 33 years-old, he has become the youngest manager ever to win a European competition.
If Mourinho is the self-proclaimed "Special One," precocious Villas-Boas has been dubbed "The Golden Boy" by a Portuguese media eager to find new heroes and archetypes in times of deep financial and political crisis. Contrasting Mourinho's dark looks and a self-confidence bordering on arrogance, Villas-Boas is blond and cultivates modesty: to him, the only "special ones" are the field players. But there is one thing he can brag about: a true watch aficionado, he has became Franck Muller's ambassador and is going to have a limited edition of chronographs bearing his name.

Watches opened an exception
Villas-Boas also represents a sort of anti-Mourinho because he avoids media attention outside the soccer field and mandatory press conferences. Like Barcelona's coach Pep Guardiola, the Porto native simply does not give interviews of any kind. Yet his passion for timepieces and the association with Franck Muller had him make an exception for a cover feature that heralds the tenth anniversary of Portuguese watch magazine Espiral do Tempo.

"When I was a youngster and didn't have much money, I wanted to buy a TAG Heuer Monaco, but couldn't afford it then," he recalls. As a kid, Villas-Boas would place instructions regarding the fittest players and proposed tactics in Sir Bobby Robson's mailbox; the legendary English manager, at the time FC Porto coach and Villas-Boas's neighbor, liked what he saw in those notes and opened the club's doors to the aspiring teen.
"Good timepieces have long been a passion of mine, and when I started having success in the junior teams of FC Porto and then in Jose Mourinho's coaching team, I started a collection of timepieces I can be proud of," he says. "And there's one funny episode regarding a Graham Swordfish I got while at Chelsea. Once I was browsing through Graham's website checking out the collection and was surprised to find a picture of me wearing the Swordfish while coaching!"
Franck Muller has associated itself at times with the world of football, sponsoring a famous indoor tournament in Geneva and issuing limited editions associated with prestigious clubs and national teams. The members of the Spanish World Cup team each received a personalized Franck Muller, for example. There was even a series made for Mourinho, who now is with DeLaCour, while Villas-Boas actually became the brand's official ambassador. "My association with the brand is something that makes me proud and it also symbolizes a season full of success at the highest level for FC Porto." The first watch celebrating the association is based on a black PVD-coated stainless steel Casablanca Chronograph with blue numerals, which will be available in the fall.

Comparing a movement to a team
A great football team can be compared to a watch movement, where every single piece - from the biggest to the smallest, from the most important to the apparently modest ones - contributes to the ultimate goal: precision. Villas-Boas likes the analogy, adding that "one of the privileges of the coaching staff is respecting the interaction between the several pieces/players and optimizing them."
The young coach, who's been chased by some of the biggest clubs in Europe, points out a big difference: "In football, perfection is almost impossible to obtain, whereas in watchmaking a timepiece must be perfect in order to work properly. In football there is an emotional clash between two rival teams with different players, each one with a frame of mind of his own - there are too many emotions and states of mind out there that have to be optimized at the same time. That's the biggest challenge of any coaching staff, to manage all those emotions, motivating the players to transcend themselves, making the most out of each one's potential."
And that's exactly what Villas-Boas, the "Manager of Emotions," wants to ask Franck Muller the next time he meets the so-called "Master of Complications." "How does he motivate his workers and team to keep on producing great watches?"
*Miguel Seabra is the technical editor of Espiral do Tempo