After years of persistent speculation, Jose Mourinho has finally confirmed that he reached an agreement to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013. The 63-year-old manager, who has recently returned to Real Madrid for a second stint, revealed the details of this pivotal career moment in a new Netflix documentary series.
“When I left Real Madrid, I signed to go to Manchester United after Sir Alex,” Mourinho stated in the documentary. Sir Alex Ferguson, who retired in 2013 following a legendary 26-year tenure that included 13 Premier League titles, corroborated the account. “He was offered the job, yes,” Ferguson confirmed. “I sat him down and explained the situation. As far as I was concerned, he was accepting. And then, within hours, it changed.”
The sudden reversal occurred because Mourinho felt he could not decline an offer to return to Chelsea, the club where he had secured consecutive Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006. “One night, he phoned me and he was crying and he says, ‘Alex, I can’t take it. I’ve given my word to Chelsea and I’m not going to break my word’,” Ferguson recalled. The reason he gave to me, I could understand, but I was disappointed.
Mourinho noted that he was deeply flattered by the opportunity to lead Manchester United, acknowledging the club’s incredible global appeal. However, he emphasized that his decision was driven by emotional factors rather than purely professional ones. “But one thing is love for football, another thing is love for a certain club,” he explained. “I think this is more powerful than love for football and fundamentally, after Real Madrid, I needed to feel that I’m loved.”
Despite the dramatic nature of the decision, Mourinho expressed no regrets, noting that he acted according to his heart. He eventually did take the reins at Old Trafford in May 2016, succeeding Louis van Gaal. During his two-and-a-half-year tenure, he secured a League Cup and a Europa League title before his dismissal in December 2018 following a decline in team performance.
Mourinho’s career has been marked by both immense success and high-profile conflicts. On the eve of his Real Madrid reunion, the combative manager and former Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas spoke candidly about the reasons behind the deep-seated differences that emerged during Mourinho’s first spell in Spain. Mourinho also spoke about difficulties he has faced with former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who hired him twice and sacked him both times.
During his initial stint at the Bernabeu, Mourinho helped Real Madrid challenge the dominance of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, winning La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Spanish Super Cup. His 2011-12 side set a record by amassing 100 points in a single La Liga campaign. However, the atmosphere deteriorated in his third season, culminating in a 15-point deficit behind Barcelona and his eventual departure.
A central point of contention during that period was his treatment of club captain Iker Casillas. The goalkeeper, who made 725 appearances for the club, spent much of the 2012-13 season on the bench. “The relationship Jose and I had was very cold,” Casillas remarked. “In those years, I really think it was taken to a limit where in the end, the rope broke.”
Former Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira suggested that the rift between the manager and the captain negatively impacted the entire squad. “Iker is a Real Madrid legend, loved by every Real Madrid supporter. He benched him, doesn’t speak to him, spoke bad about him in the media, so then this locker room was a nightmare, honestly,” Khedira stated. He added that the tension fractured the relationship between Mourinho and other key players, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos.
Mourinho remained unapologetic regarding his management style, claiming that Casillas displayed a poor attitude. “The first three times that I spoke to Casillas, the captain, the first thing he told me was, ‘I want to ask for more holidays for the national team players’,” Mourinho recounted.
He continued, “The second time he spoke to me was, ‘I would like to ask you to put the training sessions one hour later because at the time you want the training sessions, there is a lot of traffic in Madrid’. The third time he comes to speak with me was, ‘We don’t want to go to [the] hotel. We prefer just to meet on matchday and go direct to the stadium to play’. And in a short period of time, I realised they’re spoilt.”
Mourinho concluded his assessment of the situation with a firm stance on professional standards. “There are things that I don’t accept and I will never accept and when somebody doesn’t respect me, it’s a problem,” he stated. This philosophy has defined his career across Europe’s top leagues, leaving a legacy of both silverware and intense personal friction.
After returning to Stamford Bridge in 2013, Mourinho went on to win his third Premier League title as well as the League Cup.
However, the wheels came off in Mourinho’s third season in the Spanish capital and he was dismissed at the end of 2012-13 with Real finishing 15 points behind rivals Barcelona.
The goalkeeper made 725 appearances across 25 years at Real, winning three Champions League titles and five La Liga crowns, but had spent much of the 2012-13 season on the bench.
