Jose Mario dos Santos Felix Maurinho aka Jose Maurinho is a coach par excellence. He has made the ordinary sides look extraordinary with his coaching skills. In times when great ex-footballers are looking to embark into the coaching arena Jose is a league apart from. Though he does not have much professional football playing experience but he definitely has the required knowledge of the game to thrust a team to highest glories. According to Maurinho, “I was a good player when I was 14 or 15 years old, but I had two choices once I went to university: I could be an average footballer or an extraordinary coach. I chose the second option." And it is due to this choice that he is held in high esteem by the football fraternity. Many even think of him as the best ever coach.
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| Jose Mario dos Santos Felix Maurinho |
He came to limelight in Portuguese football in 1992 when he worked as a translator for the top foreign coach Sir Bobby Robson at Sporting Club de Portugal. Maurinho also assisted Sir Bobby at clubs such as FC Porto and Barcelona. He started top tier coaching in September 2000 when he was appointed head coach at Benfica.
In January 2002 he replaced Octavio Machado as the coach of Porto. He organized the Porto side just as he wanted – recalling the players on loan (such as Jorge Costa), signing new players (Nuno Valente, Darlei, Paulo Ferreira, Maniche, etc.) and identifying the key players in the present team (such as Deco, Costinha, Helder Postiga, Rocardo Carvalho, and others). In the initial stages different style of coaching adopted by Maurinho drew some scorn. He used to call 20 km jog as “extended aerobic exercises”. In 2003 Maurinho won his first Primiera Liga (Portuguese League) title. In the same year he also won the Portuguese Cup and UEFA Cup beating Celtic. Following season Maurinho tasted more success by winning Portuguese Super Cup and losing marginally to AC Milan in the UEFA Super Cup. His moment of glory with Porto came in 2004 when his side clinched the UEFA Champions League title and on their way they beat formidable opponents such as Manchester United, Deportivo La Coruna, Olympique Lyonnais and AS Monaco (in the final).
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| Maurinho with English Premier League title with Chelsea |
Following his success at Porto he took up the position of head coach at the big spending Chelsea in June 2004. He had many successes with Chelsea including the Premier League title, FA Community Shield and League Cup but the UEFA Champions League title eluded him. After having been at the helm at Chelsea for more than 3 years he decided to leave Chelsea on September 20, 2007. He was quickly seen sitting on the bench of Inter Milan as the head coach there. He won the Serie A and Italian Super Cup titles in his first year itself at Inter. In April 6, 2010 Maurinho became the first manager to take three different teams to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League and in the same month Inter Milan beat the current holders Barcelona to win UEFA Champions League title. This was the second Champions League title win for Jose Maurinho.
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| Maurinho with Champions League Trophy 2010 with Inter Milan |
On May 28, 2010 Maurinho took over the reins at Real Madrid. He won the first trophy in Spanish football when Real Madrid defeated Barcelona in Copa del Rey final. Maurinho is confident that he will be able to clinch the UEFA Champions League title for the third time with his third team – Real Madrid. This would place Jose Maurinho’s name in the history books as there is no other manager to have attained such a feat. And Real Madrid is going great guns in both the Spanish La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. In the Champions they are placed in Group D and they have so far won both their matches, while in the La Liga they have 13 points after 6 matches.
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| As a Coach at Real Madrid |
There is no second thought about his high esteem and coaching talent. Benni McCarthy, one of the former Porto players, praised him as the “best coach” in the world.
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