How the Real Madrid squad fits Mourinho’s mentality
Mourinho’s fit at Real Madrid: a new team with two key issues. These are the possible continuity of Carvajal and Vinicius after the Prestianni situation.
Real Madrid has scoured the coaching market in search of the right person to lead its next project and has made its decision: José Mourinho will be the next manager. The Portuguese coach is not currently enjoying his best spell on the sidelines. The level of the teams he has managed has declined, and he is now at Benfica, far from the elite of European football. However, he still has the confidence of Florentino Pérez, and Real Madrid is looking to the example of Carlo Ancelotti, who also returned to the club after managing a second-tier side like Everton, only to deliver two more Champions League titles before departing to coach Brazil.
But Mourinho is not Ancelotti. He has a very different and much stronger personality, one that can easily create conflict within a dressing room. Real Madrid knows this well, as Mourinho left the club in 2013 with several unresolved issues, particularly with many of the team’s key players. The most notable dispute was with Iker Casillas, whom he benched and effectively sidelined.
There were others as well. Pepe was also pushed aside after siding with Casillas during the conflict. Sergio Ramos clashed with Mourinho on several occasions, particularly when the defender tried to support Mesut Özil, who had come under criticism from the Portuguese manager. Even Cristiano Ronaldo eventually ended up on bad terms with Mourinho, despite sharing both nationality and agent with him.
No tengo ningún problema con Mourinho. Me parece un gran profesional. No le quiero en el @realmadrid . Creo que otros entrenadores estarían mejor capacitados para entrenar en el club de mi vida. Opinión personal. Nada mas.
— Iker Casillas (@IkerCasillas) May 12, 2026
Mourinho moved to Chelsea, and that same summer in 2013, the Blues faced Real Madrid in a preseason friendly in the United States. The tension was unmistakable. Real Madrid has rarely approached a friendly with such intensity: they won 3-1, and every goal was celebrated as though it were a title-winning moment.
There is, however, one factor working in Mourinho’s favour: none of the players from the 2012-13 squad remain at the club. The last to leave were Nacho, who moved to Saudi Arabia in 2024, and Modric, who departed for Milan in 2025. Mourinho has no unfinished business with the current squad and, in fact, already knows some of the players from previous spells together. Thibaut Courtois, for example, played under him at Chelsea, while Dean Huijsen briefly worked with Mourinho before the Portuguese coach was dismissed by Roma.
Still, it will not be an entirely smooth arrival. There was initially the possibility of two sensitive issues, but Dani Carvajal ultimately will not renew his contract. The captain first encountered Mourinho as a Castilla youth player during the 2011-12 season, the last reserve side to earn promotion to Segunda División.
Although many saw Carvajal as a player destined for the first team, Mourinho never gave him his debut, a situation that ultimately forced his move to Bayer Leverkusen before Madrid brought him back a year later. “I left without making my first-team debut. For me, it was sad. I saw Sarabia, Morata, Álex, Nacho… They had all debuted. They had all been given their chance. And I hadn’t. It was painful, after ten years at Madrid, not to have played a single minute,” he said years later in a report for Real Madrid TV.
Mou-Vini relationship: under the microscope
That potential conflict has now disappeared, with Carvajal leaving before Mourinho arrives. The real issue the Portuguese coach will have to confront is far more recent and will require careful handling: Vinicius Jr. and the fallout from the incident involving Gianluca Prestianni during this season’s Champions League match between Benfica and Real Madrid.
In short, Vinicius accused the Argentine of calling him a “monkey”, an allegation that led to Prestianni being provisionally suspended for the return leg. UEFA ultimately handed the Benfica player a six-match ban, not for racist abuse, as there was no evidence to support that accusation, but for using a homophobic slur, which he admitted to.
Up to that point, Mourinho had remained relatively neutral. But after the match, he not only defended his player, he also accused Vinicius of being provocative because of the way he celebrated his spectacular goal: “You score an out-of-this-world goal, so why celebrate like that? Why is he acting silly in the corner? It’s always the same thing, in so many stadiums, always with the same guy... Something’s not right. Vinicius tells me one thing, and Prestianni tells me another. I want to stay balanced.”
In the days that followed, despite receiving heavy criticism around the world, including in Portugal, Mourinho refused to back down. And after Prestianni’s final suspension was confirmed, he doubled down once again: “If I had been in the stands, I would have applauded too. He’s had a good season, he’s done a fantastic job.”
For Vinicius, the fight against racism in football is deeply personal and central to his identity. Rebuilding that relationship may well become Mourinho’s first major challenge at Real Madrid.
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