Fonseca’s grandest climb had proved only to foster his most precipitous fall. Yet it was from here that Fonseca set about crafting his emphatic retort, aimed at those who so vocally claimed title-fights and silverware were beyond his humble grasp.

Fonseca returned to Paços de Ferreira, where an admirable mid-table finish reaffirmed the young manager as Braga’s choice of head coach. After making the move north, the following campaign, Fonseca not only lead Braga to fourth in the table but earned his first addicting taste of silverware, masterminding the club’s second-ever Taça de Portugal conquest, 50 years after their first; a victory made all the sweeter for having triumphed over the very Porto side from which he had been so impulsively repelled.

The reward for Fonseca’s historic success arrived not only in the form of adoration from Braga fans far and wide, but an invitation from Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk to take up the mantle left by legendary manager Mircea Lucescu and attempt to follow the act that had garnered some 22 trophies in 12 seasons. Fonseca dutifully acquiesced and made the first overseas move of his career.

Utilising precisely the same methods, the same ethos, he had spent the first decade of his managerial career honing - the fluid 4-2-3-1 formation that can, in an instant, stretch vertically to accommodate more width and press opponents from the front in a 4-2-2-2, or condense in defensive anticipation to a more conventional 4-4-2 - Fonseca picked up exactly where Lucescu had left off.

He utilised the existing talent at the club, blending young stars with seasoned heads to exhilarate the fans by averaging over two goals a game and conceding just nine in 22. It was a decimation of their opponents - inclusive of a strong Dynamo Kyiv - built upon his appetite for controlling the tempo of the game, retaining the ball, using width through his full-backs and countering at speed when the opportunity arose. While some have likened his football to Pep Guardiola’s, it’s far closer to Jurgen Klopp’s; raw, energetic and fiery.

In his inaugural season in Ukraine - despite the inconceivable challenges placed upon himself and his team on account of their being exiled from their home in Donetsk due to unrelenting political ruptures and war preventing their return - the Portuguese coach delivered a daring domestic double, sufficient to see him awarded the accolade for the league’s best coach.

In the two seasons since his spectacular introduction to the Ukrainian league, Fonseca has not only replicated his double-winning exploits on both occasions but gained his fair share of plaudits far beyond the reach of Eastern Europe for engineering a famous victory over Guardiola’s Manchester City.

The win ensured his team’s progression to the knockout phase of the 2017/18 Champions League, despite the considerable challenge of a group consisting of themselves, Manchester City, Napoli and Feyenoord. In aid of both the result and the astutely judicious, patient nature of their approach to besting Guardiola’s men, Fonseca earned a legion of laudatory match reports and even a glowing reflection from Guardiola himself.