Mourinho the center of attention on losing return to Stamford Bridge
Jose Mourinho blew a kiss to Chelsea fans chanting his name. He pleaded with Benfica fans to stop throwing objects at a player. He even jogged onto the field to remove an errant ball.
The man once nicknamed the “Special One” was the center of attention on his return to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
He didn’t leave with a win, though.
Taking charge of his first Champions League game in five years, Mourinho saw his Benfica team put up a good fight in losing 1-0 at Chelsea, the English club where he had two spells — from 2004-07 and 2013-15 — and established himself as one of coaching greats of his generation.
Mourinho’s status may be diminished nowadays but he is still revered in this part of southwest London, and Chelsea fans gave him warm welcome as he belatedly emerged from the tunnel just before kickoff, having exchanged exchanged pleasantries with Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.
Wearing a white shirt under a dark coat, Mourinho was soon responding to Chelsea fans’ chants of “Jose Mourinho, Jose Mourinho” by waving to them and blowing a kiss.
“Of course I was focused on the game,” Mourinho said, “but you have always a little bit of the sound (of the crowd), and of course I thanked them.”
Toward the end of the first half, Mourinho left his technical area, walked down the touchline and gestured to the traveling Benfica fans to stop throwing items at Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez as the Argentina midfielder took a corner. Fernandez left Benfica for Chelsea in February 2023 for a then-British-record transfer fee of 106.7 million pounds ($131.4 million).
Near the end, as Benfica pushed for an equalizer, a stray ball got onto the pitch from the sideline and Mourinho chose to run on the playing surface and take it away. That got some applause from the home fans, too.
“When I am in London, I meet them every day on the street,” he said of Chelsea’s fans. “I know that is going to be a relationship forever. Hopefully I come back here in 20 years with my grandkids. They belong to my history and I belong to their history.”
When the final whistle went, Mourinho gave Maresca a hug and disappeared quickly down the tunnel, clearly disappointed to have lost and choosing not to engage more with the Chelsea supporters.
“My career took me to a position where everybody thinks I have magic to make things happen,” Mourinho said, adding: “With me, it’s never enough. If I am in the job, it’s because I like to put myself on the line every day. I am desperate to win the next match, that’s my nature.”
Speaking Monday upon his return to Stamford Bridge, he said he would “always be a Blue.”
Mourinho recently took charge of Benfica after leaving Fenerbahce in Turkey. That meant he is back in the Champions League, a competition he won with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.
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