{"id":40655,"date":"2026-08-12T10:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T05:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40655"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T05:54:31","slug":"is-jose-mourinho-still-box-office-his-latest-man-utd-revelation-shows-he-can-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40655","title":{"rendered":"Is Jose Mourinho still \u2018box office\u2019? His latest Man Utd revelation shows he can be"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Is Jose Mourinho still \u2018box office\u2019?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the phrase that has followed him around over the past decade, during which the prior flow of trophies has turned into more of a trickle. It is trotted out whenever he does something weird, or obnoxious, or genuinely entertaining, or really anything vaguely \u2018Jose\u2019, that makes us think of the manager we once knew.<\/p>\n<p>Often though, these things aren\u2019t really \u2018box office\u2019, and if anyone else did them, they would be dismissed as a minor eccentricity.<\/p>\n<p>It is difficult to deny, however, that there is continuing fascination with the man, despite his apparently waning powers \u2014 he has not won a league title in 11 years, nor a trophy of any kind in four. The interest in him stretches from internet comment sections, through journalism and filmmaking, right up to the president\u2019s office at Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>The question of whether he is still \u2018box office\u2019 might have already been answered by his reappointment this summer for a second spell as Madrid manager, 13 years after the first one ended.<\/p>\n<p>But it will potentially be stress-tested further, in a more literal sense, by the new Netflix documentary \u2018Mourinho\u2019, made by John Battsek (producer of Oscar-winning documentaries \u2018One Day In September\u2019 and \u2018Searching For Sugar Man\u2019, as well as the recent Netflix film about David Beckham) and director Joe Pearlman (mostly known for films about music acts Bros and Lewis Capaldi).<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"hXfoXfYiUXXhd3F\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<p>How Jose Mourinho returned to Real Madrid<\/p>\n<p>Tifo Football and Mario Cortegana<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The documentary is in three parts, and the juiciest and most interesting stuff is saved for the third.<\/p>\n<p>Discussing the end of that first three-year stint at Madrid, Mourinho pauses, gives the knowing look of a man who is trying to live up to being \u2018box office\u2019 and says: \u201cI go to Chelsea in 2013, but in that period there is something nobody knows. I think I can say, without hurting anyone with the truth. I think the objective of this work we are doing is to tell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then goes on to reveal he agreed to take the Manchester United job in summer 2013, to succeed the retiring Sir Alex Ferguson, before Everton\u2019s David Moyes was offered the position. However, he says he changed his mind, and followed his heart back to Chelsea for a second spell there because, \u201cafter Real Madrid, I needed to feel love\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>At first, you think he\u2019s hamming it up, but then Ferguson appears to confirm the story, revealing Mourinho was offered the job and accepted before performing a U-turn, saying the Portuguese called him in tears to say he had changed his mind.<\/p>\n<p>That will be the headline revelation from \u2018Mourinho\u2019. And fair enough: it\u2019s new, and seems to contradict the accepted narrative of his dalliances with United before he eventually arrived there in 2016. But it\u2019s not the most interesting thing about the three-part series.<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho first started taking meetings about being the subject of a documentary in 2022, when he was managing Italian side Roma.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he was ready to try to set the record straight,\u201d says Pearlman, \u201cand to say to everyone, \u2018I\u2019m Jose Mourinho, remember what I did, and this is what I\u2019m going to do\u2019. That\u2019s the person I thought I met. That changed over the years, but when I met the man, it felt like it was a score to settle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is some of that in the show, notably some bitterness about being sacked by Chelsea (twice), the odd drive-by at those who belittled him in his early career on the staff at Barcelona and what we have to describe as a \u2018thinly-veiled\u2019 dig at one former foe, Pep Guardiola: \u201cDon\u2019t talk to me about sabbaticals,\u201d he says. \u201cTo me, sabbatical means weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also plenty of fairly standard stuff you would expect and want from a documentary of this sort: there are the talking heads from his past \u2014 John Terry, Frank Lampard, Iker Casillas, most of his former assistants \u2014 telling stories you know the gist of. There are the clips from his glory days. There are some nice anecdotes, like the one from his first spell at Chelsea about being asked to go to Sardinia to coach a team of staff from Roman Abramovich\u2019s yacht.<\/p>\n<p>But the really interesting stuff, arguably the heart of the whole thing, is how the film exposes Mourinho\u2019s vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p>Blubbing on the phone to Ferguson is one example, but we\u2019ve seen him cry before, albeit usually in the afterglow of victory: when Inter won the treble under him in 2010, for example, and he left their celebrations early, because he said he would not have taken the Madrid job that summer had he stayed with his players.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7500900\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption-image-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7500900 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/08132439\/GettyImages-85381167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1092\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/08132439\/GettyImages-85381167.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/08132439\/GettyImages-85381167-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/08132439\/GettyImages-85381167-1024x559.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/08132439\/GettyImages-85381167-1536x839.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-credits\">\n<p>\n      <span class=\"credits-text\">Jose Mourinho, then at Inter, goes head to head with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2009 (Andrew Yates\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The vulnerability is more present and authentic in the moments when Mourinho talks about his family, admitting at one stage he thinks his children \u201cenjoy life much more without me\u201d. Or when he talks about his early years, when he was part of the game but always on its fringes, from being a professional footballer\u2019s son to being dismissed as a \u2018translator\u2019 when an assistant at Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>He has seemingly never lost that chip on his shoulder, the idea that he has still never been accepted (despite now twice being appointed manager of the biggest club in the world) by football, which at least in part explains why he is like he is.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s probably a cliche to say this, but most of the interesting stuff centres around his relationship with his father, Felix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is the opposite of me, because everybody loved him,\u201d Mourinho says at one point, which almost makes you feel sorry for him until you consider another quote \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m not nice,\u00a0that\u2019s just the way it is. I do it with pride. Anything to get your players not to lose\u201d \u2014 which suggests to one extent or another he chose to be the opposite of his old man. \u201cI don\u2019t want to change,\u201d he says later. \u201cIt\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maybe the killer line in the whole thing comes when Pearlman is asking about his dad, and Mourinho says: \u201cYou are pushing me to speak about myself, which I don\u2019t want to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taken on face value, this could look like one of the more absurd statements in the history of language: Jose Mourinho not wanting to talk about himself?<\/p>\n<p>But what he actually means is he doesn\u2019t want to talk about his real self, as opposed to his persona, the character that he created nearly a quarter of a century ago, the one who always feels the need to be \u2018box office\u2019. The one that, over the years, has probably become entwined with the actual person, but still isn\u2019t the genuine Mourinho.<\/p>\n<p>If you get him to talk too much about his father, he can\u2019t help but reveal his real self.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we got as close as anyone\u2019s ever got,\u201d says Pearlman, when asked how near he thinks they got to the real Mourinho, over countless hours of interviews that stretched from just after leaving Roma in January 2024, across his 13 months at Fenerbahce and into his recent second spell at Benfica.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople think they know me, but they don\u2019t know me,\u201d Mourinho says at one point. \u201cI don\u2019t care.\u201d Just the sort of thing that someone who is participating in a multi-part documentary about themselves would say.<\/p>\n<p>If the show has a weakness, it\u2019s that it\u2019s either too short or too long. That sounds like a pretty silly critique, but the series is in three parts: the first broadly focuses on the initial spell at Chelsea, with some origin story thrown in; the second is Inter, the pinnacle of his career; the last is Madrid part one, plus everything else, including most of the vulnerability and the discussion of his family.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of other possible films in there. They could have made a shorter character study, one that broadly ignores the nostalgia and the historical beats of his time in football, and treated it as a concentrated look into the soul of the man. Or they could have really stretched their legs and made it six, seven or eight episodes, going into every bit of his career in more detail.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, we have a mix of the two, and it certainly works and entertains and brings out some unexpected stuff from Mourinho, but you are left wondering about the other versions that could have existed somewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Mourinho was recalled to the Madrid job as the finishing touches were being put on the film, which gives it a fairly satisfying narrative arc.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou see a version of the descent of the man,\u201d says Pearlman, \u201cand then he does what Jose Mourinho does \u2014 he arrives back at the place he says he deserves to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"lrpw101ddwSWwFU\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<p>Why Real Madrid have quietly made the most sensible transfer of the summer<\/p>\n<p>JJ Bull<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>So is Mourinho still \u2018box office\u2019? He thinks so. Madrid\u2019s president Florentino Perez thinks so. This show thinks so.<\/p>\n<p>All of that makes him an inevitable subject for a documentary, and the surprise is it has taken this long for one to be made.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018Mourinho\u2019 will be available on Netflix from Tuesday, August 11<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Jose Mourinho still \u2018box office\u2019? It\u2019s the phrase that has followed him around over the past decade, during which the prior flow of trophies has turned into more of a trickle. It is trotted out whenever he does something weird, or obnoxious, or genuinely entertaining, or really anything vaguely \u2018Jose\u2019, that makes us think&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/08\/08131522\/GettyImages-2272469004-1-e1786209462463.jpg?width=1200&height=630&fit=cover","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}