Real Madrid

Before becoming “The Special One” - José Mourinho’s unlikely rise to football’s elite

Long before becoming one of soccer’s most successful managers, José Mourinho was preparing tactical reports for his father while still a teenager. When he realized he wouldn’t make it as a player, he turned his full attention to coaching.

ANTONIO COTRIM

Marco Ruiz David Nelson

Update: Jul 28th, 2026 04:14 EDT

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“He used to watch games and prepare scouting reports when I was coaching Vitória Setúbal,” Félix Mourinho, the father of the now two-time Real Madrid manager, once told AS.

“He helped me a lot in several games, even though he was just a kid. I paid him as a joke, a small bonus every time we won. I wanted him to study because only a few people make it in soccer.”

That story offers a glimpse into how Mourinho the coach was born. Tactics fascinated “The Special One” from an early age, even as he pursued a professional playing career of his own.

Father and son also shared the same soccer roots.

Both came through Os Belenenses, the historic club from Lisbon’s Belém district. Once one of Portugal’s biggest clubs, Belenenses inaugurated Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in 1947 and returned for the stadium’s 25th-anniversary celebrations, a match that also served as Francisco Gento’s farewell. Félix Mourinho started that game.

He became one of the club’s standout players, and the Mourinho family’s bond with Belenenses remained so strong that when Félix died, José requested the club’s flag be draped over his father’s coffin.

Mourinho’s brief playing career

During the 1980s, José Mourinho also represented Os Belenenses after coming through its youth system, as well as those of Amora and Rio Ave.

He even enjoyed one unforgettable professional debut.

On Nov. 7, 1982, Mourinho made his first-team debut in a Portuguese Cup game against Vila Franca dos Açores. He entered with Belenenses already leading 8-0 and scored a hat trick as the match ended in an extraordinary 17-0 victory.

Before becoming “The Special One” - José Mourinho’s unlikely rise to football’s elite — After spells with Rio Ave and Belenenses in Portugal, he decided to pursue coaching, first as an assistant before becoming a head coach.

Overall, Mourinho played for seven seasons between 1980 and 1987, representing Rio Ave, Os Belenenses, Sesimbra and Comércio e Indústria. He made 94 appearances across those clubs before reaching an honest conclusion about his own ability.

“I’m an intelligent person,” Mourinho later admitted. “I knew I wasn’t going any higher. The second division was my level.”

How did Mourinho turn to coaching?

That realization led him back to the tactical work he had begun alongside his father.

Mourinho studied physical education at university, specializing in sports methodology, before earning his UEFA coaching license.

His coaching career began while he was still playing.

Ahead of the 1985-86 season, Comércio e Indústria invited him to join the club as a player. Mourinho accepted on one condition: he also wanted to coach one of the youth teams.

He took charge of the youth side the following season and enjoyed immediate success.

Mourinho led the team to the Setúbal district championship, defeating Vitória FC, the region’s dominant club, with a squad largely made up of players previously released by Vitória.

The achievement caught the attention of one of Portuguese soccer’s most respected figures.

The mentor who changed everything for Mourinho

Legendary Portuguese player Manuel Fernandes, closely associated with Sporting CP and Vitória, became Mourinho’s first major supporter.

Fernandes invited him to join Estrela da Amadora as an assistant coach and match analyst.

Mourinho’s meticulous approach to preparation and tactics was unlike anything Portuguese soccer had seen before.

It was also Fernandes who introduced Mourinho to Bobby Robson at Porto.

Robson was immediately impressed by the young coach’s attention to detail and later brought him to Barcelona.

From 1996 to 2000, Mourinho worked at Barcelona as an assistant coach and translator, first under Robson and later under Louis van Gaal.

The advice that shaped Mourinho’s career

Looking back during an interview on Radio Renaixença’s Jogo de Palavra, Mourinho revealed that he almost left Barcelona much earlier.

“I was at Barcelona when Braga contacted me about becoming their head coach,” Mourinho recalled.

“I desperately wanted to take that step, but my father stopped me. He said, ‘Tem juízo’ — ‘Use your head.’ He told me my opportunity would come, whether it was Braga, Vitória Guimarães or another Portuguese club, but that I should make the most of my time at Barcelona and learn what it was like to work with world-class players. Thankfully, I listened to him.”

Not long afterward, in the summer of 2000, the opportunity his father had predicted finally arrived.

Benfica offered Mourinho his first major managerial job, launching a coaching career that would later take him to União de Leiria, Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Roma and Fenerbahçe.

It was at Benfica that Mourinho’s managerial journey truly began—a remarkable career that has now spanned more than a quarter of a century and has brought him back to Real Madrid once again in pursuit of another UEFA Champions League title.