Campos helped construct the AS Monaco and Lille squads that won Ligue 1 in 2016/17 and 2020/21, respectively, while he previously worked as a scout at Real Madrid.
Even before bringing in any new players, RC Celta have already made a splash in the 2022 summer transfer market. That’s because the club from Vigo have hired the in-demand Luís Campos as an external advisor for their sporting department. Given the Portuguese director’s track record, this is a major coup for the club that finished 11th in LaLiga Santander in 2021/22.
RC Celta have already put together an impressive squad in recent years, attracting talents like Javi Galán, Brais Méndez, Fran Beltrán, Franco Cervi and Denis Suárez to complement hometown hero Iago Aspas, but the Galician club can now expect to go to the next level thanks to the transfer market expertise that Campos will bring to Vigo, which is just 100km from his hometown of Fão in northern Portugal.
Campos’ CV is outstanding. The 57-year-old’s most recent successes have come in France, where he worked in the sporting department of AS Monaco from 2013 to 2016 and then as the sporting director of Lille from 2017 to 2020. At the two Ligue 1 clubs, Campos put the pieces in place for future glory, given that AS Monaco went on to win the Ligue 1 title in 2016/17 and then Lille lifted the French championship too in 2020/21. In other words, the only two squads to have beaten PSG to the French title in the past decade were Campos’ handiwork.
He was also behind other successful projects even before his time in France. His career started in his native Portugal, where he became qualified in physical education and then held a number of coaching roles, before being given his first head coaching opportunity at União de Leiria aged just 27. Over the following few years and at a few different Portuguese clubs, he often had battles with José Mourinho. Campos, as coach of Gil Vicente, even ended his peer’s 27-match unbeaten run with the all-conquering Porto side of 2004.
Their paths would cross again in 2012 when Mourinho brought Campos to Real Madrid to work as a scout and analyst, a job he thrived in. By this stage of his career, Campos had moved away from the dugouts and into the offices and it was clear that he had a skill for spotting talent. That’s why it is often said that Campos possesses a magic touch, as over the years he has identified and signed so many future stars, including Fabinho, Bernardo Silva, Tiemoué Bakayoko, Anthony Martial, Nicolas Pépé and Victor Osimhen.
This is why Campos has become such an in-demand sporting director over the past few years. Although so many of Europe’s biggest clubs wanted the Portuguese to work for them from this summer onwards, with many wanting him to do so exclusively, he has decided that RC Celta will be one of just a few clients, as he is excited about the possibilities on offer at the Galician club, that is about to compete at LaLiga Santander level for an 11th consecutive season.
For fans of RC Celta and for all who possess an interest in LaLiga Santander, Campos’ arrival in Vigo is an exciting and an intriguing one. The foundations are there for RC Celta to compete at the top end of the table. Now, it’s time to see which players Campos and his RC Celta colleagues acquire this transfer window.
