Five reasons Mourinho is rightly the most hated man in football.
Chelsea‘s Jose Mourinho might be the best football manager in the world but he also has a well-deserved reputation for being snide, vindictive and sometimes downright offensive to anyone that crosses him – on or off the pitch.
The Special One may consider himself irreplaceable, but based on his history of foul behavior there aren’t a whole lot of people who would miss the part of him that doesn’t win all the time.
Here is a look at five of the worst incidents of Jose Mourinho’s career that show he’s not a manager or even a man worth shedding a tear for if he gets a pink slip:
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5. Mourinho’s eye-poke of Tito Vilanova, 2011
In one of the more repulsive displays of sour grapes after losing to Barcelona, the Special One walked right up to then-Barca assistant manager Tito Vilanova and poked him right in the eye before nonchalantly walking away.
4. Mourinho insults Ronaldo’s childhood, 2007
Like him or hate him, it’s hard to deny that few athletes in the world have gone farther from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the world the way Cristiano Ronaldo has. From poverty in Portugal to multiple world records for scoring excellence, he’s the kind of star any manager would love to have – and for a few years Mourinho did.
But after Ronaldo had the “audacity” to criticize Mourinho for refusing to admit his own failures during his first stint with Chelsea, the Special One decided to avoid the high road by mocking Ronaldo’s rough upbringing and called him uneducated.
Stay classy Jose.
3. Mourinho’s Sexism – Rafa Benitez’s wife, 2015
Rafa Benitez has made a habit of taking over at places where Mourinho once coached and orchestrating quick turnarounds.
Naturally, when Benitez’s wife decided to call Mourinho out on his tendency to leave franchises in disarray, the Special One felt it necessary to tell the public that she should “spend less time talking about football, and more time making her husband healthy meals to help him lose weight.”
2. Mourinho’s Sexism – Eva Carneiro, 2015
Infuriated at his team’s inability to break a 2-2 draw with Swansea City in the 2015-16 opener, Mourinho took his frustrations out on Chelsea’s female doctor Eva Carneiro as she rushed onto the field to treat an ailing Eden Hazard. Video showed him verbally getting in her face as well with some alleging that sexist comments were made by the Special One.
Following the match Mourinho publicly insulted her for not understanding the game and banned her from the bench before Carneiro finally resigned.
Carneiro may have had the last laugh however, as Chelsea have ironically been ravaged by injuries this season.
1. Mourinho lies about Anders Frisk, nearly gets him hurt
Following a Champions League loss to Barcelona in 2005, Mourinho publicly claimed he saw Barca manager Frank Rijkaard enter the room of referee Anders Frisk during halftime – a blatant lie as the Special One would later admit.
But the damage was done quickly as death threats were made to Frisk and his family by outraged Chelsea fans.
His reputation damaged, Frisk was forced into an early retirement after 18 years of solid officiating.
Meanwhile, Mourinho got a slap on the wrist and several prestigious managerial jobs in the decade that followed.
Odds are, if you look up “scumbag” in the dictionary, Mourinho’s grinning visage will be right there.