As he fades into utter insignificance – a failure wherever he chooses to take his monumental ego and tedious bleating – it seems that the vials of poison are all that Jose Mourinho has left.
From Manchester, to Tottenham to Roma, to Fenerbahce, these past 10 years, this narcissistic, self-absorbed individual, interested only in how he might look, has been football management’s ultimate con artist, obscuring his professional failings by setting bombs off and manufacturing controversies.
Some of us who have seen this pattern down the years now see it for what it is. A monumental distraction strategy. ‘The Special One?’ The suggestion would be a joke if the man were not such an indelible stain on the sport we love.
But after another defeat in Lisbon on Tuesday night, Mourinho surpassed himself, taking football down into the swamp with comments which tell us that he and his vastly extravagant tastes must never be permitted to darken British football’s doors again.
When Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior said he heard Benfica’s Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni direct a racist remark at him, leading to the players leaving the field under UEFA protocols, you looked for leadership from the individuals on the scene whose word carries strength in football. What ensued from Mourinho was a disgrace. A tide of bile, turning the blame onto the young Brazilian, in which Mourinho suggested that the exuberance of his celebrations after scoring a goal from the Gods put him at blame.
Asked if the Brazilian had incited the home support to throw bottles at him, Mourinho said: ‘Yes, I believe so. Unfortunately he was not just happy to score that astonishing goal. When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.’ This from the manager who has made a career out of extravagant and inflammatory celebrations before opposition fans.
When Vinicius Junior said he heard Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni direct a racist remark at him, you looked for leadership. What ensued from Jose Mourinho was a disgrace
Mourinho suggested that the exuberance of Vinicius’ celebrations put him at blame
This from the manager who has made a career out of extravagant and inflammatory celebrations
No one asked Mourinho to assign blame or question his own player in the febrile aftermath of Benfica’s 1-0 defeat. What Prestianni whispered into his opponent’s ear under the cover of his jersey is for an investigation to establish.
Though the defence from one of the Benfica players that it was a homophobic remark – ‘f****t’, not ‘monkey’ – tells us something about the kind of individuals we are discussing, here.
But when we looked for a degree of empathy, maturity and the message that racism is intolerable in football, Mourinho offered nothing less than filth. A diatribe, in which he approached the player and told him that Benfica have African-born Eusebio among their legends, so are collectively incapable of an act of racist intent.
‘I told him that the biggest person in the history of this club was black,’ said Mourinho. ‘The last thing this club is, is racist.’
The images of Mourinho, decked out in his high-end gear, screaming into the young player’s ear at the end of that dreadful night, were bad enough.
But the intellectually challenged suggestion that Vinicius had somehow confected or imagined the claims was wretched, sullying the reputation of football and of the club whose field Eusebio graced.
One can only imagine how the great man – who fought against racism and racial prejudice all his life before his death in 2014 – would have made of this jumped up little multi-millionaire using him as cover.
Racism, Eusebio once said, ‘is everyone’s fight and it must be fought daily. Professional players are respected around the world, they are listened to. With this fame and influence comes responsibility.’ A message unrecognisable to Mourinho, whose conduct should certainly not surprise us.
The intellectually challenged suggestion that Vinicius had somehow confected or imagined the claims was wretched, sullying the reputation of football
The defence from one of the Benfica players that it was a homophobic remark – ‘f****t’, not ‘monkey’ – tells us something about the kind of individuals we are discussing, here
Eusebio, the greatest icon in Benfica’s history, scores the opening goal in the 1963 European Cup final at Wembley against AC Milan
I recall the occasion when Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger was subjected to monkey noises from a Spurs fan in 2019, during Mourinho’s utterly joyless time at the helm of the north London club.
Mourinho couldn’t help himself, piling into an attack on the Chelsea defender’s supposed gamesmanship with considerably more zeal than anything he could muster in the fight against bigotry. Nowhere was there a sense of moral authority about the ‘alleged racism’, as he carefully put it that day. It was ‘only one fan’, he pointed out, when someone asked for his message in the light of that afternoon’s events.
Benfica proceeded to disgrace themselves on Wednesday, posting an image on social media in an attempt to imply that Vinicius was too far away from Prestianni to have heard any abuse. Proof, if any were needed, of how the toxicity of a man like Mourinho is all-polluting.
Kylian Mbappe made a point of going to the journalists in the mixed zone to say that he heard Prestianni direct the same racist remark at Vinicius several times and that some Benfica players heard it. Prestianni denied the accusation and said Vinicius misheard him.
Mourinho had done all his talking by then. There are still clubs in world football who are entranced by him and there has even been talk of him going back to Real Madrid this summer. Tuesday night’s events have surely put paid to that. He is a pariah. A foul-mouthed failure whom no modern, self-respecting club should touch.
