Coach Jose Mourinho said that he wants to coach Lionel Messi once in his career, even though he believes that the Argentine superstar does not need anyone to coach him.
In an interview with Youtube channel Ohm , Mourinho was asked which player he wanted to work with the most that he had not yet had the opportunity to work with. “I have never coached Messi, but no one can coach him,” the Portuguese coach replied. “Don’t think that anyone can coach Messi, because he has had the instinct to play football since he was born, and understands everything about football. He can also teach me a few things. And if I can lead a team with Messi , I can only say that I am honored to have you in the team.”
Messi (left) and Mourinho at the 2010 Golden Ball awards ceremony. Photo: Sky Sports
It’s not the first time Mourinho has praised Messi like that. In an interview with Spanish news agency EFE in 2019, the Portuguese coach said that Messi helped him become a better coach, by preparing tactics to deal with this striker specifically. Mourinho also considers Messi to be the god of football. Seven years ago, he said that the life of a player like Cristiano Ronaldo is much more difficult than that of Messi, because the Portuguese superstar has to practice more.
Mourinho led Real Madrid from 2010-2013, facing Barca and Lionel Messi 17 matches in all competitions. Barca’s confrontation statistics are better than this time, with six wins, six draws and five losses. Before his time at Real, Mourinho also led Chelsea and Inter to meet Barca and Messi. But in the past 10 years, he has not faced Messi in official matches.
Mourinho also said that he wanted to recruit midfielder Daniele De Rossi to Inter and Real Madrid, or Francesco Totti to Inter. When asked about the saddest memory of his career, he talked about being eliminated twice in the Champions League semi-finals on penalties, and losing in the Europa League final “because the referee didn’t want us to win”.
Mourinho once led Chelsea to a penalty shootout loss to Liverpool in the semi-finals in 2007. Five years later, Real also lost to Bayern in a penalty shootout, missing out on qualifying for the final. Mourinho won the Champions League with Porto and Inter, but could not win the championship with Chelsea or Real.
