The 36-year-old was appointed, having never even been mentioned as one of many candidates for the role.
Hailing from the northern Portuguese town of Peso da Regua, he graduated from the University of Porto with a Bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy and a Masters in Economics and Human Resources.
Remarkably, he was offered a job by Benfica after impressing them with his comments during a General Assembly meeting.
Benfica have a multisports division and are not just a football club, so over five years he helped them win titles in basketball, futsal, volleyball, handball and even roller hockey.
“Tiago Pinto is an outstanding choice to develop our footballing talent at Roma,” CEO Guido Fienga told the official Roma website.