José Mourinho established his reputation in European football by winning the UEFA Cup with Porto in 2002/03 and then securing a UEFA Champions League victory with the same club the next season. Since then, he has won league titles with Chelsea, Inter, and Real Madrid, as well as a second Champions League with the Nerazzurri. More recently, the Portuguese tactician secured the UEFA Europa League with Manchester United and completed a clean sweep of major UEFA club trophies by leading Roma to UEFA Conference League victory.
Now he is back at Benfica; the club where, for a few months in 2000, he took his first senior coaching role. The 62-year-old tells UEFA how he has changed (and stayed the same) in the intervening 25 years.
“What I am today is what I am today, and not what I did in the past,” José Mourinho tells UEFA as the newly rehired Benfica boss travels to face his former club Chelsea on Matchday 2 of the UEFA Champions League.
“These years where I didn’t play in the Champions League weren’t bad, because I played the finals of the Europa League and the Conference League. Obviously, the Champions League is the biggest competition, the competition with the most important clubs in Europe, and, for me, obviously it means a lot, because if winning one is a dream for everyone, winning two is even better”.
“I was lucky in my career to coach a lot of giants: Real Madrid, Inter, Manchester United, Chelsea. Benfica is a giant. And in that sense, a giant club entails giant responsibilities, giant expectations – it’s all giant. But it’s the kind of challenge I need”.
“When I left Porto, my first European match coaching Chelsea was against Porto; while coaching Inter, I played a zillion times against Barcelona [where I had been assistant coach]. As the coach of Fenerbahçe, I played against Manchester United, I played against Benfica.
Stamford Bridge is a stadium where I won three Premier Leagues; I made history with Chelsea. Chelsea belongs to my history, I belong to Chelsea history. But that’s football. They want to win, I want to win. I will realize where I am before the match, I will realize where I am after the match; during the match, I think I have the capacity to forget and just to compete”.
If one day I feel less joy, when I wake up, early in the morning, to come to work; if one day I feel less joy for winning a game; if one day I feel less sadness for losing a game; if something changes, then that will be like a red light that’s turned on.
I recall a Champions League game, Manchester United versus Real Madrid, where I was at Real Madrid and Sir Alex Ferguson was at Manchester United. I was at his office before the game and asked him: “Sir Alex, does this ever change in terms of the tension and the adrenaline that we feel before such an important game?” He said: “No, it never changes. It’s the same until the end.” More than ten years have passed since then, and my feelings don’t change.
It never crossed my mind to see myself as a genius. As a provocateur, perhaps a bit, but never as the devil. In the role of a genius? Absolutely not. Of course, I’ve always felt that I possessed innate abilities that I honed to become a good manager, much like many great players do.
In my career, there have been matches that I felt I won; it was due to me because certain moments, decisions, and strategies before or during the match can make all the difference. It gives you the feeling of “I won us the game.” However, I never viewed myself as a genius. I always felt like I was part of the team, knowing that the players were more important than me and that my role was to assist them.
“I have a room in my house where I keep some replicas, some medals and some jerseys, and it’s a museum and, as I always say, a museum is history, it’s untouchable history, but it’s not a part of my daily life, it’s not part of my present, it’s not part of my future. What I am today is what I am today, and not what I did in the past. I’m judged on what I do today.
I don’t have much time to reflect and I don’t want to. I don’t have the time nor is it part of my mindset. I always say that they can steal everything from me, but the story I created, no one can take away from me. However, when you’re working, when you have your ambitions, what was done before doesn’t count”.
