Aurélio da Silva Pereira, scout who discovered Cristiano Ronaldo and Figo, dies aged 77

Aurélio da Silva Pereira, former football coach and player scout at Sporting Clube de Portugal, has died aged 77, the club has announced on social media. He was a player at junior level, then coach of the youth teams, but he is best remembered by being in charge of the player recruitment and youth-development program, which he run from 1988 to 2019, and is responsible of finding talents like Luis Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rui Patricio, Simao, and Rafael Leao.

Thanks to his work, dozens of Portuguese players had their breakthroughs in professional football, and many later went on to other, bigger clubs outside of Portugal. But they remain a pride in the country, and when Portugal won the UEFA Euro Cup in 2016, ten of the players had been discovered by him, earning them the nickname "The Aurélios". Thus, Aurélio became a well loved figure not only for Sporting CP fans, but the whole country.

Aurélio da Silva won a lot of awards, including the Medal of Sporting Merit from the City of Lisbon in 2017, and the Order of Merit by UEFA in 2018 in recognition for his contribution to the development of Portuguese and European football.