"Benfica is a giant club"

INTERVIEW

José Mourinho, Benfica coach, gave an interview to UEFA in which he discussed his return to the Champions League, coaching a “giant” club, precisely against Chelsea – a team he managed on two occasions and with which he made history – on Tuesday, September 30, on matchday 2 of the league phase at Stamford Bridge in London.

NEW CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FORMAT

"New things always need some time for approval or for the denial that it is a change for the better. I am still studying it, I am still at a stage where I cannot say that I liked the first format better or that I like this one better. It is different. Last year, I played this format in the Europa League, and I prefer to say that it is innovative. At the same time, what is innovative is also a little strange, in the sense that you only play one game against a team; when you only play one game, there is that frustration of: I only play away, I would like to play at home; or if I play at home, I would like to play away. Or it's not fair that, in a ranking among so many teams, I'm in this ranking, but I haven't played against a team that's ahead of me. It's a little strange. But it's funny because it also allows you to play against opponents, in this case, eight different opponents, right at the beginning. We have to adapt. That thing about how many points are needed to achieve a certain type of goal is also not very clear, very fixed, there is no target. There isn't really a target where you can say: OK, I'll get 10 points and I'll qualify in the top 8 or the bottom 8. It's difficult. I think it's a competition you have to enjoy, you have to take it game by game, and then, at the end, we will see"

RETURN TO BENFICA

"Being back at Benfica means being back at a giant club. I have been fortunate in my career to have played for many giants—Real Madrid, Inter, Manchester United, Chelsea. I have played for a number of giants, and returning to a giant is not only important socially, but also historically. Benfica is a giant. And in that sense, a giant club, giant responsibility, giant expectations, everything is giant, but it's the kind of challenge I need. My life has pretty much always been like this, and fundamentally that's what it is, the chance to work again at a club that I like to call a giant."

MATCH AGAINST CHELSEA

"It has happened to me many times, including when I left FC Porto. My first European game with Chelsea was Chelsea against FC Porto. With Inter, I played countless times against Barcelona—I had also been at Barcelona, it's something that happens to me. With Fenerbahçe, I played against Manchester United, I played against Benfica, it's something that happens to me. I consider that I have the ability, for 90 minutes, to completely forget where I am, who I'm playing with, what city I'm in, this stadium was mine... For 90 minutes, I can do that. Now, I admit that what comes before is a little different, and when the game is over, especially when you're still at that club, in that stadium, when you still have people from your time there—sometimes they're not even players anymore because generations change, but the staff, the people you used to spend your days with—obviously the human feeling is different. Going to Chelsea-Benfica now is certainly not the same as going to Arsenal-Benfica; they are completely different in that respect."

THE SAME FEELING AS ALWAYS

"I think it's in our nature, and I think it's the ability to realize if we ever change. Because if one day I feel less pleasure in getting up early to come to work, if one day I feel less joy in winning a game, if one day I feel less sadness in losing a game, if something changes, it's a red light that goes on. As long as that light doesn't come on, I think it's in our nature. Perhaps it is because we have this nature that we have achieved so much in the past, and I believe it is with this nature that we will continue until the end. I remember, for example, a Champions League game between Manchester United and Real Madrid—I was at Real Madrid, and Sir Alex was at Manchester United—where I was in his office before the game, and I asked him: 'Sir Alex, does this change over time? In the sense that, before a game of that magnitude, the tension, the adrenaline rush. And he said to me: ‘No, it doesn't change, it's the same until the end.’ That must have been in 2012, 2013, more than 10 years ago, and my feeling hasn't changed, that is, there are no red lights, I'm still the same."

COACH JOSÉ MOURINHO – 25-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

"I think I'm a better coach today than I was before. I think any coach who is critical, who thinks a lot, who analyzes their experiences a lot... I think a coach gets better with accumulated experience. The feeling of déjà vu is remarkable, it prepares you for what is coming and that is déjà vu, that you have already been in the same or a similar situation. I feel stronger, I feel like a much better coach than before. As a person, your DNA is the same, you are born with it and you die with it. I think a coach is born and dies with the same DNA, there's no chance of that changing. But as a person, there are differences. The fundamental difference I recognize in myself is that, perhaps, in the beginning I thought more about myself, and I've changed in a way that, I don't know, I feel more altruistic, I feel that I'm in football more to help others than to help myself. I'm more focused on helping my players than thinking about what will happen to me in a year, two or three years from now. I'm thinking more about the club, I'm thinking more about the fans' happiness than about myself. And I think it's also a natural change that doesn't detract from me as a coach, but as a person it gives me a side... that I like to live with that different side. I remain the same, but one thing is to go looking for conflict, to deliberately seek it out, and another thing is when conflict appears in front of you, or comes to you. If conflict appears in front of me, I fight it. If conflict comes to me, there's a clash. Now, when I go looking for conflict, I confess that emotional stability helps us to have a different kind of profile."

MEMORABLE MEMORY

"I would say it was the first trophy I won. The first championship I won. I think that, like many things in life, the first time has a different meaning. After that, it becomes a responsibility, because when you do something important, the focus is there, and people always expect more of the same. But I think that, more than the scale of that first competition—which wasn't even the Champions League or the Europa League, it was simply the Portuguese Championship—the first time you feel “I won” is powerful."

A PART OF THE WHOLE

"I never felt like a genius. I never felt... Provocative, maybe a little, but hell, never. But I never felt like a genius. I always felt that I obviously had natural abilities, and that I acquired them to be a good coach, as great players surely feel. There are games in my career where I felt ‘I won’. I was the one who won. I won this game. I feel it. Sometimes I feel it. Because sometimes you have clicks, you have decisions, you have strategies, sometimes before the game, but sometimes during the game. Those that mainly occur during the game, and that completely change the nature of the game, make me feel ‘this is mine, this part of me’. But I never felt like a genius. I always felt part of a group, I always felt that the players were more important than me, I always felt that I was there to help them, and not to be the center and core of the situation. I never felt that."

THE PERCEPTION OF OTHERS

"It's something I can't control. Not long ago, people were saying that, in the last few years of my career, I hadn't won as many titles as I had in the past. OK, that's true, but how many coaches in Europe have reached two European finals in the last five years? It's not the last 25 years, it's the last five. In the last five years, I've reached two European finals. Who else has reached two European finals? Not many, maybe two or three other coaches. So sometimes people judge me by my achievements rather than the reality of the moment. But that's their problem, not mine."

WINNER, ALWAYS A WINNER

"[Did setbacks help along the way?] I really don't consider it a setback, because... I'm leaving Chelsea after winning my third Premier League title, after winning my fourth League Cup, and I'm leaving. I'm leaving Manchester United after winning the Europa League, after winning the FA Cup, after finishing second in the league, after winning the Super Cup. I'm leaving Tottenham after taking Tottenham to a Cup final. I'm leaving Roma after winning the Europa Conference League and taking Roma to a second consecutive final, in this case in the Europa League. The only club I left feeling that ‘history wasn't made here’ was recently at Fenerbahçe, but that's a reality that's a little out of step with what we're used to. I don't feel like it's a setback."

"MUSEUM IS HISTORY" – OUTSIDE OF EVERYDAY LIFE

"Success? I have a room at home where I keep replicas and some medals and some jerseys, and it's a museum. I always say ‘a museum is history’. History is untouchable, but it's not part of my everyday life, it's not part of my daily routine, it's not part of my present, it's not part of my future, not at all. Who I am today is who I am today, not what I did in the past. I'm judged by what I do today, my motivation is what I do and what I want to do, not what I've done. I don't have much time to reflect, nor do I want to reflect. Maybe one day I'll have time to do so, but right now I don't have time, nor is it part of my mindset. I always say, “They can steal everything from me, but no one can steal the history I've made.” But that's it. When you're active, when you work, when you have ambitions, what you've done doesn't count. I don't believe that the great players who are still playing, or even at the end of their careers, think much about what they were, what they had done. After they stop playing, then yes. After they stop playing, I believe they have time to realize what they have done."

MANAGING MOMENTS AND BALANCES

"Sometimes we don't enjoy what we achieve as much as we should, but then we continue to suffer so much from setbacks, from things we don't do... The other day, even in conversation with my staff, I said we have to start... not in a crazy way, of course, but we have to enjoy the good things a little more, because then, when bad things happen, there's no way to escape. They grab us, failure grabs us and won't let us escape. We are forced to sleep poorly after the game we lost, we are forced to wake up feeling bad the next day, we are forced to want to be isolated and not contact people. We cannot escape that. If we cannot escape that, when things go well, we have to enjoy it a little more, that's for sure. The life of a player and coach is the best life in the world until the game. Then, the game is, let's say, ecstasy. And after the game comes the joy of victory, the frustration of defeat. Usually, we don't get to enjoy the joy of victory... or we immediately think about the next game, and we don't have time to truly enjoy it. But in the moment of defeat, it doesn't escape us, we stay with it for a while."