What next for Nani – and for Man Utd?

In the final part of our interview with Nani, he explained he would potentially be interested in managing a club at some point in the future but that he has his academy for talented youth players just outside Lisbon in Fernao Ferro.

"I think this is another god gift that I can be involved and give knowledge that I built all these years in many clubs," he said. "I feel like I can help the kids for the future and motivate them to get better as people and players. I want to take kids from the street and give them good examples and help my community."

He is also an active part of the ownership group for promotion-chasing fourth division side Sintrense, who recently faced Porto in the Portuguese cup, the Taca de Portugal.

"We decided to get involved in this club as it is a great, historical place where people live for football," he said. "The team is built to achieve promotion by me and my business partner. This is a big opportunity to grow both a club and a city but it is a humble team, which we are building slowing through hard work."

Finally, Nani is keen to return to Old Trafford - having not visited the club since watching the 2-1 Europa League win over Barcelona in February 2023. He would relish watching a match managed by his former team-mate Ruben Amorim.

"Amorim was a very calm, disciplined professional, who wanted to work and do everything correctly when I played with him," Nani said.

"He wanted to understand what the coach was doing and hearing about his success he had at small Portuguese clubs, I thought he deserved his chance at Sporting and I think he is the right man for Manchester United. He just needs time to build his own team and people he trusts. The problem for United is that they have had many of the same players for five years.

"They keep changing coaches but you need to understand what the problem actually is to fix it. It's not just clicking your fingers and it will get better. It may have also been better to give him a pre-season.

"But I think now is the time to be a little bit patient and we will see it improve by the start of next season."