José Mourinho on his mood at Benfica: Provocative, maybe a bit, but... | OneFootball

José Mourinho expressed his happiness at returning to the Champions League, this time at the helm of Benfica. The coach of the Eagles gave an extensive interview to UEFA, where, in addition to talking about his return to the Club of Light, he also discussed his return to the Champions League.

"I feel stronger, I feel like a much better coach than before. As a person, the DNA is the same, you are born and you die with it. I think a coach is born and dies with the same DNA, there’s no way around it. But as a person, there are differences. The fundamental difference I recognize in myself is that, maybe, at the beginning I thought more about myself, and I have changed in a way that, I don’t know, I feel more altruistic, I feel like I’m in football more to help others than to help myself," he began to explain.

He continued, about his state of mind at this stage of his career: "Provocative, maybe a little, but a devil, never. But a genius, I never felt like one. I always felt that I obviously have natural abilities, and that I have acquired, to be a good coach, just as great players surely feel. There are games in my career where I felt ‘I won’. I was the one who won. This game, I was the one who won. I feel it. Sometimes, I feel it. Because sometimes you have those clicks, you make decisions, you have strategies, sometimes before the game, but other times during the game."

José Mourinho then spoke about how he deals with what others think of him: "It’s something I can’t control. Not long ago, people were saying that, in these last years of my career, I haven’t won as many titles as I did in the past. OK, it’s true, but how many coaches in Europe have reached 2 European finals in the last 5 years? It’s not in the last 25, it’s in the last 5. So, sometimes people measure me by things I achieved and not by the reality of the moment. But that’s their problem, not mine."

"I’m thinking more about the club, I’m thinking more about the fans’ joy than about myself. And I think it’s also a natural change that doesn’t distort me as a coach, but as a person it gives me a side... that I enjoy living with, this different side. I’m still the same, it’s just that one thing is to go looking for it, to deliberately go looking for that conflict, and another thing is: the conflict appears in front of you, or the conflict comes to you," concluded the Benfica coach.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.