He built roller coaster storylines, but he also got results. Mourinho went on to win eight league titles across four countries, plus a second Champions League after he defeated a mythical FC Barcelona team in a semifinal that’s still talked about 16 years later. He traveled from club to club at the top of the European game, winning big trophies and flaming out after a few seasons, manufacturing miles of headlines along the way. It all culminated with a three-year stint at Real Madrid, where he faced up to another totemic coach. In the raging heat of _El Clásico_, where Madrid and Barcelona cross swords in football’s foremost rivalry, he and Pep Guardiola starred alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in football’s greatest-ever soap opera.
That also marked the peak of Mourinho’s career. He won a third English Premier League title when he returned to Chelsea for another tumultuous spell, but he gradually drifted away from the clubs competing at the highest level. After a few years at Manchester United and Tottenham in England, he went to Rome, then Istanbul, then Lisbon, and it seemed his time was up on football’s mountaintop—until this month, when he made a sensational return to Real Madrid.
Below, he speaks with _Vanity Fair_ about navigating the noise around his new club's star, [Kylian Mbappé](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/kylian-mbappe-cover-story); his rivalry with Guardiola; his new campaign with Ferragamo; and whether it was always his plan to be the main character. These days, he sounds a bit different: “I don't want to say, ‘I was the one.’ I was one of them.”
_This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity._
**A formative time for you was at Barcelona, where you worked under Bobby Robson. Pep Guardiola was a player there and you two were friends. Back then, when he was the captain and an accomplished player, and you were coming up as a coach—did you look at each other and think, that guy is going to be a top manager?**
Look, there is a very funny picture. I look back to it with great feelings. There is a picture in training: myself, Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique. I was a young assistant. Pep and Luis, they were just players at that time. I was far from where I would arrive. And I believe that Pep and Luis, they were only thinking about their football career and not thinking about their managerial career. Now we are all Champions League winners, and we’ve reached what we reached.
But at that time, we were just trying to do our best in our jobs, to be honest. Of course I could understand that Pep was a very intelligent player, the way he played, the way he read the game. Of course I could understand that Luis was a leader, that Luis was a motivator. I could also feel that. But at that time, you don't think about it, you just think about giving your best.
Mourinho (second row, second from right) was on the Barcelona staff when Guardiola (next to him, right) was a key player for rebellious Catalunya's flagship club.
Shaun Botterill/Getty Images