The China Mail - Spiky disciplinarian Mourinho can restore order at Real Madrid

The 63-year-old has a reputation as an uncompromising strategist which is tailor-made to restore order in a dressing room crumbling because of huge egos and disharmony.

The team has struggled to find balance with Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham playing together, leaving Portuguese boss Mourinho the challenge of fixing that and getting the team to pull in the same direction.

Mourinho's predecessor Alvaro Arbeloa, who played under him at the Santiago Bernabeu, recalled the Portuguese made it very clear who was in charge in the dressing room.

"He used to say, 'You don't want to run? No problem for me -- bench. You neither? No problem for me -- out'," Arbeloa told Jot Down magazine in 2014.

"He'd say it to anyone, to world champions, to Kaka, or to a youth player."

Arbeloa, who failed to deliver a trophy after replacing Xabi Alonso in January, passes the baton to a coach for whom he has always shown great affection.

Keen on Mourinho's tough character, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez went back to that well, convinced in his attritional first spell the coach laid the foundations for a team that went on to dominate Europe after he left.

Mourinho returns eager to add more trophies to Real Madrid's honours list -- two years without a major trophy -- and to end his own, barren run since lifting the Conference League with Roma in 2022.

After leaving the Serie A side in January 2024, the father of two, who married his childhood sweetheart, had spells at Turkish side Fenerbahce and in Portugal with Benfica, before returning to the Spanish capital to try and become the "Special One" again.

- Origins -

Mourinho was born on January 26, 1963, in Setubal, Portugal, a football-mad city of 120,000 inhabitants, 50 kilometres south of Lisbon, which has named a street after him.

His father, Felix Mourinho, was a goalkeeper for Belenenses in the Portuguese first division and later a coach.

Felix even coached his son during his modest playing career. After learning under English coach Bobby Robson, for whom he worked as a translator at Porto and Barcelona, he stayed on at the Catalan club as Louis van Gaal's assistant, from whom he learned discipline.

"Here (at Barca) he was a 'football man', aggressive, and he taught you football concepts," former Barcelona player Xavi Hernandez said of Mourinho.

After his spell at Barca, he set out on his own as a head coach and won the UEFA Cup with Porto in 2003 and the Champions League in 2004, the triumph that brought him international fame.

Mourinho moved to Chelsea, where he would win two Premier League titles and three cups, though not the Champions League, which he would eventually claim once more with Inter Milan.

He spent two seasons in charge of the Italian side, with whom he achieved the treble in 2010 -- Serie A, Coppa Italia, and Champions League -- after which his reputation as a miracle-worker opened the doors of Real Madrid to him.

The club's great objective was to win their 10th European Cup, but Mourinho's side exited in the semi-finals three seasons running.

His time at Madrid was marked by his bitter rivalry with Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, whose European dominance seemed to strike a nerve with him, leading to flashpoints, such as when he poked Barca assistant coach Tito Vilanova in the eye.

The coach's frequent battles with Guardiola, Lionel Messi and even inside the Madrid dressing room with icons like Iker Casillas, were more memorable even than his sporting success.

"Mourinho did damage to Spanish football," said former Barca playmaker Andres Iniesta in 2013.

After his first spell at Real Madrid, he returned to Chelsea in 2013, where he won another Premier League title and League Cup, in 2015.

The spiky coach continued his career in England by moving to Manchester United, where he expanded his trophy haul with a fourth League Cup and the 2017 Europa League.

The years since have rarely hit such heights, but the memory of what Mourinho achieved in his first stint in Madrid were enough for Perez to give the Portuguese a second chance.

M.Zhou--ThChM