José Mourinho
José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (born January 26, 1963 in Setúbal, Portugal), is a football manager. He is currently the coach of Chelsea Football Club, based in South West London. His salary is reported to be increasing to £5 million a year plus bonuses from the 2005/06 season, which will reportedly make him the highest paid football manager in the world [1]. He is regarded as a genuinely great manager by other bosses (including Sir Alex Ferguson manager of Manchester United, a rival club) and pundits. Many consider Mourinho to be one of the best managers in the Premiership and in Europe and the undisputed key to Chelsea's blistering form and international growth away from the pitch. Of course, everyone forgets to mention that the reason Chelsea (or Bank of Russia as they are more famously known) have gone from mid-table fodder to Premiership champions is not down to Mourinho's management (as he would have you believe) but because of a certain Mr. Roman Abramovich's billions of pounds. Any second rate manager with the kind of transfer budget the Bank of Russia enjoy every season could win the premiership year in year out. A fact that is lost on poor Jose who thinks the ability to spend his boss's money on big name signings makes him "special". Moreover, Mourinho is extremely notorious for his unshakeable self-belief and confidence, as well as arrogance, in face of reporters, that has given newspapers and TV stations worldwide endless hours of material, with veteran English pundit Jimmy Hill labelling him a "soap". However, his big mouth and annoying comments can get on the nerves of even the most tolerent of people. The self-styled "special one" seems to think the whole world and it's dog is against him and his club Chelski. This might be true to a certain extent, but this is more-than-likely down to the fact that Chelski have this loud mouth donkey called Jose managing them.
Due to his successes and his outspoken nature, Mourinho has become one of the most loved managers in the League. However, he is also one of the most loathed, as both fans and plaudits alike, could not wait to see him getting beaten by teams in both the Premiership as well as in the Champions League.
Career
Early years
The son of Portuguese goalkeeper Félix Mourinho, José Mourinho never actually pursued a career as a player (although he did have unsuccessful, minor stints in smaller clubs) but showed an impressive managing and organising ability from an early age by preparing match reports and dossiers for his father's teams. He also gained a degree in sports coaching 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 as his translator (technically speaking he was interpreter) at both Sporting Lisbon and then FC Porto.
He then followed Robson to FC Barcelona in 1996 where he even learned Catalan. When Robson left for PSV, he stayed at the Catalan side where he worked with Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal. Mourinho's undoubted confidence and charm helped him get beyond his original role and began actively contributing more and more to coaching sessions and team management meetings.
Benfica and Leiria
In 2000 his chance of coaching his own team finally arrived, when he was picked by Lisbon side Benfica to replace Jupp Heynckes after the fourth week of the Portuguese league.
However, while he was popular, especially after a 3-0 win against Sporting, Benfica's election turned against the president João Vale e Azevedo and the newly-elected Manuel Vilarinho already had another coach waiting on the wings. Mourinho thus quit Benfica after just nine games in charge.
The next season, 2001/02, Mourinho started work with unfashionable mid-tablers União de Leiria, where he climbed as high as fourth (9-7-3 WDL record). He was then hand-picked in January 2002 by FC Porto to replace Octávio Machado as the manager of a badly-motivated and unhappy side which was already out of contention for the league title by week 19 and at risk of not even qualifying for European competition. Mourinho waltzed into FC Porto with big promises of "making Porto champions next year", and soon clinched third place after a decent 15 game run (WDL 11-2-2).
Porto magic
Mourinho quickly identified several key players who he saw as the backbone of what he believed would be a perfect FC Porto team: Baía, Ricardo Carvalho, Costinha, Deco, Dmitri Alenichev and Postiga from Porto, 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 out of contract from Benfica, the second after a season in the reserves' side.
During the pre season, Mourinho gave throughly detailed reports about the physical preparation 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 scientifical approach to the old-fashioned training methods in Portugal and scorn for the pretentiousness. One of the key aspects in Mourinho-era Porto was the pressuring 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 Porto to pressure from the offensive lines, which forced the 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 ditched him two years before. He also won the Portuguese Cup (against former club Leiria) and the UEFA Cup against Celtic, both in May 2003.
This debut season at FC Porto set a standard that would be hard for anyone to beat, but the following season, while perhaps not playing as impressively, Porto scooped another easy SuperLiga win (their 20th overall) with an eight point advantage, achieved with an unbeaten run that only ended five weeks before the end of the league. 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.
Chelsea F.C.
Whilst still at FC Porto, Mourinho was linked with several top international clubs, including Liverpool and Roman Abramovich's 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. Mourinho claimed during his initial press conference on joining Chelsea to be "the special one". He became one of the best paid managers in the world, although it was never officially confirmed, the press of that time reported that Mourinho's salary had gone from 15,000 euro/month in Benfica to 7,500 at Leiria and 25,000 at Porto, later raised to 50,000 euro per month. The salary for signing with Chelsea was reported as being in the 300,000 range and was later raised to an undisclosed ammount.
Mourinho went straight to work, recruiting his trustworthy backroom staff from Porto, consisting of assistant manager Baltemar Brito, fitness coach Rui Faria, chief scout Andre Villas and goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro. Mourinho followed the gauntlet set down by his predecessor Claudio Ranieri, and spent owner Roman Abramovich's vast fortune on stars such as Tiago Mendes, Didier Drogba and FC Porto pair Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira. It is worth noting that although Mourinho's competence as a manager is not disputed, the group of players he brought to Chelsea performed dubiously in their first season. Rather it was players already at the club, mostly bought by Ranieri, that would prove the foundation of Chelsea's success.
Under Mourinho, Chelsea turned the potential seen in Ranieri's time into results. Chelsea's strengths were summed up by their two key players: rock-solid defender John Terry, and inspirational 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. The match is perhaps best remembered for Mourinho being sent off and removed from the touchline in the second half for allegedly inciting Liverpool fans.
On 31 March 2005 Mourinho was handed a two match suspension and also a fine for bringing the game into disrepute by UEFA. This was after Mourinho criticised referee Anders Frisk after a Champions League second-round loss to FC Barcelona. Mourinho said a member of his staff saw Frisk chatting to Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard at half-time, alleging that the chat influenced Frisk's performance after the break, when he sent off striker Didier Drogba.
On the 30 April 2005, Mourinho and his Chelsea side secured the club's first top flight domestic title in 50 years with a 2-0 victory against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium. However, Mourinho failed to achieve back-to-back Champions League titles when Chelsea were knocked out of the competition at the semi-final stage by eventual winners Liverpool, just three days later.
On 2 June 2005, he was fined £200,000 for his part in the meeting with Arsenal full-back Ashley Cole in January 2005. Mourinho's defence was that Cole was "too small", saying that he would only sign a defender who was at least 5' 11". Mourinho later spent £8 million on Spanish left-back Asier Del Horno, who is 5' 11". In August 2005 his fine was reduced to £75,000 upon appeal.
Mourinho has got off to a good start in the current season (2005/2006). Chelsea won their first nine Premiership games before drawing the tenth match away against Everton and top their Champions League group after three matches. Yes, you heard right - Everton.
