José Mourinho (full name: José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix) (born January 26, 1963 in Setúbal), son of Portuguese goalkeeper Félix Mourinho, is football manager of Chelsea F.C. in Fulham, West London.
For two consecutive years (2004 and 2005), Mourinho was named the world's best football coach by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). He is considered one of the best coaches in the Premiership and in Europe. The Portuguese coach is also seen as the key to Chelsea's form that saw them lift the Premiership title for the first time in fifty years. Mourinho is well-known for his self-belief and confidence, and has at times been a controversial figure.
Career
Early years
Mourinho's playing career consisted of a few generally unsuccessful spells at small clubs. His clear aptitude was his impressive managing and organisational ability and from an early age he prepared match reports and dossiers for his father's teams. He also has a degree in Physical Education, specialising in sports methodology and worked as a high school coach.
After low-key backroom jobs at Estrela da Amadora and his hometown club Vitória de Setúbal in the early 1990s, Mourinho soon earned the nickname Tradutor (translator), when he worked with Sir Bobby Robson both as assistant coach and as his translator (technically speaking, as an interpreter) at both Sporting Clube de Portugal (Sporting) and then Futebol Clube do Porto (FCP).
He then followed Robson to FC Barcelona in 1996 where he learned Catalan. When Robson left for PSV, he stayed at the Catalonia side and worked with Robson's replacement, Dutch coach Louis van Gaal. Mourinho's undoubted confidence and personality helped him get beyond his original role and he began actively contributing more to coaching sessions and team management meetings. Eventually, Mourinho coached FC Barcelona B.
Sport Lisboa e Benfica and União de Leiria
In 2000 his chance of becoming main coach finally arrived when he was picked by Lisbon side Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Benfica) to replace Jupp Heynckes after the fourth week of the Portuguese Liga. Mourinho picked Carlos Mozer, a retired but still highly respected Benfica defender, to be his assistant.
However, while the duo was popular, especially after a 3-0 win against fierce rivals Sporting, Benfica's election turned against club president João Vale e Azevedo and the newly-elected Manuel Vilarinho already had another coach waiting on the wings, Toni - a legend for Benfica's fans. Although Vilarinho had no intention of firing him, Mourinho decided to ask for an extension to his contract during the middle of the season. When the president refused, Mourinho quit Benfica (after just nine games in charge). Vilarinho later said in an interview that if Mourinho had won the championship, he would have extended his contract.
The next season, 2001/02, Mourinho started work with unfashionable mid-tablers União de Leiria, where the side climbed as high as fourth.
Futebol Clube do Porto (FCP)
He was then hand-picked in January 2002 by FCP to replace Octávio Machado as the manager of a badly-motivated and unhappy side which was already out of contention for the league title and at risk of not qualifying for any European competition. Mourinho arrived with the promise of "making FCP champions next year", and guided the team to third place after a decent 15 game run (WDL 11-2-2).
He quickly identified several key players who he saw as the backbone of what he believed would be a perfect FCP team: Baía, Ricardo Carvalho, Costinha, Deco, Dmitri Alenichev and Postiga from FCP, recalling captain Jorge Costa after a six-month loan to Charlton Athletic (after a dispute with Octávio Machado), bringing Nuno Valente and Derlei from Leiria, promising right defender Paulo Ferreira from Vitória Setúbal, Pedro Emanuel from Boavista FC, and finally Edgaras Jankauskas and Maniche who were out of contract at Benfica, the latter after a season in the reserves' side.
During the pre season, Mourinho gave thoroughly detailed reports about the physical preparation of the team on the official website, always using a formal vocabulary (a 20km jog was an extended aerobic exercise, for instance) which at the same time attracted both praise for the innovation and scientific approach to the old-fashioned training methods in Portugal and scorn for the pretentiousness. One of the key aspects in Mourinho-era FCP was the pressurising play, which started right of the offensive line, dubbed "high pressure" (pt: pressão alta). The physical and combative abilities of players such as Derlei, Maniche and Deco allowed FCP to pressure from the offensive lines forcing teams either to concede the ball or try longer passes.
In 2003, Mourinho won his first SuperLiga with a 27-5-2 WDL record, 11 points clear of the Benfica side that he had quit from two years before. His team's points total of 86 in 102 possible for that season is a Portuguese record since the 3 points per victory rule was introduced and superseded the 85 points record that was also in FCP's possession for their 1996/97 season. He also won the Portuguese Cup (against former club Leiria) and the UEFA Cup final against Celtic in Seville, both in May 2003.
This debut season set a standard that would be hard to better but the following season, while perhaps not playing as impressively, FCP scooped another easy SuperLiga win (their 20th overall). This was accomplished with a 100% home record, an eight point advantage and an unbeaten run that only ended (against Gil Vicente FC), after the title was secure five weeks before the end of the season, and while heavily involved in European cup matches. While the Portuguese Cup final was lost to Benfica in May 2004, two weeks later Mourinho won the ultimate prize: the Champions League, with an emphatic 3-0 win over Monaco in the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The team's impressive European run saw only one defeat: against Spanish giants Real Madrid in the first group phase and included wins over Manchester United, Olympique Lyonnais and Deportivo de La Coruña.
Futebol Clube do Porto to Chelsea
Whilst still at FCP, Mourinho was linked with several top European clubs, including Liverpool and Chelsea. Many people, especially in Portugal, questioned the legality of alleged contract discussions with several clubs, but no wrongdoing was officially proved and no charges have been brought. Mourinho finally moved to Chelsea in June 2004.
During his initial press conference on joining Chelsea Mourinho claimed to be "A Special One", a prime example of his unreserved self-belief. He became one of the best paid managers in the world, with the salary for signing with Chelsea was reported to be in the ?300,000 range and was later raised to an undisclosed amount.
Chelsea
Mourinho went straight to work, recruiting his backroom staff from Porto, consisting of assistant manager Baltemar Brito, fitness coach Rui Faria, chief scout Andre Villas and goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro. He retained the services of Steve Clarke, a long-serving former player at Chelsea and who had also performed an assistant managerial-type job under previous managers at the club. In terms of spending, Mourinho carried on where his predecessor Claudio Ranieri left off, and spent almost £70m on stars such as Tiago Mendes, Didier Drogba and Porto pair Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira.
Under Mourinho, Chelsea turned the potential seen during Ranieri's time into results. Chelsea's strengths were summed up by their two ever-present English players: defender John Terry, and midfielder Frank Lampard. By early December they were top of the Premiership table and through to the knock-out stages of the Champions League. On 27 February 2005 he led Chelsea to the League Cup trophy in Cardiff, Wales, dramatically beating Liverpool 3-2 after extra time. Towards the end of the match, Mourinho was escorted from the touchline for allegedly inciting Liverpool fans following Chelsea's equaliser. On 30 April 2005, Chelsea secured the club's first top flight domestic title in 50 years with a 2-0 victory against Bolton (he had earlier predicted that his team would win the title at Bolton)[1]. However, he failed to achieve back-to-back Champions League successes when Chelsea were knocked out of the competition in the semi-finals by eventual winners Liverpool three days later.
On 31 March 2005 Mourinho was handed a two match suspension and a fine by UEFA for bringing the game into disrepute after he had criticised referee Anders Frisk following a Champions League tie against FC Barcelona. He stated that a member of his staff saw Frisk talking with Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard at half-time, which is illegal in the rules of the game and later alleged that this influenced Frisk's performance when Drogba was sent off with Chelsea leading 1-0.[2]Subsequent alleged threats to Frisk's life prompted the referee to retire. It was later revealed that Rijkaard had tried to converse with Frisk at half-time - the referee's own match report mentioned the incident - but that Frisk sent him away. [3] The episode led Mourinho to be described by UEFA referee's chief, Volker Roth, as an "enemy of football,"[4] although UEFA distanced themselves from the comment. [5]
On 2 June 2005, he was fined £200,000 for his part in the meeting with Arsenal full-back Ashley Cole in January 2005 in breach of Premier League rules. In August 2005 his fine was reduced to £75,000 after a hearing. In late 2005, Mourinho labelled Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger a 'voyeur' after being irked at what he saw as the latter's apparent obsession with Chelsea. The episode eventually died down and the two have since made peace. [6]
On April 29th, after topping the table for nearly all the season, Chelsea beat rivals Manchester United 3-0 to win their second consecutive championship and Mourinho's fourth in a row. After the presentation of his championship medal, he went to the Matthew Harding end of Stamford Bridge and threw his medal and blazer into the crowd. He was awarded a second medal within minutes and he threw that into the crowd as well. His reason was that the medal is exactly the same as the one he got last year which he didn't need another and he wanted to reward the crowd for their support.
Portuguese national team
Mourinho has publicly stated that he wishes to run the Portuguese national team at some point in his career. At the match that gave him his second title with Chelsea, Mourinho wore a Portugal scarf and at the press conference said: "It means I am Portuguese. I wouldn't put on the scarf of another country. I can smell, feel in my country, there are still a few rats waiting to celebrate my mistakes. But when I think of the other 10 million and five million Portuguese working all over the world I know what I mean to them. I know they are proud of what I am doing." [1]
Personal life
He married his wife, Matilde (Tami), whom he has known since childhood, in 1989. They have two children: Matilde (Tita), 9 years old and José Jr (Zuca), 6 years old.
Widely known for his image and strong personality, Mourinho is a central part of a number of advertisement campaigns across Europe, such as those of Samsung and American Express. In his home country, Portugal, where his official biography was a best-seller, he's a national celebrity, endorsing numerous products and campaigns.
José Mourinho has also been part of many social initiatives in many parts of the world, such as sponsoring youth projects in Israel and in his native country.
