Jose Mourinho has admitted that the decision to leave Real Madrid in 2013, in order to return to Chelsea, was among the greatest regrets of his illustrious career.
Mourinho has seen his stock decline recently, gradually falling away from the elite group of clubs that were once his domain. But a decade ago, he rivaled Pep Guardiola as the most important manager on the planet.
The Portuguese reached a crossroads in 2013, just one season into a four-year contract with Real Madrid, but is coming off the 'worst' season of his career.
Mourinho, who finally broke Barcelona's dominance of La Liga with a stunning 100-point season in 2011/12, has walked away from Madrid and returned to the arms of Real Madrid. Chelsea For a second period in London. This means telling Bernabeu president Florentino Pérez that he wants to leave and cut ties.
In an interview with a Rome-based publication Corriere dello Sport This week, the 61-year-old was pressed to express his biggest regret in football.
He replied: “If we talk about matches a lot, because when you lose, you always think you could have done something different, and I lost a lot of matches.”
“If you're referring to career choices, 'no' to Florentino. He said to me: 'Mo, don't leave now, you've done the hard part and the good part is yet to come'. It will be like that, but I wanted to return to Chelsea after three years.” In Spain is full of great conflicts…”
Although Mourinho went on to give Chelsea the Premier League title in 2014/15, the club's first in five years, Madrid He immediately won the Champions League without him – the Portuguese, so famous for his European conquests with Porto and Inter, has not gone that route again since 2010.
He also mentioned that his other big regret was not leaving Roma sooner, right after the heartbreak of losing the 2023 Europa League final on penalties to Sevilla. Mourinho continued his career but poor results the following season led to his sacking after just seven months.
