Jose Mourinho is back in the big league, back at Real Madrid and back in the conversation about winning the UEFA Champions League (UCL) again.
But can he really still be special in a football world far removed from the game he once dominated?
Now 63, and without a domestic title or Champions League triumph on his CV for over a decade -- his last title was the 2014-15 Premier League with Chelsea, five years after his most recent UCL win with Inter Milan -- Mourinho finds himself with the chance to end the drought with his return to Real Madrid this season. His first spell with the club came to an acrimonious end 13 years ago, following clashes with several senior players.
Mourinho's coaching career can be broken down into what happened before, and what happened after, that three-year stint at Madrid from 2010 to 2013.
He justified his self-proclaimed "Special One" title before heading to Madrid by winning two UCL trophies with FC Porto (2004) and Inter (2010) and six domestic titles with Porto, Chelsea and Inter over seven seasons. But after delivering just one LaLiga success and a Copa del Rey during his three years in Madrid, Mourinho's career nosedived.
He went on to win just one major trophy in the next decade: one Premier League title at Chelsea in 2014-15, albeit with some minor cup successes at Manchester United (EFL Cup, 2016-17; UEFA Europa League, 2016-17) and AS Roma (UEFA Conference League, 2021-22). And his downward spiral saw him fired by Fenerbahce in 2024-25, prior to his short-lived return to Benfica, a spell that ultimately rehabilitated his image enough to impress Madrid president Florentino Perez once again.
Mourinho's recent career has been eclipsed by Pep Guardiola, Zinedine Zidane, Carlo Ancelotti, Jurgen Klopp and Luis Enrique, a group of ultra-successful coaches who proved that you can win with style rather than snarl. But guess what? Here we are in 2026, and Mourinho is still standing, while Guardiola, Zidane, Ancelotti and Klopp are all out of the club game.
Among his peers, only Paris Saint-Germain's Enrique remains to put Mourinho's Champions League record in the shade. And perhaps the wheel has now turned far enough back in Mourinho's favor to give him a real chance of returning to the pinnacle of the game by winning club football's biggest competition this season?
Madrid already possess the attacking players to threaten PSG's hopes of a third successive Champions League, with Kylian Mbappé, VinÃcius Júnior, Yan Diomande and Jude Bellingham's match-winning qualities able to turn a game at the highest level. But in Mourinho, whose best teams were built on a foundation of supremely organized and physical defenses, Madrid now have a coach who will set his team up to be more robust than either Xabi Alonso or Alvaro Arbeloa managed before him last season.
A combination of Mourinho's defensive mindset, world-class forwards, and arguably the world's best goalkeeper in Thibaut Courtois, appears to be the perfect formula.
But it is not 2010 anymore. So, after leaving the Bernabeu following fallouts with Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo, the older and wiser (maybe) Mourinho has to show that he can stamp out the issues that led to Alonso's firing after just six months last season following the breakdown of his relationship with senior players.
Only Zidane and Ancelotti have been able to tame the ego-fueled Madrid squad in recent years due to their status as blue-chip legends. Both men had the personality and winning track records to enable them to walk into the dressing room and command the respect of the biggest players in the game. Calm persuasion worked wonders for each of them.
Mourinho has rarely done calm; almost every one of his coaching jobs has ended in acrimony fueled by clashes with his star players.
But perhaps after being handed this unexpected opportunity to turn the clock back at Madrid, Mourinho can take a step back, be more like Ancelotti and Zidane, and coax a superstar squad to work together and win the club's 16th Champions League title this season. He has the team and, aside from Enrique, is up against a field of coaches without a winning pedigree in the competition.
Guardiola bridged a 12-year gap between wins when he guided Manchester City to glory in 2023, while Jupp Heynckes' two Champions League titles, with Real and Bayern Munich, came 15 years apart.
Mourinho would set a new record for the longest wait between Champions League wins if he does it again this season. And that 2010 success with Inter was achieved at the Bernabeu, so there would be some neat symmetry if Mourinho gets his hands on the trophy for a third time on June 5 across the Spanish capital at Atletico's Metropolitano stadium.
He has everything he needs to make it happen, apart from the ability to turn back time. But maybe that is Mourinho's final trick to prove that he really is special after all.
