PortuGOAL Figure of the Week: Ian Cathro guiding Estoril to new heights | OneFootball

Let me guess. No-one was expecting this one, especially in the late months of 2024.

In 2025, however, Ian Cathro’s Estoril have amassed more victories than in the first five months of the season. In fact, the team from the Lisbon coast only know how to win in the current calendar year. Four matches, four wins with ten goals scored and one clean sheet, including closing the gap between themselves and high-fliers Vitória SC and Santa Clara while sizably distancing themselves from any relegation concerns.

Against UEFA Conference League highfliers Vitória, João Carvalho continued his rich vein of goalscoring form to secure the three points for the Canaries (yes, the former Nottingham Forest, Benfica, and Olympiakos attacking misfit).

One week later and Kevin Boma would grab the matchwinner against Gil Vicente, knocking in a flick-on from a well-worked corner for Estoril.

From three wins in the opening 17 matches of the season to four wins in four. Ian Cathro has resisted overwhelming initial pressure to lead Estoril to an unforeseen belated European football charge. This is the turbulent story of triumph of the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.

Born for football

Representing the proud nation of Scotland abroad, Ian Cathro has been something of a trailblazer for the country. Growing up in Dundee, Cathro wasn’t the talented kid he’d hoped to be on the path to football stardom.

He was part of the youth setup at Forfar Athletic and Brechin City, but injuries prevented him from carving out a career as a player in Scotland. For Cathro, coaching appeared to be what he was born to do. The obsession stemmed from the necessity to be connected with the game.

Despite being only 38 years of age, Cathro has been coaching for more than 20 years, stemming from his secondary-school days, as The Athletic reported in an eye-opening interview with the Scottish coach: ‘By admission, he was obsessed. A pupil in his hometown of Dundee, sitting in a business management class and visualising passages of play for the training sessions he would take later that day. Coaching quickly became his raison d’etre.’

After studying the art as a local youth coach at his beloved Dundee, Cathro became the head of Dundee United’s youth academy at the age of 22. A prodigy leading prodigies. He would eventually balance these responsibilities while collaborating with the Scottish Football Association’s local youth programmes.

After years as an assistant coach to Nuno Espírito Santo at Rio Ave and Valencia, and then performing the same role at Newcastle United under Steve McClaren and Rafa Benitez, controversy stemmed from his first appointment as a head coach, at Hearts in the Scottish Premiership. Ex-players were outraged by Cathro’s modern approaches and lack of experience – namely, the use of technology (João Pereira knows something about that) by someone who had never held employment outside of the industry.

“I had the misfortune of being the example of this thing that may disturb job opportunities for other people – this culture war that maybe hadn’t quite made its way to Scottish football, and I became the thing they needed to defeat,” Cathro explained.

“The ability to express yourself was really limited. There were maybe four or five things you could do in a football game: you get in their faces, you win the first battle, you don’t take risks, ‘If in doubt put it out’, ‘Turn them early’. And I was the young kid who was going: ‘Nah, that can’t be it’.”

It turns out that patience is a virtue. After spending more time with Espírito Santo in the English Premier League at Wolves and Tottenham, then at Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, Cathro returned to quench his thirst and desire to be the main man.

It’s working out for Estoril after a rocky inception. The board resisted calls to dismiss the coach after a terrible start to the season with just one win in nine matches, culminating with an embarrassing exit in the Portuguese Cup against 4th-tier Lusitano de Évora.

Not succumbing to external pressures and persisting with the man providing the ‘Cathro Clinic’ – a reference to the private football academy he set up in Dundee, focussing on individual player development – has proved a wise decision.

Pieces falling into place

Cathro is unorthodox. His philosophies revolve around player empowerment, entrusting individuals with greater responsibility.

The tactical adjustments are often ambitious if not bizarre, such as playing with wrong-footed wing-backs against Sporting, or the utilization of talents such as Orellana and Michel Costa to man-mark instead of liberating them for offensive impact against Santa Clara, or playing with an apparently suicidal high line against Gil Vicente and their pacey in-form winger Félix Correia.

The dynamics aren’t always considered an overwhelming success and Pep Guardiola certainly won’t be mirroring these particular preferences. However, Estoril have become more aggressive with the ball and organised without it in recent months, the shock Taça de Portugal loss perhaps acting as the catalyst.

The likes of fellow Scot Jordan Holsgrove and midfield anchor-man Xeka have acted as the foundations for this upturn in fortune.

Goalkeeper Joel Robles secures the defence while Wagner Pina breaks the mould down the right-flank. The star of the show is the aforementioned João Carvalho, weaving between the lines with bags of technical quality. Alejandro Marques has scored 7 goals this campaign, not to be scoffed at, deserving of more plaudits.

This upturn in form may be insufficient for a European place, but the foundations are being laid for Estoril to avoid relegation talk next season, which is the stated initial goal of an ambitious yet humble manager. Despite heavy criticism in the first half of the season, Ian Cathro is one of the main protagonists in the second, and the well deserving PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.