José Mourinho

José Mourinho (born January 26, 1963, Setúbal, Portugal) is a professional football (soccer) manager and former player who has won more than 20 titles—including two UEFA Champions League trophies—with six different clubs across Portugal, Spain, England, and Italy. In June 2026 he was appointed manager of the Spanish football club Real Madrid for the second time in his career, before which he was the manager of the Portuguese football club Benfica. Mourinho’s tactical skills and attention to detail have drawn praise. However, he has been criticized for prioritizing results over making games attractive to watch.

He is the subject of the 2026 Netflix docuseries Mourinho.

Early life

Mourinho grew up as part of a large family. His mother, Maria Júlia, worked as a primary-school teacher, and his father, Félix, was a professional football player and coach. His father played for, and later served as coach and director of, the club Vitória FC, based in the Portuguese city of Setúbal, and he appeared in one match for the Portuguese national team.

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Mourinho was keen on football but failed a mathematics examination in the 12th grade, which led to him missing a place in the physical education program he sought. His mother enrolled him in a management program, but Mourinho quit after one day of classes and helped his father for a year before joining the physical education course. He completed a degree and then finished a Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) football coaching program in Scotland.

Club career and move to coaching

Mourinho started his playing career with the Portuguese club União de Leiria’s under-17 team before moving to the Lisbon-based club Belenenses’s under-19 team. In 1981 he moved to the senior Rio Ave team, where his father was manager. Although he played only one match for the first team, he scored many goals while playing on the reserve squad. In 1982 the father-son duo moved to the Belenenses senior club as manager and player. Mourinho scored a hat trick for the team after coming on as a halftime substitute in a 17–0 win against Clube Desportivo de Vila Franca, a team based on São Miguel Island in the Azores, Portugal. Mourinho then moved to the Portuguese clubs GD Sesimbra in 1983 and UF Comércio e Indústria in 1985. In 1987, at age 24, Mourinho retired as a player and chose to instead focus on coaching.

During his early coaching career, he worked as an assistant manager for the Setúbal under-17 and under-19 teams (1987–90), as an assistant manager for CF Estrela da Amadora (1990–91), and as a talent scout for the club Ovarense (1991–92). In July 1992 Mourinho was hired as a translator when English coach Bobby Robson took over as manager of the Lisbon-based club Sporting CP. In 1994 he moved with Robson when the latter took over as manager of FC Porto. The duo moved again in 1996, this time to FC Barcelona. Mourinho stayed on at FC Barcelona when Robson was replaced by Dutch manager Louis van Gaal in 1997.

Managerial career

In September 2000 Mourinho was appointed manager of the Portuguese club Benfica. However, his tenure lasted only three months, as his demand for a contract extension was refused by new club president Manuel Vilarinho. Mourinho then managed the Portuguese club União de Leiria in 2001. In January 2002 Mourinho took over the reins at FC Porto in his first long-term role; his tenure would last 127 games over 30 months, during which he led the club to win the Portuguese Primeira Liga (top tier of the national domestic league) in the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, the Portuguese Cup (knockout competition) and the UEFA Cup (later the Europa League) in the 2002–03 season, and the Portuguese Super Cup (competition played between reigning league and cup winners) and the UEFA Champions League in the 2003–04 season.

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In 2004 he signed with the Premier League club Chelsea for an annual salary of more than £4 million, at the time becoming one of the highest-earning managers in the world. Mourinho helped Chelsea win two Premier League titles (2004–05 and 2005–06) and the Football Association Cup (domestic knockout competition) in 2006–07. He quit midway through the 2007–08 season following disagreements with club owner Roman Abramovich.

His next coaching gig was with the Italian club Inter Milan for the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons. There he won the Serie A (top-tier domestic Italian league) and an Italian Super Cup (knockout competition featuring reigning league and domestic cup champions) in 2008–09, as well as a continental treble in the 2009–10 season—in which Inter won the Serie A, the Italian Cup (domestic knockout tournament), and the UEFA Champions League in the same year.

In 2010 Mourinho was appointed manager of Real Madrid, becoming the 11th person to have the role in seven years. His three-year tenure featured no European silverware, though the club won two domestic cups (the Spanish Cup in 2010–11 and the Spanish Super Cup in 2012–13) and one La Liga (Spanish top-tier domestic league) title in 2011–12. He left the club at the end of the 2012–13 season.

In 2013 Mourinho returned to Chelsea as manager for a second time and led the team to another Premier League title and a League Cup (another English knockout tournament) in the 2014–15 season. He left the club midway through a disastrous 2015–16 season, later managing Manchester United (2016–18; won the Europa League, League Cup, and FA Community Shield in 2016–17), Tottenham Hotspur FC (2019–21), the Rome-based AS Roma (2021–24; won the Europa Conference League in 2021–22), the Turkish club Fenerbahçe (2024–25), and the Portuguese team Benfica (2025–26). In June 2026 Mourinho was appointed Real Madrid manager for a second time.

Controversies

Mourinho has been involved in his fair share of conflicts, both on and off the football pitch. He has butted heads with other managers, criticized players and referees, and clashed with the media.

• Friction with counterparts: Mourinho has not shied away from criticizing his fellow managers. He called Arsène Wenger, then the manager of the Premier League club Arsenal, a “voyeur” in 2005 and a “specialist in failure” in 2014. Mourinho also developed a long-running rivalry with Pep Guardiola during the latter’s managerial stints with FC Barcelona and Manchester City FC. In August 2011, during a Spanish Super Cup match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, Mourinho was involved in an on-field brawl between both teams and appeared to poke Barcelona assistant manager Tito Vilanova in the eye. In October 2018, while managing Manchester United in a tense clash against Chelsea, Mourinho had to be restrained from attacking Chelsea coach Marco Ianni, who celebrated in front of the United bench after his team’s Ross Barkley scored an equalizing goal late in the match.
• Criticism of referees and officials: Mourinho has been repeatedly fined and ejected from matches for criticizing referees and football authorities. In 2010 Mourinho instructed Real Madrid players Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos to deliberately commit “tactical fouls” and receive second yellow cards in a Champions League group-stage match against Ajax so that they could serve their suspensions before the knockout rounds. UEFA sanctioned him and the team for the tactic.
• Disputes with players: Mourinho has been involved in several well-publicized clashes with players he has coached, including forward Mario Balotelli at Inter Milan, club captain Iker Casillas at Real Madrid, midfielder Paul Pogba and defender Luke Shaw at Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur attacker Dele Alli.
• Eva Carneiro incident: Mourinho and Chelsea faced widespread criticism for their treatment of the club’s medical staff following an incident during Chelsea’s opening Premier League fixture in the 2015–16 season. The manager castigated first-team doctor Eva Carneiro and club physiotherapist Jon Fearn for treating Chelsea player Eden Hazard during the match. Under the laws of the game, any player who needed medical treatment had to leave the pitch and wait for the referee’s permission to rejoin the match. Because goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had been sent off earlier, Hazard’s treatment reduced Chelsea to nine players. Carneiro was subsequently removed from first-team duties. She later left Chelsea and filed legal claims against the club and Mourinho, which were settled in 2016.
• Vinícius Júnior racism row: In February 2026, during a UEFA Champions League match between Real Madrid and Mourinho’s Benfica, Real Madrid player Vinícius Júnior was involved in an on-field verbal altercation with Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni. During the spat Prestianni covered his mouth with his jersey to prevent the possibility of anyone reading his lips. Following the heated exchange, Vinícius accused Prestianni of racially abusing him, and the latter was punished with a six-match ban for homophobic conduct; witnesses stated that Prestianni had admitted to making a homophobic comment rather than a racist one against Vinícius. While commenting on the incident, Mourinho was condemned for suggesting that an earlier goal celebration from Vinícius might have provoked Prestianni. Because of this incident, FIFA introduced a new rule at the 2026 FIFA World Cup that would permit referees to show a red card to players who cover their mouths while confronting opponents on the field or sidelines during matches. The rule was passed to prevent the concealment of discriminatory, racist, and abusive language during such encounters.

Other ventures

Several books have been written about José Mourinho, focusing on both his life and his management style. José Mourinho: Made in Portugal, an official biography written by Luís Lourenço, was published in 2004. An unofficial biography, José Mourinho, o vencedor: de Setúbal a Stamford Bridge (“José Mourinho, the Winner: From Setúbal to Stamford Bridge”) by Joel Neto, was also released in 2004; Mourinho unsuccessfully attempted to block its publication in court.

Mourinho served as an analyst for the Russian news channel RT during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. In 2019 he joined Sky Sports as an expert, coincidentally making his first appearance to analyze a match between his two former clubs Manchester United and Chelsea.