The football world has been transfixed in a global trance to witness an event that occurs as often as Haley's Comet: Four clasicos between eternal Spanish rivals, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF. To the surprise of nobody, one protagonist has held court perhaps for the wrong reasons: José Mário dos Santos Félix Mourinho.

He is arguably the most loved and hated manager in modern world football. His name evokes the strongest passions and emotions from supporters and detractors alike. Mourinho is a mixture of Napoleon Buonaparte, Sigmund Freud, Niccolo Machiavelli, Donald Trump, William "Braveheart" Wallace with a dose of Sir Alf Ramsey, Bill Shankley and Mario "Lobo" Zagallo thrown in for good footballing measure.

But who really is José Mourinho from Setubal, Portugal?

Let's take a different look at the factors that shaped him. In February 2011, former Italian footballer, Christian Panucci, who now works for Sky, had an interesting discussion in Italian with Mourinho. They discussed Mourinho's youth in Portugal, his early years as a school teacher with special-needs children, his decision to become a football manager, the influence of Sir Bobby Robson and Louis Van Gaal, along with his first years in professional management at Benfica, Leiria and Porto. Both men also discussed their respective times at Chelsea FC and Real Madrid along with an interesting view on football media.

Would it surprise you to learn of a kinder, gentler side of Mourinho who worked with special-needs children?

CP: You graduated with a degree in motor science but you worked a great deal with the disabled. Did this experience serve you in your career as a manager?
JM: For me, it was an incredible experience because everything is psychological there, it's all affection and emotion. You can prepare in University to work with them. but when you arrive there, everything is about passion, heart, direct rapport and empathy. I worked with children who had motor problems and then I worked also with kids who had mental and psychological problems. It's all love. You succeed in doing the little things which for them are big things. I was very young and at the same time in which I was training 14 to 15 year-old boys, I was working at the school with these children and for me this was a fantastic experience that you take with you for the rest of your life. And many times, I tell my players, when they are not happy, that they need to be always happy and that there are many with so many problems in life and these children are an example. A player has to exploit his life as a player that only lasts 10 to 15 years and therefore needs to be happy every day.

Mourinho grew up during a turbulent period in Portugal. His father was a professional footballer and coach who was once fired during the Christmas season.

CP: Your father was a footballer and your mother was from a well-to-do family. In a Portugal during the 1970s of great changes. How did you live in these years?
JM: With a little bit of fear, because after the revolution, everyone had hope for a positive change but also feared a negative one. My family thought at times to get out of Portugal. Other times, instead, you thought that the change would be positive and that you had to stay. But at the same time, it was a moment of freedom, of freedom of expression. To experience this was a beautiful time. I always had a family without money problems. A family that lived in peace, but at the same time also was aware of reality. From my childhood, I had friends at the top of the social classes and friends who lived with great difficulties. This made me be prepared for everything in life. To know how to coexist, to live and get along with everyone. It was a time of change in Portugal and for me, a very positive life experience that prepared me for a lifetime.

CP: When did you decide to become a manager?
JM: I don't know. When I was a child, I didn't want to be a coach; I only wanted to be a player. I used to come home with a ball under my arm and not with a book to study like I trained. I wanted to be a player but at the same time, to study. It was always important because, without study, I didn't have the chance to play football because those were the house rules. Later, with a father who was a footballer (he was a goalkeeper) at home you learn to read a game in a different way. A little like me with my son now, that after a game, he asks me why I subbed out one instead of another, why did I do this and not that, who will play in the next match. You enter into a dynamic of thinking about football in a different manner than a child who doesn't have football in his house.

I understood also from a young age that I was more of a coach on the pitch than a player.

My father asked me to go watch opposing teams and take notes and this seemed to me to be a very important part to learn how to read a game and to learn how to express what I saw. Because it's one thing is what you see and it's another thing to be able to make others understand what you have seen. And this helped me a great deal. Later, when I went to college and was about to finish, I started to work in the youth sector. Later on, the possibility to become an assistant in the first team came. Everything was gradual and, experience after experience, I was always arriving at more difficult opportunities.

CP: What did you take from Louis Van Gaal and Sir Bobby Robson?
JM: They are two completely different persons. Robson used to come to training sessions 10 minutes before they began. He used to play golf and had an incredible life that was full of joy. He was always positive and football for him wasn't about pressure, but a way of satisfaction. I used to prepare the whole training session. I organized and sorted all the details and he was in love with the training area. 'Jose, what are we going to do today?' I used to respond: "Boss, let's do this, this and this. Let's go and enjoy!' "

Van Gaal was exactly the opposite. Van Gaal would arrive two hours (before the training session) and all of these details were prepared by him. What we assistants did was to train. I, who didn't train that much with Bobby, I really trained a lot with Van Gaal. And for me, this was important because the experience was completely different than the other. He gave me the team and went into the stands. It was all my responsibility. This for me was fantastic. I always say that Bobby gave me a fantastic opportunity to go to Barcelona, because I went with him. But then Van Gaal gave me self-esteem and a confidence that have prepared me a great deal.

CP: But [at Porto FC] you built your own team for the first time.
JM: Yes, it was perfect. Porto was a team with two Portuguese when we arrived. It was a team of Brazilians and Argentineans. It hadn't won anything and there wasn't empathy with the fans. It was a huge problem. I had been in Portuguese football for six months. I knew all of the Portugese talents that played in the smallest of teams. We bought 12 players and all of them were Portuguese. All of them played in small sides and we thought that they had the capacity to play in a great side such as Porto. The players were Paulo Ferreira who is now at Chelsea, Carvalho who is at Real Madrid, Nuno Valente who has retired, but who played for the national team in a World Cup and Euro. Maniche who played with Chelsea and the national team. All of the players who became important for Porto and the national team and who had great careers. It was a team in which I said in the preseason: 'We haven't won anything. Either you or me. Zero for all of us. Zero Titles.' It was only Vitor Baia who at the age of 32 had won something, but all of the rest, nothing. And later, together, we won the league championship, the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League. We won everything that a team starting out from nothing could win.

CP: When I played in London, Chelsea was beginning to show itself (in European competitions). Then you arrived and changed it.
JM: I know the history of Chelsea very well and you played in a great Chelsea side. I think that in that time, if Chelsea had the money of Roman Abramovich to buy two or three of the right players, it could have made a difference. Your Chelsea side could have done it. Later, there was a negative transition period, because there were the funds provided by Roman, but the wrong choices. And for two or three years, Chelsea had Roman's money and his desire to make history at Chelsea, two or three players when you played weren't there and they were still fantastic.

For example, Frank Lampard for me is from another planet in English football, but Chelsea was missing something and for me something arrived when we came. A different type of leadership. I'm not humble and you know it; a different type of psychological preparation for the team and to utilize Roman's money to buy two or three players that were missing to make the team really a top side. And with Roman's money and the group we had, we made a traumatic change in a positive sense that allowed us to win the League two years on the trot and many other Cups. And more than this, a team for the future because Chelsea now has exactly the same players that we had in 2004 and 2005. Anelka arrived, Ivanonic came, but Chelsea is exactly the same team. And last year, Carlo Ancelotti won again and now Chelsea has a team for two or three more years.

CP: Your rapport with Roman Abramovich?
JM: The time we worked together was fantastic and still is now. With him, with Massimo Moratti (at Inter), with Pinto da Cosa at Porto. Now it's not been long that I've been in Spain, but I hope to be able to say the same about Florentino Perez. I never had problems and I've always been honest. And when you are honest at times you have to tell your President things he doesn't want to hear, but it's better that way. I learned a great deal and I also believe that I gave them a little bit of collaboration to be better in their presidencies.

CP: I never had a good relationship with the media. Above all, because I don't like to talk a lot. Even, if now, I'm a commentator. You have always been someone who spoke your mind to everyone, but in England, you always had a great rapport with the journalists.
JM: It's completely different. You have a completely different life. At Chelsea, you didn't have the same training center that we had but training sessions were open to the public. There were zero journalists, zero fans and absolutely nobody. A completely different story. I came to a press conference and nobody wanted to know who was playing, why others didn't play, the tactical system I used. Nobody wanted to know this. They only wanted to look for two or three words to make the back page of The Sun, Daily Mirror, etc. Everything was much easier.

After England, I came to Italy and I discovered a completely different and more complicated world. For me, the worst thing about Italy was after the game. Not because I don't like it. I like to speak on TV a lot. To speak with Gianluca Vialli, Arrigo Sacchi, people with sincere opinions that make you think and make you learn. But after a game, you players are tired and also we as managers are tired. After the game, you need to eat, go home, rest. Instead, after a game, an hour of television was a burden and was absolutely the worst thing I didn't like. But I always remember what Hernan Crespo used to say whan I had him in England. Hernan told me many times, because I asked him a lot of questions about Italy and he always told me: 'When we are in Italy, we are tired of Italy. When we are not in Italy, we miss Italy.'

And it's true. He also used to say: 'In Italy if you score a goal, during the week, you see 50 replays. In England, if you score a goal and don't see it in the BBC highlights after the match, you don't see it again. Because nobody shows it during the week.'

In Italy, it is stressful, but it's beautiful.

Original Italian source of quotes: La Gazzetta dello Sport, 3 February 2011, "Alle origini del fenomeno Mou: 'Come Sono Diventato Special 1'"

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Steve Amoia is a freelance writer, book reviewer and translator from Washington, D.C. He is the publisher of World Football Commentaries and The Soccer Translator. You can follow Steve @worldfootballcm on Twitter.

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