"It's showtime, because love him or loathe him, that's what Jose Mourinho brings. Five-and-a-half years after coaching his last Champions League game -- a 3-0 loss to Leipzig in the round of 16, the heaviest aggregate defeat of his career -- he returns to the fold at the club where he made his first-team coaching debut a quarter century ago: Benfica."
"He was hired by one club president with elections looming and after the president lost the elections two months later, he marched into the new president's office and threatened to resign if he didn't get a contract extension, as a show of confidence. The club said it was premature -- he had coached just 11 games after all, winning six of them -- and he quit the next day."
"Yes -- Alpha Male Mourinho, the guy always willing to go to war and bet on himself goes back a long, long way. It takes a special kind of chutzpah to walk out on the biggest club in Portugal at age 37, when you have no resume at senior level other than 11 games, but his gamble clearly worked. Less than three years later, he was winning his first league and European trophy at arch-rival Porto."
Jose Mourinho returns to Benfica, the club where he made his first-team coaching debut 25 years earlier. His last Champions League match was five-and-a-half years ago, a 3-0 aggregate loss to Leipzig. Mourinho previously worked as an assistant at Sporting and Porto under Bobby Robson. He was hired by a president who lost elections and resigned after the new president refused an immediate contract extension, despite winning six of 11 games. That gamble propelled him to success: within three years he won league and European trophies at Porto and later led Real Madrid, accumulating two Champions League titles and six domestic league crowns across three countries. Critics point to diminishing returns in later years.
Read at ESPN.com
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