Augusto Soares Inácio (born 1 February 1955) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a left back.
Having represented both Sporting and Porto as a professional player, he went on to have a lengthy managerial career that would last more than 20 years in four different countries (in this capacity, he also worked with both clubs).
A Portuguese international for one full decade, Inácio represented the country at the 1986 World Cup.
Playing career
Born in Lisbon, Inácio started playing for Sporting Clube de Portugal, signing at the age of 27 for FC Porto and winning several national championships and cups with both. With the latter club, he started in both European competition finals played in the 80's: the 1–2 against Juventus F.C. in the 1983–84 European Cup Winners' Cup, and the 1986–87 European Cup, won at the expense of FC Bayern Munich.
Inácio gained 25 caps for the Portuguese national team, mainly for Porto. His debut came on 5 December 1976 in a 2–1 win over Cyprus in the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and he represented the nation at UEFA Euro 1984 and the 1986 World Cup, playing his last international in the latter, a 1–3 group stage loss to Morocco on 11 July.
Managerial career
After ending his career, Inácio became a football coach. One of his first stops was at former side Porto as part of the Bobby Robson-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.[1] Subsequently, he managed G.D. Chaves, C.S. Marítimo, Vitória de Guimarães and S.C. Beira-Mar.
In the 2005–06 season the Aveiro team won the second level, thus achieving promotion. However, Inácio would be sacked just nine games into the following campaign, leaving Beira-Mar with only six points. He then went on to manage Ionikos F.C. in the Superleague Greece, but resigned on 15 January 2007 after a heavy defeat against Panathinaikos FC.
Just ten days later, Inácio moved to Iran, with Foolad FC, signing until June. Despite Foolad's relegation to the second division he signed a contract extension for the next season; in May 2008, he took the reins of G.D. Interclube in Luanda, Angola.
Inácio was sacked in the summer of 2009 and, on 13 September, he reached an agreement with Associação Naval 1º de Maio 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 its top division status, finishing in eighth position.
In late January 2012, Inácio signed a contract with Romanian Liga I team FC Vaslui.[2] After three months at the helm of Moreirense F.C. late into the 2012–13 campaign (four wins in 14 games, team relegation), he returned to Sporting as director of football;[3] in June 2015, still with the latter club, he was appointed director of international relations.[4]
Honours
Player
Manager
References
External links
