Thursday 13 March 2014

Continued from last edition: 18 - According to Rui Faria, Mourinho's fitness coach at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and now Real Madrid, the 50-year-old learned a valuable coaching tip when attending a course led by Andy Roxburgh at the Scottish Football Association while he was still coach of the youth team at Vitoria Setubal. Roxburgh emphasised to Mourinho the importance of having your players face away from the sun when talking to them so they would not be blinded by the light. 19 - In 2005 he was selected as the New Statesman's Man of the Year. 20 - Mourinho was fined and given a three-match ban by the Italian Football Association in February 2010 after making a handcuffs gesture towards a camera following the dismissals of two of his Inter players in the first half of a Serie A match against Sampdoria. 21 - The day after winning the Champions League with Inter, Mourinho said he was "sad, as almost for sure it's my last game with Inter." He went on to add: "If you don't coach Real Madrid then you will always have a gap in your career." A week later Real Madrid announced Mourinho as their new coach. 22 - In 2005 he donated a jacket to be auctioned to help raise money for Tsunami Relief and other charities. Organiser Marc Thompson revealed that one bidder paid €25,800 for Mourinho's coat at the fundraiser, which was held at Stamford Bridge. 23 - His favourite actor is Anthony Hopkins, the star of the Hannibal Lecter trilogy. 24 - The age Mourinho ended his playing career, after making 94 appearances during spells at Rio Ave, Belenenses, Sesimbra and Comercio e Industria. 25 - Upon being unveiled at Real Madrid, Mourinho addressed his on-going feud with the club's Liga rivals Barcelona. "If I am hated at Barcelona, it is their problem but not mine. Fear is not a word in my football dictionary," he said. In 24 matches against Barcelona for Chelsea, Inter and Madrid the Portuguese trainer does not have a brilliant record, having won six, drawn eight and lost 10. 26 - Despite his current distaste for the Catalan side, it was not always that way. Mourinho acted as assistant to Bobby Robson and then Louis van Gaal during a three-year spell at the club between 1996-99, and also applied to be coach in 2008 after leaving Chelsea. 27 - The length in pages of the PowerPoint document that Mourinho presented during his unsuccessful interview for the Barcelona job in Lisbon in 2008. 28 - After taking the Porto job in January 2002, Mourinho steered the club to a third place finish in the Primeira Liga, then promised the club's hierarchy that he would "make Porto champions next year." Sure enough, they won the 2002-03 league with a record points tally of 86. 29 - The age he became Sir Bobby Robson's translator at Benfica in 1992. He would go on to work with the former England manager at Porto and then Barcelona. 30 - Mourinho does not have a good relationship with the current Sporting Lisbon coach Jesualdo Ferreira, after the two clashed a number of times during his time in Portugal. One of the birthday boy's most memorable early quotes likened Ferreira to a donkey. "One is a coach with a 30-year career, the other with a three-year one. The one with 30 years has never won anything; the one with three years has won a lot. The one with a 30-year career will be forgotten when he ends it; the one with three could end it right now and he could never be erased from history. This could be the story of a donkey who worked for 30 years but never became a horse." 31 - When asked about how he would work alongside the Chelsea chairman Roman Abramovich when he joined the London-based club in 2004, he famously replied: "I don't have to control Mr Abramovich. He has to control me."

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