This is the first article that I am writing not from the perspective of a football writer/journalist or an aspiring one, but from the lens of a lifelong Real Madrid fan, which I have been for over a decade now.
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Since supporting Real Madrid, this is one of the lowest I’ve seen Real Madrid reach, especially given the expectations of a half-decade of dominance in the new era of Galáctico signings. A problem arose of player power dynamics, which has been a key issue in how the club is being run and has undermined their season tremendously.
With being deplored by the player power dynamics alongside poor team cohesion and an unbalanced squad, this has seen Los Merengues, the 6th most decorated club in world football and the most in Europe, embark on back-to-back trophyless seasons for the first time since 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 and their 6th this century. It isn’t further from the truth that serious changes need to be made, and it has to start with the manager.
The Special One to reignite Madrid?
According to José Félix Díaz of Diario AS (which first broke the Mourinho news), José Mourinho is one of the candidates considered for the Real Madrid managerial role alongside Max Allegri, Didier Deschamps, Jürgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino and Julian Nagelsmann after the Special One was offered to the club by his agent, Jorge Mendes.
The outlet also reported that Mourinho has maintained a good relationship with Florentino Perez since leaving the role in his third season back in 2013, after which he returned to England as Chelsea’s head coach.
Moreover, the next day, Marco Ruiz of the Diario AS released a separate publication and doubled down, stating Mbappe liked a post on Instagram about the special one’s return to the Spanish capital, but the special one remains focused on the Benfica project he’s currently working on.
There were also reports about the clause in the Portuguese tactician’s contract that allows him to leave for free for 10 days between their last game on the 16th/17th of May and a few days before June. After that, Madrid will have to pay a “merely symbolic” amount of money in order to buy out his contract, as he has a year left on his Benfica deal.
Speaking of contracts, AS also reports that Benfica president Rui Costa is sceptical about offering him an extension beyond this season, as he’ll want to assess Benfica’s season in general before making up his mind on a new deal.
The outlet lastly made mention of how Jose Mourinho responded when asked about him being at Lisbon next season due to the rumours of the Real Madrid managerial position in a recent press conference, to which he basically replied by saying, “Can you guarantee that you’ll be on the Portuguese public broadcast next year?” This is classic Jose, and he decides to keep his cards close to his chest. It’s a likely move, as he refused to deny such claims, but I might take Jose’s words for it.
In an article, Sky Sports confirmed that Jose Mourinho is at the top of the list of potential managerial candidates for Florentino Perez and Real Madrid next season, but no formal approach has been made yet. However, the former Real Madrid manager is focused on securing Champions League football for next season whilst keeping an unbeaten record in the league.
Fabrizio Romano also confirmed this on his X account (formerly Twitter) and made an 8-minute video about it on his YouTube account. Fabrizio stated that Florentino Perez personally wants Jose Mourinho to be the manager. Fabrizio also stated that Benfica are happy with Mourinho and would want to keep him beyond this season.
David Ornstein also highlighted the fact that Perez personally wants Jose Mourinho at the helm of Real Madrid.
The Pros
Mourinho to Real Madrid isn’t a bad thing, as many Madrid fans think it is, as there are some good sides to it and also a few mishaps, and I will explore both, but I will start with the good side.
Winning Mentality
Mourinho possesses a strong winning mentality and is known to do anything to secure a win, even if it means playing a pragmatic style of football, which he has been known for throughout his career.
If you look at this Real Madrid squad, that is exactly what is needed, especially with the young bluds around, which just haven’t resonated with this generation of players. The players could play with Arbeloa anyhow and do things their way, but not under Jose. This is one of the reasons why Mourinho going to Real Madrid could potentially work.
Proven Success at Madrid
Mourinho has also had proven success with Real Madrid, spending 3 seasons at the Bernabéu and winning 3 trophies: the Spanish Cup in his first season (2010/2011) and the league title in his second (2011/2012).
This season was a very iconic season for Real Madrid because they hadn’t won La Liga since the 2007/2008 season, and this Real Madrid side was a real offensive combination in the league, scoring 121 and becoming the first centurions in La Liga before Barcelona equalled that the following season. But the 121 goals scored are still the highest in La Liga history, with the 2016/2017 Barcelona team the closest to breaking that record. That season, Madrid had 3 players in the top 5 of the league’s scoring charts, including Ronaldo, who scored 46 goals in La Liga and 60 in all competitions in 55 games for Real Madrid.
Basically, Mourinho’s set-up that season was a 4-2-3-1 with Marcelo at LB, a CB partnership of Ramos and Pepe, a double pivot of Alonso and Khedira, with Ronaldo (which was the best version of CR7, imo) on the left, the technicality of Di Maria on the right, Ozil’s creativity behind the striker and Benzema/Higuain as the lone striker. When you look at the Madrid squad then and now, there are some similarities among players Arda Güler, Mbappé, and Vinícius.
However, in his final season, the 2012/2013 season, it collapsed as Madrid won only the Spanish Super Cup, finished second in La Liga and lost the Copa del Rey final to fellow Madrid rivals Atletico Madrid. Papa Perez had no choice but to dismiss Mourinho as the manager.
Every Madrid fan will tell you simply that, in those three seasons with Jose, he was the reason and provided the foundation for why Los Merengues won La Décima in 2014 and went on to the three-peat between 2016 and 2018. In general, Mourinho had a memorable time in Spain but was gone by the third season, as he was at most of his other managerial jobs.
Fixing the Ego
As unhinged as it might sound, in mid 2026, Mourinho might just be the solution to the ego problem and player power dynamics at Real Madrid.
Mourinho has the pedigree of managing some of the biggest players in the game and has encountered them, getting the best out of them. Mourinho introduces his pragmatic style of play, where marking is non-negotiable, defending is more compact, and roles are defined.
Mourinho might also be the manager who solves Madrid’s atrocious defending because of his pragmatic style of play, but I don’t really see it undermining Madrid’s attack, given the players the club possesses for quick build-up and transition football.
Cons
Everything that has pros also has cons, other than Pep Guardiola coming to coach your team, but for Mourinho, there are also a few downsides to the managerial rumour, especially if it ends up being a reality.
Tactically Astute
One of the most glaring cons of this move transpiring is that Mourinho’s tactics aren’t the most astute style of play, especially in modern football, and for context, you’re coaching an elite European giant with a rich European heritage
I mean, there’s a reason why Bayern Munich opted for a young Vincent Kompany, who was in charge of Burnley when they got relegated in 19th place, over a two-time Champions League winner.
It has rightfully paid off, translating into them playing one of the beautiful and entertaining styles of football, and it has simply paid off when you look at the numbers their star players are putting up, and they are basking in a historic treble, their third this century.
Other elite clubs like Barcelona, PSG, and even Manchester City play a dominant, pressing, controlling, and flamboyant style of football, which has recently contributed to their success.
I’m not exactly against a pragmatic style of football, unless you’re Jose Bordalas, but Madrid has always been a result-oriented club and seems to care less about the style of play as long as it delivers silverware.
Overall Sackings
Another downside of this fiasco is that Mourinho has been dismissed from his role in the last 6 jobs, dating back to his departure from Real Madrid after the treble season with Inter Milan in 2010.
Since then, he has had some success in coaching teams like Chelsea, winning the Premier League; Manchester United, winning the Europa League, Community Shield and EFL Cup; and Roma, winning the Conference League in his first season and taking them to the Europa League in his second season with Roma, but he was sacked at all these clubs, including Spurs and Fenerbahçe. This brings me to my next point, which will be
Short-term at the club
His recent sackings have also shown that he tends to have a relatively short stint at clubs, which has now created this narrative about his third-season curse, meaning that he doesn’t last more than three seasons at clubs.
The only time he outlasted 3 seasons was during his first stint at Chelsea, from July 2004 to September 2007. This clearly shows that he is simply nothing more than a short-term fix for Los Merengues.
Clashing with big names?
Mourinho is also a manager with a history of clashing with several big players in his career across different clubs he has been to, which eventually distorted the club’s dressing room and led to his demise at the helm.
At Chelsea, he clashed with Samuel Eto’o, William Gallas and Ricardo Carvalho; he went over to Inter and had a falling out with Ricardo Quaresma; going to Real Madrid, he fell out with Pepe and club captain Iker Casillas; the special one went to Manchester United and publicly fell out with Paul Pogba and also other players like Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial; and lastly, at Tottenham, he publicly had a falling out with Danny Rose.
Real Madrid has so many big names, like Mbappé, Vinícius, Bellingham, Valverde, and TAA. If things simply don’t work out, it could become really ugly very quickly.
Lastly, I didn’t want it to become a major point, but the Gianlucca Prestianni fiasco also made the special one look a bit dodgy in his comments to Vinicius, basically giving a reason for Prestianni’s disgusting behaviour. I did write about it, and feel free to give it a read.
Conclusion…
These are my honest thoughts on Jose Mourinho becoming the manager of Real Madrid, and really, it’s a good thing and a bad thing for now. I’m not totally against it happening, but at the same time, it’s not what I ideally want.
He does come in and become a solution to the main problem, which is the player power dynamic problem, but at the same time I really can’t just ignore these flaws like they don’t mean anything, and you can’t ignore the fact that it’ll most likely translate into the performances on the pitch improving because maybe the players buy into the idea, and at the same time it might be shor-lived or the players might even be direct contrasts to the ideas of the special one.