Académica At the start of the 2009–10 season, Villas-Boas left Mourinho's team to pursue a career as a manager, and he soon found a job in the
Primeira Liga with
Académica de Coimbra, filling a vacancy created by
Rogério Gonçalves' resignation in October 2009. At the time of his appointment, Académica was at the bottom of the league and still without any wins, but the team's luck started to change as he introduced a new style, leading them to a safe 11th place, ten points clear of the relegation zone. In addition to that, Académica also reached the
2009–10 Portuguese League Cup semi-finals, losing against Porto at the
Estádio do Dragão to a late goal from
Mariano González. His impact at Académica was immediate, not only because of solid results, but also because of the attractive football displayed by the team, which led to intense media speculation linking him with the vacant jobs at
Sporting CP and Porto in the summer of 2010. Villas-Boas went on to immense success with Porto, leading the team to an
undefeated season in the Primeira Liga—only the second time this had ever been achieved—and winning the title by more than 20 points, having conceded only 13 goals all season. Villas-Boas went on to follow up this success by leading Porto to win both the
Portuguese Cup and the
UEFA Europa League, thus completing a
treble in his first season in charge. By doing so, Villas-Boas became the third-youngest coach ever to win the Primeira Liga (behind Mihály Siska in
1939 and
Juca in
1962) and the youngest manager ever to win a European competition, at the age of 33 years and 213 days. On 21 June 2011, Villas-Boas tendered his resignation as Porto manager.
Chelsea in 2012 Chelsea confirmed the appointment of André Villas-Boas as its new manager on a three-year contract with immediate effect on 22 June 2011. It indirectly paid Porto
a world record €15million (
£13.3million) compensation via Villas-Boas to activate his release clause and free him from his contract with Porto. He won all of his pre-season fixtures with Chelsea, the team conceding only one goal in all six games. On 14 August, his first
Premier League match ended in a 0–0 draw at
Stoke City, with Villas-Boas commenting on Stoke's strong defence at home. He then won his first competitive match as Chelsea manager, defeating
West Bromwich Albion 2–1 on 20 August. He continued his season with a home win, beating
Norwich City 3–1. On 18 September 2011, Villas-Boas's Chelsea lost to
Manchester United 3–1 at
Old Trafford. It was Chelsea's first defeat of the season and Villas-Boas's first defeat in 39 league matches, a run stretching back to his spells as manager of Académica and Porto. On 29 October, Chelsea lost the
derby in a 5–3 defeat at home to
Arsenal after falling to a 1–0 defeat to
Queens Park Rangers. Then three weeks later, his Chelsea side lost a second successive home game in a 2–1 defeat to
Liverpool. Days later, he once again lost to Liverpool in a 2–0 defeat in the
League Cup quarter-final. On 11 February 2012, pressure began to mount on Villas-Boas as Chelsea dropped out of the top four in the Premier League following a 2–0 league defeat against
Everton. Villas-Boas responded by cancelling his squad's day off and called them in for an inquest, which provoked several senior players to question his tactics in front of owner
Roman Abramovich. On 21 February 2012, during a
Champions League match against
Napoli, Villas-Boas left
Frank Lampard,
Michael Essien and
Ashley Cole on the bench. Chelsea lost 3–1 and the club's technical director asked for an explanation of the team selection on behalf of Abramovich. On 4 March 2012, following a 1–0 league defeat against West Brom which left Chelsea three points adrift of
Arsenal in the battle for fourth place in the
Premier League, Villas-Boas was relieved of his managerial duties by Chelsea, with assistant manager
Roberto Di Matteo being appointed as caretaker manager on an interim basis until the end of the season. On the Chelsea website, it read, "The board would like to record our gratitude for his work and express our disappointment that the relationship has ended so early."
Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 On 3 July 2012, it was announced that Villas-Boas had been named
Tottenham Hotspur head coach after successful talks with the club, replacing
Harry Redknapp and signing a three-year deal with the North London football team. Villas-Boas' first competitive game in charge of Tottenham came on 18 August 2012 in the opening day of the
Premier League season, losing 2–1 to
Newcastle United away from home. His first competitive win came on 16 September 2012, a 3–1 victory away to
Reading. On 29 September 2012, Villas-Boas became the first Tottenham manager to win at
Old Trafford in 23 years after his side beat
Manchester United 3–2. Villas-Boas took charge of his first
North London derby against
Arsenal on 17 November 2012 at the
Emirates Stadium. Despite taking the lead early on, goalscorer
Emmanuel Adebayor was sent off just eight minutes later, and Tottenham eventually lost 5–2. Villas-Boas earned his first piece of personal Tottenham silverware when he won the Manager of the Month award for December. The team managed to pick up vital points in order to pursue their top four ambition. Promising big scorelines away from home such as against
Fulham,
Aston Villa and
Sunderland along with home wins against
Swansea City and Reading, left Tottenham in third place going into the new year. One set back was a tough trip to
Goodison Park, where Spurs were leading up until the 90th minute, before two late
Everton goals in as many minutes, snatched victory away from the North London side. In February 2013, he guided Tottenham to the last 16 of the
Europa League after a last minute goal from
Mousa Dembélé, securing a 1–1 draw against
Lyon at the
Stade Gerland. Spurs won the tie 3–2 on aggregate, after a 2–1 win at home the previous week. Following a 3–2 away win at
West Ham United, Tottenham's third win from three Premier League matches that month, Villas-Boas picked up his second piece of personal Tottenham silverware of the season as he was awarded the Manager of the Month award for February, along with
Gareth Bale who picked up the Player of the Month award for February as well. On the final day of the Premier League season, Tottenham sat a point behind
North London rivals,
Arsenal, knowing that in order to qualify for the
2013–14 Champions League, they had to win and hope that Arsenal failed to win. Tottenham won against Sunderland, but did not qualify due to Arsenal's 0–1 win at Newcastle United. Even though Tottenham finished a point behind the Champions League playoff spot, they set a new club record by finishing with 72 points. This was also the highest points tally ever achieved by any club in the Premier League to consequently not finish in the top four, until Arsenal finishing in fifth with 75 points in
2016-17. In the close season, Villas-Boas claimed he was approached by both
Paris Saint-Germain and
Real Madrid to fill their managerial vacancies but insisted he rejected these offers to remain with Spurs for a second successive season, something which he had not previously done as a manager. Villas-Boas was active in the transfer market before the start of the
2013–14 Premier League season. Key acquisitions included defensive midfielder
Étienne Capoue, midfielder
Paulinho, striker
Roberto Soldado, the versatile
Nacer Chadli, ball-playing defender
Vlad Chiricheș, winger
Erik Lamela and playmaker
Christian Eriksen. Departures from the club included
Tom Huddlestone,
Clint Dempsey,
Steven Caulker and
Scott Parker. On 16 December 2013, Tottenham announced that Villas-Boas had left the club "by mutual consent." The departure, with Spurs lying seventh in the Premier League and having won all six Europa League group games, followed a series of disappointing domestic league results that included a 6–0 defeat away to
Manchester City and culminated in a 0–5 home defeat to Liverpool. Villas-Boas left the club with the highest percentage of league wins of any Tottenham manager in the club's Premier League era. A month later, he went on to become the first coach in
Russian Premier League history to win his first six matches in charge. He continued to pursue the title but on 3 May, Zenit lost their first points in a 1–1 away draw with
Lokomotiv Moscow being followed by a 2–4 loss at home to
Dynamo Moscow which gave the league advantage to
CSKA Moscow. In the final fixture of the Russian Premier League on 16 May, Zenit won 4–1 away against
Kuban Krasnodar but it was not enough to win the title, as CSKA defeated Lokomotiv and were crowned champions one point ahead of Zenit. However, the St. Petersburg club clinched a place in the
2014–15 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round. In the
2014–15 season, Zenit qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stage by beating
AEL Limassol in the third round qualification and
Standard Liège in the playoffs. On 17 May 2015, Villas-Boas led the club to the fifth
league title in its history, clinching it after a 1–1 draw against
Ufa with two games left to play. On 10 September 2015, Villas-Boas announced he would return to Portugal because of his family and therefore be leaving Zenit at the end of the
2015–16 season after turning down a contract extension. In the
2015–16 Champions League Zenit finished top of the
Group H, being eliminated by Benfica in the Round of 16. On 2 May 2016, Zenit won the
Russian Cup by beating CSKA Moscow 4–1 in the final in Kazan, this was the Portuguese's last achievement for the Russian side, leaving at the end of the season and with
Mircea Lucescu appointed the new manager.
Shanghai SIPG On 4 November 2016, Villas-Boas became the manager of
Shanghai SIPG, replacing
Sven-Göran Eriksson for the
Chinese Super League club. Despite not being able to win any major silverware during his stint at the club, Villas-Boas has been credited with turning a relatively inexperienced side into a true championship contender. Bolstered by the talents of Brazilians
Hulk and
Oscar as well as star Chinese attacker
Wu Lei, his only season at the helm saw SIPG finish second in the league, losing to rivals Shanghai Shenhua in the final of the Chinese FA cup, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League, the club's best result in the competition to date (as of November 2019). Villas-Boas' stint at SIPG was also marred by a number of controversial remarks he made throughout the campaign, some of which were in response to star midfielder Oscar's controversial 8-match suspension for kicking the ball at an opponent during play. He also repeatedly lambasted match officials for favouring eventual league champions
Guangzhou Evergrande, notably following a game between Guangzhou and
Yanbian Funde where Guangzhou defender
Liu Jian scored following a handball gifting Guangzhou a crucial victory. By the time of his departure from SIPG, he was yet to serve out his suspension for these remarks. In November 2017, Shanghai SIPG announced Villas-Boas left the club by mutual consent after he refused to extend his contract for another year.
Marseille On 28 May 2019, Villas-Boas signed a two-year contract to be the new manager of
Marseille, replacing
Rudi Garcia. In the
2019–20 Ligue 1 season, Marseille finished second after the season was ended early due to the
coronavirus pandemic, thus qualifying for the
2020–21 UEFA Champions League for the first time since
2013–14. On September 13, 2020, he became the first Olympian coach in nine years to lead his squad to an away 1–0 victory in
Le Classique against
Paris Saint-Germain. On 2 February 2021, Villas-Boas announced in a press conference that he had offered his resignation to the club's board due to his dissatisfaction with the club's recruitment policy, namely them signing
Celtic player
Olivier Ntcham on loan the previous day against his wishes. A few hours later, Marseille announced the suspension of Villas-Boas as manager with immediate effect, with the club branding his public criticism of the club "unacceptable" and confirming that disciplinary hearings against Villas-Boas would take place. == President of FC Porto ==