If there is one stadium that represents both Jose Mourinho and Inter, apart from San Siro, it is the Bernabeu. There are plenty of storylines surrounding Tuesday's Champions League opener between Real Madrid and Inter, which will kick off the 2026–27 league phase at the iconic stadium. This is the first time that Jose Mourinho faces Inter outside Italy (he has of course faced them in Serie A during his time with Roma), the team he coached from 2008 to 2010, winning the Treble and the much awaited UEFA Champions League trophy for the first time in 45 years.
The Bernabeu is where Inter and Mourinho made history in 2010, when the current Inter coach Cristian Chivu started as left back in the final played and won against Bayern Munich with the brace scored by Diego Milito. When Inter won in 2010, Mourinho didn't go back to Milan to celebrate with the fans, he instead signed with Real Madrid for the first time. Sixteen years later, history repeats itself.
Mourinho has returned to the Blancos and will kick off their European campaign against Inter, and his former player Chivu, at the Bernabeu -- a place like no other. The Portuguese coach knows it's a special place, as he told Sky Italy ahead of the game. "The Bernabeu is now my stadium, but it has been my stadium since 2010.
It will always be an iconic stadium for Inter", he said. This game is the perfect opportunity to take a trip down memory lane and look back at the Portuguese coach's career and the players he has managed since he began coaching in 2000. Let's take a look at the ten best players Mourinho has coached throughout his career.
With any list spanning such a long career we had to make some cuts to make it manageable. First, we're excluding the current Real Madrid squad, Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior are obviously two of the best players Mourinho has ever overseen, but their chapter under Mourinho has yet to be written. Similarly this is about how important their time under Mourinho specifically was.
That's why Harry Kane isn't here. Kane's greatness exists despite his time under Mourinho at Tottenham, not because of it. The Belgian probably enjoyed the best spell of his career under the Portuguese coach at Chelsea, producing not only 42 goals and 31 assists in 144 appearances across three seasons with Mourinho, but also winning the Premier League Player of the Year award in 2015.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
