Jose Mourinho is one of the biggest names in modern football history and one of the best managers of the 21st century, having won major trophies with six different clubs – including domestic league titles with four of them and the Champions League with two.
An intelligent and confident observer who occasionally doubled as a scout for his own father, himself a manager following a semi successful professional career, Mourinho knocked playing football on the head relatively early in order to focus on coaching instead.
A young Mourinho was on the books at top flight clubs Rio Ave and Belenenses under his father’s watch in the early 1980s, without ever progressing beyond reserve level and later turned out for lower division teams in Portugal until hanging up his boots aged 24.
Working as a PE teacher in the late 1980s but studying coaching on the side, Mourinho’s big break in professional football came in 1992 when he was hired by Sporting CP to work as a translator on Bobby Robson’s staff. From there, Mourinho followed the legendary Englishman to Porto and Barcelona, taking on increasingly more than just interpreter duties. He remained at Camp Nou even after Robson had move on, developing under Louis van Gaal, before branching out on his own.
As of January 2024, Mourinho has held ten managerial positions since his first job in 2000. Here, 90min ranks his success in each and every one of them.
As the ultimate pragmatist and ‘win-now’ coach, Mourinho was supposed to be the manager that finally ended Tottenham’s trophy drought that had been ongoing since 2008. He was filling big shoes too, in Mauricio Pochettino, unceremoniously sacked within six months of taking Spurs to their first ever Champions League final in 2019.
The squad was in need of a rebuild and the club only went backwards with a lack of investment. One highlight included his 300th Premier League win, but an FA Cup defeat to Everton in 2021 was also the first time one of his teams had ever conceded five goals. Ultimately, despite taking Spurs to the 2021 Carabao Cup final, Mourinho was sacked just days beforehand.
Shortly after arriving at Benfica as an assistant coach in 2000, Mourinho was promoted to the top job when Jupp Heynckes was sacked. It was deemed surprising at the time for a coach of 37 with no prior experience as a manager…
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