José Mourinho – One of the Greatest Coaches in Soccer History

Jose Mourinho
Jose Mourinho – The Greatest Soccer Coach of All-Time.
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José Mourinho Teams Coached |

José Mourinho is among many as one of the greatest coaches in soccer (football) history, and he was recently relieved of his coaching duties for Tottenham Hotspur in April 2021 and is moving to coach AS Roma. In his impressive managerial career, he has helmed top football clubs such as Porto, Real Madrid, and Chelsea. He won three Premier League titles and ranks second on the all-time list along with Arsene Wenger, and is best known by bringing a consistent winning culture wherever he went.

José Mourinho was born in Portugal on January 26th, 1963. From a young age, his mother encouraged him to aim for success in all his endeavors. His father was a professional goalkeeper. Because of this, Mourinho always had a keen interest in football. When his father moved on to coaching, Mourinho followed his lead. He began to study opposing teams and game tactics relentlessly.

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After being a school coach for a few years, Mourinho’s dream was to go into professional coaching. He looked for inroads into his desired career. He ended up working as an interpreter for the famous football coach, Sir Bobby Robson. Mourinho developed a friendship with Robson and discussed football tactics and strategies sometimes late into the night. He followed Robson across several clubs from Sporting to FC Porto and Barcelona.

His first break into professional coaching came in September 2000 when he was appointed the manager of the Portuguese club, Benfica. He had quick successes there but was asked to leave soon after due to a conflict with the club president.

Nonetheless, Mourinho caught the attention of the top-tier clubs in Portugal. He was hired to manage FC Porto in 2002. He was hugely successful at the club, guiding the team to win the Primeira Liga, Portuguese Cup, and the UEFA Cup in 2003. He continued to have similar successes in subsequent seasons.

His next stint at Chelsea was also remarkable. He led Chelsea to six trophies in three years. However, after a fall-out with owner Roman Abramovich, he left the club in 2007.

After Chelsea, he coached at Inter Milan with relative success before moving on to Real Madrid. In 2012, he led Real Madrid to its first La Liga title in 4 years. He returned to manage Chelsea from 2013 to 2015 before moving on to head Manchester United in 2016.

Mourinho won 25 league titles and cups, along with three Premier League Titles over his 25-year coaching career.

  1. Appeal to team members as individuals

Mourinho’s coaching style is known for being heavily influenced by psychology. “A coach must be everything: a tactician, motivator, leader, methodologist, psychologist.” To that end, he often tailored his approach to individuals on his team to get maximum buy-in. For instance, while coaching at Chelsea, he told Frank Lampard that he was possibly the world’s best player, but he needed to win championships to prove it. This appealed to Lampard’s desire to be the best and pushed him to play more for the team than for himself.

People are complicated in their decisions and motivations, but it never hurts to study psychology to get an edge. Try to figure out what makes your team members tick, and use that to your advantage to achieve organization goals.

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  1. Communicate your vision and expectations

One of Mourinho’s strengths is his ability to unite his team, and he achieves this by communicating his vision for the team and setting expectations for their behavior and conduct. When he was managing Chelsea, he famously told his players: “from here each practice, each game, each minute of your social life must center on the aim of being a champion.”

By communicating his vision and expectations, Mourinho set the tone for the team’s mindset and the level of performance he wanted from them. This challenged his players to rise to meet his standards and had the team playing at a much higher level.

As a leader, work towards becoming a better communicator and unite your team by articulating your vision and setting expectations for team performance. This makes it easier for you to manage your team members and ensures that everyone is aligned towards the same direction.

  1. Both successes and failures belong to the team, not just the leader

Mourinho recounted a piece of critical advice from his mentor Sir Bobby Robson: “When you win, you shouldn’t assume you are the team, and when you lose, you shouldn’t think you are rubbish.”

You are not your team. Just because you are leading the team doesn’t make every victory your credit, and every defeat your failure. It is essential that the whole team takes the credit for the win as well as responsibility for the loss. Everyone bears the burden, and everyone deserves equal credit.

“I would rather play with ten men than wait for a player who is late for the bus.”

“I enjoy the work; I enjoy every minute of my professional life.”

“The negative side of football is also the negative side of our society. People sometimes go to a football match and bring to it the negative aspects of our society.”

“When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.”

“I think the best place to work in football is England.”

“It’s not important how we play. If you have a Ferrari and I have a small car, to beat you in a race I have to break your wheel or put sugar in your tank.”

“The only thing that we cannot control is our supporters.”

“Arsenal has won that advantage; nobody gave it to them. By playing fantastic football and by winning matches and by winning trophies, they won that respect that the opponent has for them.”

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AS Roma (2021 – present)
Tottenham Hotspur (2019 – 2021)
Manchester United F.C. – Association Football Manager (2016 – 2019)
Chelsea F.C. – Association Football Manager (2013-2015)
Real Madrid C.F. – Association Football Manager (2010 – 2013)
Inter Milan – Association Football Manager (2008 – 2010)
Chelsea F.C. – Association Football Manager (2004-2007)
FC Porto – Association Football Manager (2002 – 2004)
U.D. Leiria – Association Football Manager (2001 – 2002)
S.L. Benfica – Association Football Manager (2000)
FC Barcelona – Assistant Manager (1996 – 2000)
FC Porto – Assistant Manager (1993 – 1996)
Sporting CP – Assistant Manager (1992 – 1993)

What is José Mourinho’s salary?

He earned approximately 15 million pounds per season.

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See Also: José Mourinho Teams Coached | Best Coaches In Soccer | Great Soccer Coaches | Famous Football Coaches | UEFA Champions League | UEFA Europa League |