Abel Ferreira was born on December 22 1978, in Penafiel in Portugal. He began playing football at an early age and joined the local football academy. In 1997 he began his professional career and in 2000, having made 62 appearances, he joined Vitoria Guimares, where he made his debut in the Portuguese top flight.

He quickly evolved into one of the league’s top right backs. After four years at Guimares, he went on to join Braga in the 2004-05 season and his displays attracted the attention of Sporting Lisbon, whom he joined first on loan before making a permanent switch. He stayed with the Lions up to 2011, when he decided to hang up his boots and end his playing career due to injury after winning two Portuguese Cups and two Super Cups, while also playing in the Champions League with Sporting.

His career as a player served him well as the foundation to become an up and coming coach. Ferreira felt this desire from a young age and made sure to obtain a UEFA Pro coaching qualification during his experience as a player. He always gathered details of training sessions in his notebook, and also saved many of them on his computer, as well as the «hard disk» of his brain.

The injury that forced him to quit football at the age of just 31 turned him into a very young coach. He started from the bottom and worked his way up from the Sporting youth teams. By 2014 he had already been appointed coach of Sporting’s B team  in the Segunda Liga. In the 2014-15 season he took charge of Braga’s B team, in the same division. At the same time, in 2015, he was appointed as interim coach of the first team.

In 2017 he officially took over as Braga’s first team coach. In his first season he guided the club to a fourth place finish with 75 points, while in his second he repeated that success, finishing only behind Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon. Additionally, he led the team to the Round of 32nd of the Europa League for the first time.

With his clear philosophy, fresh ideas and a thirst for success, within two years he has become one of the top 50 coaches of 2018 according to FourFourTwo, and he is regarded as the next big thing of Portuguese coaching.