Mourinho is no longer special

During his coaching career, Jose Mourinho led Porto to win the "double" of the 2003 UEFA Cup and 2004 Champions League, won the 2010 Champions League with Inter Milan, helped Man United win the 2017 Europa League and led AS Roma to win the 2022 Europa Conference League.

The winning streak of all 5 European Cup finals with the teams under his command has made the Portuguese coach dreamy when AS Roma reached the final of the Europa League 2022-2023. With another title, he will go down in the history of European football as the "invincible" coach in every final, not to mention surpassing his "senior" Giovanni Trapattoni in the number of times he won the European Cup.

Coach Jose Mourinho directs AS Roma players in the Europa League final in the early morning of June 1. Photo: REUTERS

What made the most individualistic coach proud was gone after the "Wolves of Rome" fell in the final match on the morning of June 1 at the Puskas Arena in Budapest. AS Roma lost to the "king of cups" Sevilla in the penalty shootout after 120 minutes of a 1-1 draw. Jose Mourinho has known defeat in European cup finals and the person who made him feel regret was a colleague who was quite unknown before this season.

Jose Mendilibar reached the top of Europe for the first time as a head coach after just over 2 months leading Sevilla and is the oldest coach to achieve this feat - at the age of 62. Twenty-one years of coaching, Mendilibar's modest career has only revolved around little-known teams in La Liga, of which Sevilla is the brightest name.

Mourinho suffered a heartbreaking first defeat in a European Cup final. He reacted furiously when AS Roma were denied a penalty in the 82nd minute when Fernando handled the ball and received one of 16 yellow cards in the match. He threw the silver medal into the stands to a young fan and waited to meet the referees in the car park, hurling insults at the "men in black" in both English and Italian for a stolen victory.

Jose Mourinho may no longer be a prominent strategist in modern football, but his achievement of taking AS Roma to the Europa League final this season after winning the Conference League last season says a lot.

The Portuguese coach has not changed his coaching philosophy compared to a decade ago, when he and Inter Milan and Real Madrid dominated Europe. His football philosophy remains the same, with only 28% ball possession, or only 1 shot on target compared to 23 from his opponents, as seen in AS Roma's 0-0 draw in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final against Leverkusen this season.

The decline in recent years seemed to have brought Mourinho to the twilight of his career. At 60, Mourinho is no longer as passionate about fighting as before, but football still needs special personalities like him. Calling Mourinho a bridge between modern football and old memories is probably not an exaggeration when many people cannot keep up with the flow of the times.

Mourinho may no longer be AS Roma's head coach after this season, but the defeat in the Europa League final has made fans believe even more how much the capital club needs a coach with Mourinho's personality after a long period of being quiet on the Italian football map.

Fans still have to remember Jose Mourinho because what he is most proud of is not the prestigious trophies but the style of play that is often considered negative and applied to every team under his management. The view that "Winning 10-0, you destroy just one match, but winning ten matches with a score of 1-0, you destroy the whole tournament!" will certainly be recorded in history.

Source