There is one particular record that Jose Mourinho is absolutely thrilled to be able to call his own.
The Portuguese coach is the only man to have won all three of UEFA’s continental tournaments. He has got a winning medal in the Champions League, the Europa League, and the new Europa Conference League.
There are two ways of viewing Mourinho’s success rate in the Europa League. You can include the years before the name change when it was the UEFA Cup, or you cannot. We’re including them as the tournament didn’t change in any way other than the branding.
There have been two occasions where Mourinho has come out on top in Europe’s secondary competition. They were very spaced apart as well, with one being while it was still called the UEFA Cup.
2002/03 – Porto
In the 2002/03 season at Porto, Mourinho’s side got the better of Polonia Warsaw, Austria Vienna, Lens, Denizlispor, Panathinaikos and then Lazio, setting up a final against Celtic. Porto’s team included players such as Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Costinha and Maniche.
Celtic had Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton in attack with Stiliyan Petrov and Neil Lennon in midfield. It ended 3-2 to Porto with the winning goal coming in the 115th minute from Derlei. The game was played at Estadio Olimpico de Sevilla in Seville.
2016/17 – Manchester United
It took another 14 years before Jose Mourinho found himself competing for the Europa League again and this time it was with Manchester United. It was a season in which he won three trophies; the Community Shield, the League Cup and then the Europa League.
His United team, while heavily underperforming in the Premier League, came second in a group containing Fenerbahce, Feyenoord and Zorya Luhansk. They then beat Saint-Etienne, Rostov, Anderlecht and Celta Vigo before getting the better of Ajax in the final in Stockholm.
Interestingly, Mourinho’s first ever UEFA Cup game as a coach came when he was the manager of Benfica. He had a very short spell in 2000 which lasted nine league games and saw him resign when the new president would not extend his contract. He coached one UEFA Cup game which was a 2-2 draw with Halmstads BK.
Porto and Man Utd
It was once he took the job at Porto that things started to improve. As mentioned above, he led them to glory in Seville against Celtic in 2002/03. His next campaign in the Europa League was successful again as that was the…
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