Jose Mourinho Is Back. Can He Be The Special One Again?

Two decades after leaving Portugal with a Champions League winner medal in his pocket, Jose Mourinho is back in his home country.

Benfica, Portugal’s most successful club, appointed the 62-year-old as their new manager on Thursday, just three weeks after he was fired by Turkish giants Fenerbahce after just over a year in charge.

It marks an emotional return for Mourinho, who began his coaching career with the Lisbon giants in 2000, managing 11 matches before resigning.

By the time he left Portugal for England just under four years later, his star was in the ascendency.

As he introduced himself to the English media for the first time, Mourinho famously described himself as the “Special One”.

It was a revealing remark, typical of a man whose confidence bordered on arrogance at times. Crucially, it was also borne out by results.

In two seasons at Porto, Mourinho won two league titles, the UEFA Cup and the Champions League.

Seven league titles across England, Italy and Spain with Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid followed, along with another Champions League crown and seven domestic cups across three countries.

The Europa League and the Europa Conference League have also been added to Mourinho’s trophy cabinet, the former with Manchester United and the latter with Roma.

Is Mourinho still the Special One?

But as he makes his return to Lisbon, the Portuguese’s aura is increasingly fading.

The Europa Conference League in 2022 remains his last trophy and he has been fired from his last three clubs.

In the past 10 years, Mourinho’s best league placement came last season, when he led Fenerbahce to second in the Turkish Super Lig.

But even that could be considered a disappointment as the club had won four consecutive league titles prior to that.

While he could justifiably claim Roma, Tottenham and even Manchester United did not have the best squads in Serie A and the Premier League respectively when he joined, that excuse did not apply in Istanbul.

It would not was in Lisbon either, where Benfica have not finished outside the top three since 2008.

For his part, Mourinho, who faced his new club in the Champions League play-offs last month, maintains the same intensity that has carried him throughout his career.

“I’ve worked at the biggest clubs in the world and none of them made me feel a greater sense of honour, responsibility and motivation than I do today,” he said on Thursday.

“I am hungrier than I was 25 years ago. I feel more alive than ever.”

If the Portuguese has lost some of his shine, the same can be said of Benfica, a club that finds itself drifting.

The Eagles have won one league title over the past six seasons, a veritable drought for a club that claimed five in the previous six campaigns.

After losing consecutive Europa League finals in 2013 and 2014, Benfica have never got past the quarter-finals in the Champions League over the past decade.

Already trailing Porto by five points in the league, albeit with a game in hand, on Tuesday Benfica began their Champions League campaign with a calamitous 3-2 defeat at home to Qarabag.

Two goals to the good after 17 minutes, the Portuguese imploded as the visitors became the first Azerbaijani club to win a match in the league phase/group phase of the competition.

The defeat cost Bruno Lage his job, with the 49-year-old relieved of his duties shortly after the game.

“This has been a hard, heavy week for everyone,” Benfica president Rui Costa said in a press conference.

“It has left a scar. The next coach has to be a winner who puts Benfica back at the level we expect.”

Is Mourinho the man for the job? In the eyes of former Portugal international Helder Postiga, the answer is an emphatic yes.

“It will be great for the game here,” Postiga, who won the UEFA Cup under Mourinho in 2003, told The Guardian.

“Mourinho is more than a man – he’s a global brand. His presence will spark interest and curiosity. Both Benfica and the league will benefit from his exposure.”

Benfica marks emotional return for Mourinho

As was the case 25 years ago, the circumstances surrounding Mourinho’s rival are delicate.

The club’s presidential election are scheduled for next month and Rui Costa, a former Fiorentina and AC Milan midfielder, is under pressure from Joao Noronha Lopes.

The latter attended the Manchester derby on Sunday, amid the thinly-veiled suggestion he would bring Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim back to Lisbon if elected.

Amorim spent a decade at Benfica as a player, before crossing the city divide to manage Sporting for four seasons.

Mourinho’s appointment has temporarily kiboshed those plans, even if the Portuguese’s contract, which runs until 2027, includes a break clause in the summer depending on the outcome of the presidential elections.

“The last few hours were the culmination of four disastrous years,” Noronha Lopes told reporters on Thursday.

“Benfica is a hostage to the decisions of Rui Costa, a president without the capability of deciding the future of the club.”

The parallels with Mourinho’s first spell at Benfica are impossible to ignore.

He had served as Bobby Robson’s assistant manager at Barcelona and then to Louis Van Gaal replaced the former England manager.

Robson wanted Mourinho to be his assistant in Newcastle, while Van Gaal cautioned Mourinho to take the Benfica job only if he were to be made the head coach.

He did so, replacing Jupp Heynckes four weeks into the season, but soon became mired in the kind of confrontation that would signpost his career.

Mourinho went against the Benfica’s wishes as he asked for Carlos Mozer to be his No2 over Jesualdo Ferreira, the club’s preferred choice.

While Benfica made a winning start and trounced local rivals Sporting 3-0 in December 2000, Mourinho’s position became precarious after Joao Vale e Azevedo, who had appointed him, was replaced as president by Manuel Vilarinho.

The latter had vowed to appoint club legend Toni as manager if elected president and Mourinho tested his resolve by demanding a new contract following the win over Sporting only to resign when his request was rejected.

Drama is again rumbling on behind the scenes as Mourinho returns to Lisbon.

On the pitch, reunions with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on September 30 in the Champions League and then away at Porto on October 5 are now box-office events following his appointment.

That is the power Mourinho still retains, the old fire burning as deeply as ever.

“We won’t always win,” he said at his unveiling on Thursday.

“But we won’t lose like we lost two days ago. That isn’t Benfica.”