José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix was born January 26, 1963 in Setúbal, Portugal and is a successful football manager.

Early years

Son of Portuguese goalkeeper Félix Mourinho, José Mourinho never pursued a career as a player (although he did have minor stints in smaller clubs) but showed an impressive managing ability from an early age, by preparing match reports for his father.

The Translator

Nicknamed Tradutor (translator), as he worked with Bobby Robson as a translator (technically speaking he was interpreter) in FC Porto, and followed him to FC Barcelona where he even learned Catalan. When Robson left for PSV, he stayed in the Catalan side where he worked with Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal.

Benfica and Leiria

In 2000 his chance of coaching a team finally arrived, when he was picked by Lisbon side Benfica to replace Jupp Heynckes after the fourth week of the Portuguese league. In nine matches he won five, having the same draws and losses (two). However, while he was popular, especially after a 3-0 win against Sporting, Benfica's election turned against the president João Vale e Azevedo and the newly-elected Manuel Vilarinho already had talks with another manager, who replaced him only a few weeks later. While it's uncertain if Mourinho pulled himself out of Benfica or he was really pushed out, it's considered to be one of the biggest mistakes in recent Benfica administration.

The next season (01-02) he started in mid-tablers União de Leiria, where he climbed as high as fourth (9-7-3 WDL record), when he was selected by FC Porto's president Pinto da Costa to replace Octávio Machado as manager of a badly-motivated side which was already out of contention for the league title by week 19 and at risk of not qualifying for European competition. He picked the Porto side with promises of "making Porto champion next year", and clinched third place after a good 15 game run (WDL 11-2-2).

Porto magic

After asking several players to create what he believed would be a perfect team (such as Maniche, Paulo Ferreira, Nuno Valente and Derlei), he combined the already existing talents (Baía, Ricardo Carvalho, Jorge Costa, Costinha, Deco, Dmitri Alenichev and Postiga) to create one of the most powerful teams ever seen in Portuguese football. He won the first Superliga he fully coached with a 27-5-2 WDL record, 11 points clear of the side that ditched him two years before, Benfica. He also won the Portuguese Cup (against former club Leiria) and the UEFA Cup, managing to get one impressive treble.

This debut season proved hard to beat, but the following season, while not playing as impressively, gave Porto an easy championship win (the 20th) with an eight point advantage, and an unbeaten run that only ended five weeks before the end of the league. While the cup was lost to Benfica, two weeks later he won the Champions League after a run of only one defeat against Real Madrid in the first phase.

Chelsea

Whilst still at Porto, he was linked with Roman Abramovich's Chelsea, and many people, especially in Portugal, questioned the legality of the contact discussions, since they reportedly started when both teams were in the Champions League semifinals, but no wrongdoing was proved and no charges have been brought. Mourinho gave the impression of wanting to leave after the end of the Portugese season, and after winning the Champions League, Porto started official talks with Chelsea. Mourinho moved to Chelsea in June 2004, becoming one of the highest earning managers in the world.

Mourinho went straight to work, recruiting his trustworthy backroom staff from Porto, consisting of assistant manager Baltemar Brito, fitness coach Rui Faria, chief scout Andre Villas and goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro. Mourinho followed the gauntlet set down by his predecessor Claudio Ranieri, and spent owner Roman Abramovich's fortune on Tiago Mendes, Didier Drogba, Mateja Kezman and Porto pair Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira.

After incurring some criticism for being defensive minded in the first two months of the 2004/05 season, Mourinho's Chelsea began to score more freely, and by early December they were top of the Premiership table and through to the knock-out stages of the Champions League. On 27 February 2005 he led Chelsea to the League Cup trophy, beating Liverpool 3-2 after extra time. In March, he led Chelsea to a dramatic win over Barcelona after going 2-1 down in the first leg at the Nou Camp. At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea scored 3 goals in the first 15 minutes and managed to beat Barcelona 5-4 overall. In March, Chelsea yet again went 11 points clear of Manchester United. They drew Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinal.On March 31 he was handed a 2 match suspension and also a fine for bringing the game into disrepute by UEFA. Despite this, Chelsea won 4-2 in the first leg of the game with Bayern Munich. This was without Mourinho having any contact with any members of his staff during the game (although many remainded suspicious.) He stated that it was his pre-match work which was important. Chelsea lost the return leg in Munich 3-2, but advanced with a 6-5 aggregate win, setting up a semi-final tie with Liverpool.

Since Mourinho has been at Chelsea, the club have twice been accused of "tapping-up" players, Arsenal's Ashley Cole ( which has been proven guilty ) and Man Utd's Rio Ferdinand. As a result of this, as well as the mysterious owner with seemingly bottomless pockets and the percieved arrogance of Mourinho by the media, he has become one the most loved and the most hated managers in the Premier Division. He is however regarded as a great manager by other bosses (including Alex Ferguson manager of Manchester United, a rival club) and pundits. Many consider Mourinho the best manager in the Premiership and the key to Chelsea's blistering form.