Over the years, Jose Mourinho has worked with some brilliant footballers. At Porto, he won the Champions League with Deco. More honours followed at Chelsea, with Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba often grabbing headlines. Samuel Eto'o was one of many talented men at Inter Milan.
Perhaps most notably, he enjoyed a great deal of success at Real Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo very much the star man. Now 63, Mourinho will return to the Spanish capital and work with some more elite players.
That said, he may have to deal with some problematic characters as well. As Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa have found out, the Bernabeu can produce quite a toxic dressing room when things aren't going well.
Of course, Mourinho has worked with many difficult players in the past, and he's actually gone on record revealing who was the hardest to work with.
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Speaking in 2015, Mourinho was asked by CNN journalist Pedro Pinto to name the ‘most problematic’ player he had worked with in his career to date. Mourinho first replied by saying, “the most problematic [players] were funny."
The name Mario Balotelli then came up as Mourinho accepted he was the most problematic player, although he explained that it made for an entertaining coaching experience. He recalled a story:
“Mario was good fun. I could write a book of 200 pages of my two years in Inter with Mario. But the book would not be a drama, it would be a comedy.
“I remember one in Kazan. We went to Kazan in the Champions League. In that match all my strikers were injured. No Milito, no Eto’o, I was really in trouble and Mario was the only one.
“Mario gets a yellow card in minute 42, 43. So when I go to the dressing room at half-time, I spend 14 minutes of the 15 speaking only for Mario. Mario, I cannot change you. I cannot make a change. I don’t have a striker on the bench.
“Don’t touch anybody. Play only with the ball. When we lose the ball, no reaction. If somebody provokes you, no reaction. If the referee makes a mistake, no reaction. Mario, please.
“Minute 46, red card!”
It wasn't all bad, though, as the pair did win two Serie A titles together at Inter. In total, Balotelli played for Mourinho on 71 occasions, scoring 21 goals and picking up 11 assists.
Balotelli Was Also Chaotic Figure in England at Man City
Mario Balotelli
Fans of English football will know Balotelli well for his time at Manchester City as well as Liverpool. While he won the Premier League and the FA Cup with the Etihad outfit, he's best known for his crazy antics.
Ex-City kitman Les Chapman summed things up with a hilarious tale, recalling. “I used to do tours of the training ground. And I can remember going in the dressing room with the first tour after Mario had left.
"And I said to them, ‘This is Mario’s locker’. I opened the door and about 30 parking tickets fell out! And a wage slip. He’d been fined by the club, that month, £100,000."
A truly one-of-a-kind character in the world of football.