Jose Mourinho has admitted that the decision to leave Real Madrid in 2013 to rejoin Chelsea is one of the biggest regrets of his illustrious career.
Mourinho has seen his stock fall in recent times, gradually drifting away from the band of elite clubs that were once his domain. But, a decade ago, he rivaled Pep Guardiola as the most popular managerial property on the planet.
The Portuguese reached a crossroads in 2013, just one season into a four-year deal with Real Madrid, but following the self-proclaimed “worst” campaign of his career.
Mourinho, who had finally broken Barcelona’s La Liga dominance with an impressive 100-point season in 2011/12, left Madrid and returned to the arms of Chelsea for a second spell in London. That meant telling Bernabéu president Florentino Pérez that he wanted out and cut ties.
In an interview with a Rome-based publication Correre dello Sport This week, the now 61-year-old was pressed to reveal his biggest regret in football.
“If we talk about matches, a lot because when you lose you always think you could have done it differently, and I’ve lost a lot of matches”, he answered.
“If you mean professional options, the ‘no’ to Florentino. He told me: ‘Move, don’t leave now, you’ve done the hard part and the good part is yet to come’. I knew it. it would be like that, but he wanted to return to Chelsea after three years in Spain of great struggles…”
Although Mourinho delivered Chelsea to a Premier League title in 2014/15, the club’s first in five years, Madrid He immediately won the Champions League without him: the Portuguese, so famous for his European conquests with Porto and Inter, has never finished again since 2010.
He also claimed that his other biggest regret was not leaving Roma sooner, just after the heartbreak of losing the 2023 Europa League final on penalties to Sevilla. Mourinho continued, but poor results the following season led to his sacking just seven months later.
