Tuesday, 20 November 2012

'I hate my social life,' says Mourinho


Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho, the only coach to win European football's top three leagues, has told CNN in an exclusive interview that his remarkable track record of success and very public profile has had a devastating impact on his personal life.
After winning league titles with Chelsea, Inter, Real as well as Porto in his homeland. Mourinho says it has got to the stage where even his 12-year-old son is taunted when he plays a football match.
"I hate my social life," Mourinho told CNN. "I hate not to be a normal father who goes with his son to the son's football match and being there with the other 20 fathers there watching the game.
"I'm at a football match of kids and I have to be there. The people have to come for photos; the people have to come for autographs; the people have to come to insult me; the people have to go behind the goal of my kid and insult my kid of 12."
As well as his uncanny ability to guide teams to trophy after trophy, Mourinho's very public profile has also been accompanied by an ability to attract headlines -- sometimes unwanted -- where his media conference theatrics have journalists drooling over his every utterance.
At times the Portuguese coach, who is courted by numerous sponsors, has also tarnished his reputation -- no more so than in last season's altercation with the now Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova, when Mourinho poked his opponent in the eye.
"I think it's quite normal because people think they know me, but they don't," added Mourinho, who is bidding to become the first coach to win the Champions League with three different clubs following his triumphs with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.
"People know the manager, especially the manager during 90 minutes. And during 90 minutes, I'm not there to have fun.
"Fun is a consequence. I'm there to do my job, I'm there to win. I'm there with my team to try to win. I'm there and I live the game, I live the match as if it was the last match of my career.
"So people look at me and they see what they see. After that, in press conferences, it's the other place where people know me.
"In press conferences, there is still a match to play. Before the match, press conference is pre-match and after the match, press conference is post-match, but it's a match."
But Mourinho insisted he was a very different person one from the portrayed by the media.
"People don't know me as a friend, as a family man, as a manager inside of my group, the relationship I have with the people that work in the club.
"So I don't complain and say people are wrong, people are looking at me with the wrong eye. No, these people see what they see."
And despite the cost to his personal life, Mourinho insisted he wanted to be a coach for at least another two decades.
"So, you know, I would love to be with my family in the street as a normal person and I can't, so I am a completely different person in my private life," added Mourinho, who will turn 50 in January.

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