José Mourinho in Champions Matchday

on watching the 2012 Champions League final -

“Football is football. Some things are unforeseeable. There aren’t many sports where sometimes the best teams don’t win. That’s a fantastic thing. The fact that Bayern and Chelsea played the final, I felt the sadness in my body for not being there — losing in a semi-final on penalties always leaves a weird taste — but as a man who loves sport, who loves football, it made me very happy that two teams who weren’t expected to be there made it — and they deserved it.”

on Real Madrid’s road to La Decima -

“Nobody else has nine European Cups, but Real Madrid do. But there is no direct way to find this success — it is just working well, playing well, thinking well, planning well and having the desire to win every game.”

on the relationship he has with his players -

“I have no problems to kiss, cry with or kick my players. Everything belongs to the family. I learn this from my family. We are open to being criticised by my kids and the same applies to my players. You must be open to share emotions and ideas.”

At Madrid, in the first training session after a match, the team are confronted with what he calls a “wall of error” where he highlights, with printed stills, a mistake he spotted during their last game. This might sound demotivating but Mourinho balances this with passionate, positive feedback in training. His favourite word in these sessions is “Eso!” — a Spanish word literally translated as “that”, which really means “exactly that!”.