Did you know the Primeira Liga's manager of the month for February is a Scottish coach, who happens to be one year and two days younger than Everton defender Ashley Young?
Well, he is, and his name is Ian Cathro, a talented 38-year-old currently in the process of guiding Portuguese minnows Estoril towards an unexpected top half finish in this, his first season in charge on the Iberian Peninsula.
A long-term member of Nuno Espirito Santo's backroom staff, the Dundee-born coach has worked at Rio Ave, Valencia, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur and Al-Ittihad alongside the current Nottingham Forest boss.
On his impressive CV, you will also find an 18-month period as a first team coach at Newcastle United, a role he vacated in December 2016 to join Heart of Midlothian in his first managerial position.
Now back in the hot seat for only his second head coach role, Cathro is loving life at Estoril.
"Portugal was always a place I'd hoped to go back to for work," he says warmly. "After leaving Saudi Arabia I was actually living in the country last year, which is an indication of how comfortable we feel here as a family.
"Once I realised I had a good connection with the people involved it just became the right thing to do, at the right time."
Making the transition from being a long-term assistant to taking on a head coach role in a league he hadn't worked in for many years, with a set of players he knew very little about, would of course, present immediate challenges.
So, how has he handled that coaching metamorphosis?
"It's obviously very different but the way I tried to live when working as an assistant, was always one where I felt the responsibility, rather than being somebody who just offered an opinion," is Cathro's response.
"With Nuno I gained an understanding of the complexities and impacts surrounding every decision we made. I wanted to be that guy, to help him as best I could. So, changing roles is not something I’ve felt to be a huge thing."
He then adds, "The big change is in me personally, and how I am now able to peacefully go about my work, dealing with what's in front of me, without being affected by the past or worrying about the future. That's a skill I've had to work really hard at over the years.
"If there's one thing I've managed to do in terms of growth, it is probably finding that tranquillity, but it's only come through a hell of a lot of effort, over a long time. Here at Estoril, I am able to focus on what's exactly in front of my eyes in this moment."
Rewinding the clock, we touch on his seven-month spell in charge of Hearts as a rookie 30-year-old.
Results were disappointing for Cathro but upon his release in August 2017 there was still a clear sense that the SPL club recognised they were releasing somebody destined for success elsewhere.
A passage from their statement at the time, reads, "The board wishes it to be known that this was a very difficult decision, reluctantly made, as every member of the board recognises Ian is an extremely talented young coach with a very bright future."
That assessment has proven to be prescient, but as he looks back on that challenging experience, Cathro is incredibly forthright in his view.
"The biggest learning from my time at Hearts was that you don't put yourself in the wrong room," he says unequivocally.
"Impatience to do something, led me to put myself in a context I never, ever wanted to be in. There are tons of little things I could say or reflect on and loads of lessons taken from that period of time, but fundamentally it was an error to put myself in that environment.
"This isn't to try and demean it, or not respect it, but if anybody asks me when I started out as a head coach, I say I started on July 1st, 2024, with Estoril.
"I don't count that Hearts job. I simply don't count it because I put myself in the wrong place and it served as a huge learning experience."
Media spotlight
The conversation moves towards the media spotlight in Scotland, and more pertinently how it felt when criticism took hold, especially when it became vitriolic.
"The reaction and treatment I got, the ridicule and the lies printed, were a struggle for me to handle at the time," admits Cathro.
"I was constantly living with anger, and in that position you either be authentic and let it out, or you try to hold it in, and that leads to other issues. It was hard going, but in terms of my education it was an important experience to go through."
Much happier now and very relaxed in his outlook, you can tell that Estoril's astute head coach is enjoying his second coming as a manager.
We discuss the process of building his own staff, and how pleased he is that the dynamics within his backroom team are naturally finding their flow.
Cathro says he is not a taskmaster, preferring collaboration to handing out to-do lists, even chuckling as he says, "I just want stuff to work."
And with a young family at home, finding the right work-life balance is also one of the Scot's priorities as he settles into this key phase of his career.
Not 40 until the summer of 2026, he remains a very young coach, but with more than a decade spent within the high-pressure bubble of professional football, there is wisdom too.
This shines through as he says, "A lot of 38-year-olds are just coming into coaching for the first time, and they think they’ve got to be there from six in the morning till ten at night. It's not productive. You end up being worse, and you make worse decisions. Who makes good decisions when they're tired? I know I don't.
"There are stages to the process of course, because to become an expert at anything in life is really tough. A lot of hours must be put in, and that dedication brings with it inevitable sacrifice.
"But as head coaches we don't need to be on it every single minute in my opinion. Personally, I think we need to be fresh enough to see what's really there, in order to make good decisions. That's why I don't believe working 24-7 is the way to go. I've ran that race, and it would be a mistake to run it again.
"The game takes so much energy from you. If you're not fresh in your mind, with the necessary energy to help the players be the best they can be, it’s only going to create difficulties."
Nuno's guidance
Adapting to change is something most coaches must deal with but having worked for eight different clubs, and the SFA, since he ran Dundee United's academy at the age of 22, Cathro is more accustomed to it than most.
The catalyst for his footballing adventure was meeting Nuno Espirito Santo on a UEFA B coaching course in Largs, Scotland. Hitting it off immediately, they shared stories, experiences and ideas before keeping in touch beyond that residential stay.
Then, in 2012 when the former FC Porto goalkeeper landed his first managerial role at Rio Ave, Cathro received a call that would dramatically change the course of his career.
"It's the one moment in life where I've found myself in a new situation and thought, can I actually handle this?" he says.
"At 25 you get off the plane, you don't have a word of the language, you've never worked at a professional level before, and every single thing I was doing, every single day, I was doing for the first time.
"That was very difficult. but it was the one thing I wanted to do more than anything in the world.
"I am so grateful to Nuno for being given that chance because I was desperate to have the opportunity to grow in a different way. I realised if I stayed in my little bubble in Scotland, I was going to be too limited by what I encounter.
"The language was the hardest bit at first, because as somebody who thinks they're half decent at communicating, when you don't have access to any words, that's pretty tough!
"I had to lose the embarrassment factor and just figure it out. I soon learnt that the words need to come out of your mouth first, and then people will help you. I had a huge amount of support from Nuno, his family and the other guys in the staff. It got easier as time passed."
Cathro talks with real affection about his experiences at several of his former clubs.
Working with top class players in La Liga, the Premier League, and in the Middle East, all with different expectations and pressures, has provided him with a solid grounding that he hopes will enable him to fulfil his potential as a head coach.
Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English, communication is no longer an issue for the Scot, who confesses he now feels 'more at home' at Estoril than he would with a squad of British players.
So, what have the main challenges been as he gets accustomed to this new position?
"Finding the right level to pitch our coaching at was an important process early on," he says. "You must adapt the way you see certain things and establish a level of comfort for everyone, expectations wise. Only then, can you start to improve.
"It's not necessarily about the level of player you are working with, but every group has a different context, with players that have specific strengths and characteristics that are going to shape the way the team plays.
"The issue we had here at Estoril was that many of the players who are fundamental to what we now do, arrived late on in the window after pre-season. That pushes you four to six weeks further down the path before you have the base level information needed to progress. That was a big challenge."
As we begin to wrap up our chat, Cathro talks about self-awareness and how past experiences shape who you eventually become.
And he believes that reaching this point in life for him personally, is now having a profoundly positive impact on his professional work.
Finding peace
"As time passes and you reach a level of peace in your life, you figure out who you are and what you are, and from that point onwards the football your team plays simply has to represent who you are as a person. The philosophy and beliefs I share with my players have to be genuine. Without it, the authenticity disappears.
"I've reached that point now and because I know how I can help people best, everything feels more comfortable.
"I'd go as far as saying that today I am now completely at peace because I have absolutely no plans," adds Cathro with a beaming smile.
"I am happy living in the moment, focused on what's going on right in front of my face. All I am concerned with now are making sure the training and meetings are planned out well for the next day, and that I’m free for a FaceTime with the family when they call. That's it."
With this level of contentment, you sense that whatever path this 38-year-old's career takes next, he'll be more than ready to make the transition.