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A story of unforgettable collisions
Thirteen years after his departure, Portuguese Jose Mourinho looks set to return to the Real Madrid bench as the club go through one of their most tumultuous periods in recent years.
According to French newspaper L’Equipe, club president Florentino Perez is seriously considering bringing the Special One back to replace Alvaro Arbeloa after a new season in which the team is on the verge of ending its second straight year without a championship.
The task ahead for the Portuguese coach will not only be limited to returning the team to the podium, but will also go beyond trying to restore stability to a dressing room that has become increasingly divided since the departures of Xabi Alonso, who took over as technical director last January, and Arbeloa.
But talking about Mourinho in Madrid cannot help but mention his first spell between 2010 and 2013, a period that witnessed many clashes and crises, inside and outside the club, despite great success and a fierce rivalry with Barcelona at the height of its golden era.
The first big war…Mourinho and the media
From the first moment of his arrival in Madrid, Mourinho entered into an open confrontation with the media. The Portuguese coach has imposed strict restrictions on his players’ media appearances, barring them from giving press interviews throughout the season, except for match-related announcements.
Not only that, but during press conferences he would directly attack some journalists, revisiting their old articles or controversies when dealing with his news, in a style that has always caused controversy inside and outside of Spain.
Mourinho’s press conferences turned into a weekly confrontational arena, as the Portuguese manager found much of the Spanish media openly hostile towards him, while journalists believed his confrontational style created a constantly charged atmosphere at the club.
The second big war…Mourinho and Saint
One of the fiercest crises in Real Madrid’s modern history was the one that brought Mourinho together with historic leader Iker Casillas.
In the second half of Mourinho’s last season, the Portuguese coach decided to leave Casillas out of the starting lineup, preferring to bring goalkeeper Antonio Adani to the field due to technical training. After the Saint’s injury, Real Madrid signed Diego López, leaving Casillas on the bench, shocking the club’s fans.
Mourinho has repeatedly defended his decision, stressing that Lopez is more suited to his style and that Casillas will not return to the starting line-up as long as he is in charge of the coaching staff. But many saw that the crisis went beyond the technical aspect, especially after the statements of Casillas’ colleague at the time, journalist Sarah Carbonero, who spoke publicly about the existence of problems in the Real Madrid dressing room.
At the time, Mourinho believed that Casillas was behind the leaking of team news to the media, which turned the relationship between the two sides into one of the most publicized conflicts in the club’s history.
Scoreboard war.. Mourinho and Valdano
Even before he officially started his job, there were signs of a rift between Mourinho and the club’s then sporting director, Jorge Valdano.
During the Portuguese coach’s presentation conference, the two sides brought up an old article written by Valdano in which he criticized Mourinho’s training philosophy, sparking a months-long cold war.
The biggest disagreement was Mourinho’s desire to sign a new open striker, while Valdano believed Cristiano Ronaldo was capable of filling the role. As tensions between them continued, the conflict ended with Valdano’s departure, leaving Mourinho as the strongest influence within the club.
The fourth great war. referees and FIFA
Refereeing has never been far from Mourinho’s ongoing battles. Since his first season at Real Madrid, the Portuguese coach has frequently clashed with referees, whether in Spain or the Champions League.
Mourinho was constantly against refereeing decisions, which is why he was sent off more than once. He attended some press conferences with pen and paper to list the mistakes he believed the referees had made against his team, most famously the conference following the game against Sevilla when he reviewed 13 refereeing errors by referee Clos Gómez.
Mourinho also caused widespread controversy when he refused to attend the FIFA World Coach of the Year award, which later went to Vicente del Bosque, after he suggested the voting had been rigged.
Despite all these clashes, Mourinho’s tenure remains one of the most influential and exciting periods in Real Madrid’s modern history, during which he brought the team back into the European competition and broke Barcelona’s dominance at domestic level, but also left behind a long series of separations and battles that are still etched in the memory of the club’s fans.
