Where are they now? The Real Madrid XI from Jose Mourinho’s last game in charge, 2013 | OneFootball

Jose Mourinho took charge of his final match as Real Madrid manager in June 2013, a 4-2 victory over Osasuna.

It had been a memorable stint for Mourinho, who led Los Blancos to a historic 100-point La Liga campaign to knock Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona off their perch.

They also made great strides in Europe, making it to three successive Champions League semi-finals after being eliminated at the Round of 16 in each of the last six seasons before his appointment.

But his last season at the club was fractious, and ended in disappointment, a long way off Barcelona in the La Liga title race and with a Copa del Rey final defeat to Diego Simeone’s nascent Atletico Madrid.

“I wish all of Real Madrid’s supporters much happiness in the future,” he posted in a statement, before waving to the club’s ultras after the full-time whistle.

“I want to thank many fans for their support, and I respect the criticism of others. I repeat, happiness to all, and above all, good health. Hala [Forward] Madrid!”

We’ve revisited Madrid’s XI from that match and checked in on where they are today.

GK: Jesus Fernandez

The goalkeeping situation was one of the subplots of Los Blancos’ infamously tempestuous 2012-13 campaign.

Long-serving captain Iker Casillas is believed to have had a spectacular falling out with Mourinho and was benched for the latter half of the season.

Back-up keeper Diego Lopez made the step up, but Madrid-born academy graduate Jesus was given a rare nod on the final-day dead rubber.

Casillas returned between the sticks under Mourinho’s successor Carlo Ancelotti, while Jesus left the club that summer to embark on a journeyman career as a perennial bench-warmer in obscure leagues.

The 37-year-old is currently a free agent, having recently departed Romanian second-tier outfit Politehnica Iasi.

RB: Alvaro Arbeloa (Diego Llorente, ’85)

Whatever happened to that Arbeloa guy?

The right-back’s late substitute was a La Fabrica graduate who never made it beyond the fringes at his boyhood club.

But he’s carved out a respectable enough La Liga career with spells at Rayo Vallecano, Malaga, Real Sociedad and (currently) Real Betis via a few years at Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds.

CB: Ricardo Carvalho

This was also Carvalho’s final outing for Real Madrid. He’d struggled for starts and departed alongside his compatriot when his contract expired, with a move to Monaco already confirmed.

He also let slip football’s worst-kept secret that day, confirming that Mourinho would be returning to Chelsea.

“I’m sure in two, three years they can but even in his [Mourinho’s] first year he can win it again,” Carvalho told reporters, when asked if Mourinho could deliver another Premier League title at their old club.

Chelsea didn’t win the league in Mourinho’s first season back, but they did in his second.

Carvalho, meanwhile, had three solid but unspectacular years at Monaco before seeing out his career making a handful of appearances for Andre Villas-Boas’s Shanghai SIPG out in China.

He hung up his boots in 2017 and soon went into coaching, and now serves as an assistant to Roberto Martinez for the Portugal national team.

CB: Raul Albiol

A lesser-remembered signing from the summer Real Madrid signed Xabi Alonso, Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.

The defender was a near ever-present in his debut season, but opportunities diminished in subsequent years, and in 2013 he signed for Napoli in search of more minutes.

Albiol went on to make over 200 appearances for both Napoli and Villarreal and earned over 50 caps for Spain, and was a member of the squad when they bookended the World Cup with back-to-back European Championships.

He’s not won tons of silverware, but his honours list includes a Coppa Italia, two Europa League titles and one La Liga title. Nowadays he’s seeing out his career as a fringe player at Serie A side Pisa.

LB: Jose Callejon

Callejon joined Albiol in making the switch to Napoli that summer.

Utilised as a left-back here, he later developed into a forward and spent nine years in Italy with Napoli and Fiorentina, eventually returning home to see out his career with stints at Grenada and Marbella.

Last season, he helped save lower-league Marbella from relegation by scoring in the final appearance of his professional career.

CM: Luka Modric

Like Albiol, Modric is now playing Serie A football in his forties. And he’s proven an inspired signing for AC Milan.

The Croatian left Real Madrid last summer as the most decorated player in the club’s storied history, boasting no fewer than six(!) Champions League titles.

Not bad going for the worst signing of the season.

CM: Michael Essien

It’s easy to forget that Essien linked back up with his old boss at Real Madrid. A loan move in 2012-13 was ultimately fairly forgettable.

After returning to his parent club to see out the final year of his contract on the periphery, he later played for AC Milan and Panathinaikos, but it was diminishing returns after his Chelsea pomp.

He retired in 2020 following a stint in the Azerbaijan Premier League and has spent the past five years as an assistant coach at Danish talent factory Nordsjaelland.

FWR: Karim Benzema

King Karim famously spent years playing second fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo, but even here – a rare game out – the Frenchman played a supporting role.

He stayed with Madrid for 14 years and famously stepped out of Ronaldo’s shadow as the main man in Madrid’s 2021-22 Champions League triumph, for which he was rewarded with the Ballon d’Or.

Benzema has spent the last four seasons earning shedloads out in the Saudi Pro League, and recently royally p*ssed off old pal Ronaldo by moving from Al-Ittihad to title-chasers Al-Hilal.

CAM: Mesut Ozil (Omar Mascarell, ’81)

One of the defining players of Mourinho’s tenure, Ozil fittingly notched a pair of assists in his final appearance under the Portuguese coach.

The World Cup winner stayed at Madrid for pre-season and at one point looked set to continue in the Ancelotti era, but he ended up making a much-hyped move to Arsenal on deadline day later that summer.

Ozil had some magical moments with Arsenal, winning four FA Cups, but he was at his most consistently deadly in the Spanish capital. His career fizzled out a bit in the Turkish Super Lig, and he’s spent his time post-retirement getting incredibly hench.

Late sub Mascarell made his first and only La Liga appearance that day. After loans to Derby County and Sporting Gijon, he was eventually sold on to Eintracht Frankfurt and has carved out a decent enough career.

He’s currently back in La Liga, turning out for relegation battlers Mallorca.

FWL: Angel Di Maria (Nacho, ’46)

“Everything,” Di Maria responded recently when asked what Mourinho meant to him.

“Mourinho is number one by a long way compared to others, both as a person and as a coach, because of what he gives to the player, the team, and the club. He gave me everything, and I will always be grateful to him.”

The Argentinian stuck around for one more season and was Madrid’s standout player when they won La Decima in 2013-14. Nowadays, he’s winding down his glittering career back at boyhood club Rosario Central.

Academy graduate Nacho was still early into his Madrid career back then. He went on to make over 350 appearances over 13 years and wore the captain’s armband when they won their 15th European Cup in 2024.

He then went off to Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah, where he remains playing under Brendan Rodgers.

ST: Gonzalo Higuain

This relatively routine victory over Osasuna proved the end of an era in several ways.

Alongside Mourinho’s departure, Higuain was the sixth player who featured here that waved goodbye that summer.

“I feel that my time has ended, I want a change of scene,” the Argentinian said after the Osasuna win.

“They were seven intense, hard, happy years. It was a well-thought-out decision and it isn’t easy, but I want to go to a new club, to new challenges.

“There are offers, including Juventus, but I don’t know. I would like to go somewhere that can show for real that they want me.”

Higuain left the club after six years, 264 appearances, 121 goals and 56 assists. Admit it; that’s a way better return than you remember.

The striker did eventually join Juventus, where he won three successive Scudetti, but only after three wildly prolific years at Napoli, where he linked back up with Callejon and Albiol.

He retired in 2022, having seen out his career as the first marquee signing for newly-formed MLS club Inter Miami.