Do we like José Mourinho?
Our score: 4 out of 10. No campaigning against anyone, plus some real kindness, but a clumsy record on race, a filmed slur and a tax case keep him in the middle.
Mourinho is the manager who made the swagger a brand. He won the Champions League with Porto, then league titles with Chelsea, and the 2016-17 Europa League and 2021-22 Conference League later on. His last league title was Chelsea's in 2014-15, and his time since has been patchy, with plenty of drama.
The latest chapter is the return to Real Madrid, where he left under a cloud in 2013. Club president Florentino Pérez brought him back in June after a season with no major trophy, and the job is to calm a squad marked by infighting. Beating Barcelona away last weekend was a strong start.
The ugliest recent stoush came in February at Benfica. Real Madrid's Vinícius alleged racial abuse from a Benfica player, who denies it. Mourinho said Eusébio was Black, said the club isn't racist, and suggested something happens in every stadium Vinícius plays in. Kick It Out called the remarks gaslighting, and Thierry Henry and Clarence Seedorf criticised him too.
It wasn't the first time race came up. In February 2025, as Fenerbahçe boss, he said Galatasaray's bench were “jumping like monkeys”, and Galatasaray accused him of racist statements and promised a criminal complaint. The Turkish federation banned and fined him, and a Portuguese report says prosecutors later found no crime to pursue.
On LGBTQ+ matters the record is thin but not clean. In 2012 he was filmed using a Spanish gay slur while inspecting a pitch in Russia, and LGBT sports groups called on UEFA to act. The article carries no response from him, and no campaigning against any group turned up. On the planet or public health, nothing turned up either.
On treating people well, the record cuts both ways. In 2019 he accepted a one-year sentence for defrauding Spain's tax office of 3.3 million euros, swapped for fines. A former Chelsea doctor's claims of discrimination against him were settled in 2016: Chelsea apologised unreservedly, and his own statement thanked her for her work.