{"id":2177,"date":"2026-09-25T17:12:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=2177"},"modified":"2026-09-25T17:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:12:32","slug":"inside-the-call-that-brought-mourinho-back-to-real-madrid-we-need-you-to-rebuild-the-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/25\/inside-the-call-that-brought-mourinho-back-to-real-madrid-we-need-you-to-rebuild-the-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the call that brought Mourinho back to Real Madrid: “We need you to rebuild the team”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jose Mourinho was the latest guest on the ‘Bet It Drives’ podcast, explaining why he chose to return to Real Madrid while lifting the lid on ego management and iron discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cruising through the Spanish capital alongside CSO of GRO_TECH Yevhen Krazhan, Jose Mourinho rode shotgun on the latest episode of the ‘Bet It Drives’ podcast. The Portuguese tactician spoke at length about his dugout career and, above all, his current tenure at Real Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His return to the Bernabeu: “I returned because the club wanted me back, but how they approached me made all the difference. I left Real Madrid in 2013, I believe, and we always maintained a close relationship after that. I left on excellent terms with the club, the president and the board; that is why we stayed in constant touch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madrid’s pitch: “At the end of last season, the club reached out to me. They told me: ‘We know you, you know us; you know the club, the culture and the people. We know how you work. We want you to rebuild the squad. We need you. We need you to rebuild and spark another incredible decade like the one the club just experienced. We need you; we need someone with your profile.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zero hesitation: “I was happy at Benfica, happy in Portugal. Having left my homeland so many years ago, returning to Benfica felt wonderful. But Madrid is Madrid. Everyone at the club understood that this represented a massive opportunity. So, once again, we parted ways on good terms; I could not be happier or more motivated than I am right now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambition grounded in reality: “I like to aim high, but always with my feet firmly on the ground. At certain clubs, I felt realism was sorely lacking. I want to exceed targets. I do not want low expectations, but they must be realistic. Because of the immense success I achieved with bold targets throughout my career, people would look at me and think: ‘Just because of him, we can set wild, outlandish goals.’ Yet miracles do not exist in football, nor anywhere else. Talent, teamwork, ambition and empathy exist; you must play with ambition, but with realistic ambition. Real Madrid naturally target the biggest prizes, but crucially, the talent and structure at your disposal match those lofty expectations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explaining his infamous ‘do not betray me’ rule: “When I say ‘do not betray me’, I am talking about football, of course. Do not betray me and I will always stand by you. No matter what.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing player egos: “True superstars never cause ego issues, because anyone whose ego causes problems is not a superstar in my eyes. To me, a superstar is the complete package. That package includes a personality where ego matches talent. But they know when enough is enough. When they do not know when to stop and cross that line, they cease being superstars to me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mourinho’s discipline: “Rules are not all created equal. Some rules are strictly non-negotiable. Others, I love watching players break. Let me explain: if report time is 09:00 sharp, it is 09:00 for everyone. If you arrive at 09:15, even as a superstar, it is unacceptable. I cannot tolerate breaking such a simple rule. But during matches, when a player relies on their talent, creativity or instinct to break convention and try something unexpected, I do the exact same thing. I prepare games alongside my assistants and analysts, trying to eliminate unpredictability as much as possible. I draw up a blueprint: ‘Right, this is how it will play out. If we are leading, I will do this; if we are trailing, I will do that.’ Yet once kickoff arrives, I do not think about analysts or assistants. I trust my gut and act on instinct. If the outcome falls short, I do not blame myself, because I did it for the team. I acted because I felt it was the best move.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-negotiable standards: “When you rip up the rulebook like that\u2014gambling a bit with structure or the original blueprint based on instinct\u2014you sometimes feel struck by divine inspiration. It has happened to me. After the match, I reflect on what I did, and when the result is extraordinary, you think: ‘The man upstairs guided me there.’ That is why I place even deeper trust in the player on the pitch. So, for me, the non-negotiable rules apply off the pitch. On the pitch, you must break the rules.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 24\/7 commitment: “You are a footballer 24 hours a day. That is the reality. You train for two or three hours a day, but you remain a professional for all 24. Everything impacts your output: what you eat away from the training ground, what you drink, how you sleep, even your personal life. Unfortunately, footballers cannot ski or cycle; yet some sneak off to do it… I do not care about contracts; I care about professionalism. Fall off a bike and you might miss three games, or worse\u2014break a leg or suffer an injury preventing peak performance. You have a social circle, you are young, single, 22 or 23; your friends go clubbing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights, but you cannot join them. You can only go out the night following a match, provided you do not play again three days later, which happens constantly.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jose Mourinho was the latest guest on the ‘Bet It Drives’ podcast, explaining why he chose to return<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2179,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions\/2179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}