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Sunday, 16 August 2026dailybeirut.com
Football
Jose Mourinho, 63, calls his early-1990s interpreter role at FC Barcelona “a big bulls***” in the new Netflix documentary <em>MOURINHO</em>, revealing it masked duties as goalkeeper coach, analyst, scout, and gym support.
“It’s a big bulls***, the translator job. It’s a big bulls***, it’s a big bulls***.” Jose Mourinho, now 63, delivers that blunt assessment in the three-part Netflix documentary MOURINHO, referring to his official title during Sir Bobby Robson’s managerial tenure at FC Barcelona in the mid-1990s.
Though formally listed as interpreter, Mourinho describes the position as a nominal designation for work far exceeding language mediation. He recounts serving concurrently as goalkeeper coach, tactical analyst, talent scout, and gym support staff — responsibilities grounded in his university education in sports science.
“If you speak English and nobody else does, that doesn’t mean that you are a translator,” Mourinho states in the series. “It means that you are academically at the superior level.” He asserts he functioned de facto as Robson’s assistant coach — a characterization corroborated by archival audio of Robson, who recalls: “He stood beside me, very often behind me, the best-paid interpreter in the world.”
In the same clip, Robson adds: “Jose is a good-looking chap, very shy – a bit nervous perhaps – but at the same time, he had an air of confidence about him. He had a very small, minor coaching qualification, but he was bright.”
Mourinho worked under Robson for one season before Louis van Gaal assumed the Barcelona manager role. Van Gaal appears in the documentary saying: “I said to Jose: ‘Maybe you can proceed as my assistant.’ It was a big gamble, because I [didn’t] know him.”
The series also links Mourinho’s interpreter assignment to his earlier experience as a ball boy while his father managed football teams. Mourinho recounts using those opportunities to study matches closely and relay tactical observations to his father — an informal, formative exercise in match analysis that prefigured his later professional identity.
The MOURINHO documentary maps his full coaching trajectory. Following Barcelona, he held two coaching positions in Portugal before guiding FC Porto to the 2004 UEFA Champions League title — his first continental trophy. That victory catalyzed his move to the Premier League with Chelsea, where he secured consecutive Premier League championships and three domestic cups.
He later won a second Champions League crown with Inter Milan in 2010, followed by his initial spell at Real Madrid, a return to Chelsea, and subsequent managerial appointments at Manchester United (2016–2018), Tottenham Hotspur, AS Roma, Fenerbahçe, and Benfica. Now 63, Mourinho has commenced his second tenure as Real Madrid coach — a role he took up this summer.
The documentary discloses a previously unconfirmed detail: Mourinho accepted Manchester United’s offer to replace Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, withdrew his acceptance, and rejoined Chelsea before ultimately assuming the United post in 2016.
