The making of Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho is one of the most renowned and successful managers of the 21st century. Everybody seems to know Jose’s story from Porto on but few know about his path to managerial glory. This is his story.

Mourinho is the son of one time Portuguese international goalkeeper Jose Mourinho Félix, who won the Portuguese cup once as a player and went on to mange several mid-table Portuguese league sides.

He followed his dad’s career closely and was often charged with disseminating tactical indications to the players during his role as a ball boy.

Growing up within the football environment made taking the step to the playing field natural and after finishing his youth career with Belenenses, he played his first senior seasons with Rio Ave and Belenenses – both under his father’s management.

Old teammate Mario Reis said “He used to move really well, behind the striker” and that they “scored a ton of goals together, although most of them for the reserve team against the under 19’s.”  A lot of reports point to him being technically capable but missing the physicality coaches demanded in the early 80s.

Mourinho studied sports science in university and took coaching courses while playing. Seemingly the more he studied the more he fell down the ranks as a player. From a top devision back-up to a second tier and then a local club where he eventually quit at 24 to focus on his managerial career.

Bobby Robson alongside Jose Mourinho.

Becoming Bobby Robson’s translator was his first big job, but he had a natural tactical perception and that, combined with experience he amassed up to this point, largely from coaching youth levels at Vitoria Setubal to being an assistant manager with top tier Estrela da Amadora, it was only natural that he began to expand beyond his role of translating at press conferences.

His importance within the technical staff grew, getting more involved in practises and becoming just as much an assistant coach as he was a communicator between the manager and the players.

Mourinho ended up working alongside the Englishman at Sporing Lisbon, FC Porto and Barcelona with the Portuguese being quite open about Robson’s influence on him – particularly on how to mentally balance the highs and lows of managing a top side.

The way Mourinho deals with defeat today is hugely different to the way he did when he was an apprentice because of this experience.

The next person to work alongside the young “Special One” was Louis van Gaal, as the Dutchman replaced Robson at the helm of Barcelona and Mourinho remained in Spain. Perhaps more similar to each other from a tactical standpoint, van Gaal acknowledged Mourinho’s understanding of the game from the start and did his best to take him to the next level.

The Dutchman enjoyed Mourinho’s reports on the opponents and even went as far to let him take over the manager’s role in a minor competition such as the Copa Catalunya. This specifically helped Mourinho become a more confident character, as at the time, he was described as being modest by Louis and someone who needed to borrow some of the Dutchman’s confidence if he wanted a future leadership position of his own.

He clearly did.

Mourinho on the Benfica bench in 2000.

Mourinho has characterised van Gaal as someone who works like an animal and who finds a lot of pleasure in what he does – quotes that could well describe Mourinho too. A workaholic himself whose mind is never off football for long. Yet another reason why the pair got along so well.

His experiences across four seasons at Barcelona would finally lead him to a managerial path of his own, signing for Benfica. Ex-goalkeeper and at the time the sporting director Michel Preud’homme says it took only one night to get the young manager on board.

But his stint was also cut short. He left the club eleven games later after the president who hired him lost the election and the new president didn’t want to retain him.

Jose had to wait until the following campaign, 2001/2002, to take a step back and prove himself at a smaller club. União de Leiria gave him the opportunity, much like they gave to his father twenty-three years before. “They told me to use young players and avoid relegation” says Mourinho.

By January not only did they already have enough points to avoid relegation but they were in a surprising fourth place. In that same month he was off to FC Porto and from then on we already know the story.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *