1 Jun 2026 15:02 BST |
6 min read
Jose Mourinho is expected to make a shocking return to Real Madrid as head coach, 13 years since he was sacked by president Florentino Perez.
Following the dismissal of Xabi Alonso midway through the 2025/26 season, Alvaro Arbeloa was tasked with taking over until the end of the campaign as Perez searched for a new Galactico boss.
In the end, he thought “better the devil you know…” as he soon made an approach for Mourinho, who had been working with Benfica.
An official announcement hasn’t been made by Real Madrid as of yet, but several outlets have confirmed that Mourinho will indeed return to the dugout at the Santiago Bernabeu, where he won one La Liga, one Copa del Rey and one Supercopa de Espana in his first tenure, crucially overcoming the might of Pep Guardiola’s Barca for the Primera Division triumph in 2012.
As he tends to do, though, he left the club under a cloud after falling out with the hierarchy, while performances on the pitch dipped as well.
He made an emotional return to Chelsea and enjoyed domestic success there, but his career has been on a downward trend in terms of success at an elite level since.
There are some who would say that he’s no longer considered one of the very best coaches in the world which only adds to the intrigue of how he will deal with a Real Madrid squad that imploded this past season.
So far this century, Los Blancos have endured just five trophyless campaigns in 2004/05, 2005/06, 2009/10, 2020/21 and now in 2025/26. They surrendered La Liga to Barcelona in a Clasico loss, were eliminated from the Champions League at the quarter-final stage by Bayern Munich and were on the wrong side of one of the shocks of the season as they were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Segunda Division outfit Albacete.
The poor performances on the field have been matched by the typical Galactico drama off it, though.
There were numerous reports about severe infighting in the squad. This season, there have been major altercations between Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni, Antonio Rudiger and Alvaro Carreras and Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe.
One confrontation between Valverde and Tchouameni got physical, resulting in the Uruguayan falling and hitting his head off a table, requiring a trip to the hospital for stitches. Both players were fined half-a-million euros.
Alonso’s tenure as head coach ended early when he could not control the divas in the dressing room and he regularly clashed with stars like Valverde and Vinicius Junior.
There is, of course, the discourse surrounding Mbappe.
The Frenchman is the club’s highest-earner following his massive Bosman switch from PSG but he is yet to lift La Liga, the Champions League or the Copa del Rey since his arrival and there are some Madridistas who believe he is responsible for the team’s downturn in form.
He is viewed as individualistic and not a team player, while he reportedly only has positive relationships with French compatriots in the squad. A petition to have him sold has gained 70 million signatures, while there is a website counting down the years, months, weeks, days and seconds until his contract expires.
Vini vs Mourinho
All eyes won’t be on Mbappe and Mourinho, though, but rather Mourinho and Vinicius Junior and the tension comes from a Champions League playoff clash between Madrid and Benfica from earlier this season.
The Brazilian opened the scoring with a wonder goal and celebrated thereafter, with those celebrations apparently offending some of the Benfica players, including Gianluca Prestianni.
A melee ensued and Vinicius reported to the referee that he had been racially abused. The investigation into Prestianni was complicated by the fact that he covered his mouth while making the alleged comments.
In the end, the Argentine admitted to using homophobic language, but not racist. He was given a six-game ban, three of which as suspended for three years.
After the game, Mourinho caused huge controversy when he switched the blame for the incident to Vini for celebrating rather than his player.
“You score a goal from another world, why celebrate like that?” Mourinho said.
“The same thing always happens in so many stadiums. In how many states has this happened? In how many stadiums? How many? How many?
“He’s an out of this world player, I love him. Vinicius tells me one thing and Prestianni tells me another. I want to be balanced.”
When asked if he felt Vinicius incited the crowd, the Portuguese said: “Yes. I believe so.
“It should be the crazy moment of the game, an amazing goal. Unfortunately [he was] not just happy to score that astonishing goal. When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.
“When he was arguing about racism, I told him the biggest person in the history of this club [Eusebio] was black.
“This club, the last thing that it is, is racist. They [Vinicius and Prestianni] told me different things. But I don’t believe in one or another. I want to be an independent.”
Former Real Madrid Champions League-winning midfielder Clarence Seedorf said at the time: “I think he [Mourinho] is still emotional. He’s saying it’s OK, when Vinicius provokes you, to be racist – and I think that is very wrong.
“We should never, ever justify racial abuse. Vinicius has had enough of that unjustified behaviour from people. I know Mourinho by heart would agree with me but he expressed himself a bit unfortunately.”
Mourinho received overwhelming criticism for his comments by pundits and fans. He would later look to curb some of the negative press by saying that, if Prestianni was found guilty of racism, he would never play for Benfica again while he was in charge.
Nobody outright accused Jose of racism, but they felt that putting the spotlight on the victim rather than the perpetrator shifted the narrative away from the racism accusation.
At the moment, Vini is focusing on Brazil as the 2026 World Cup takes place in just a couple of weeks, but there’s a definite elephant in the room between him and Mourinho that needs to be addressed if Madrid are going to improve next season.
Even without the racism incident, there was sure to be tension between two enormous personalities in Vini and Mourinho, but the drama of that Benfica match and the fallout has only served to add fuel to the fire in the Madrid squad.
Related stories:
Build The FIFA World Cup 2026™: LEGO© releases stunning football-inspired collection
Fabrizio Romano transfer news: Big Liverpool updates, Osimhen’s future, Man Utd love Tchouameni
Transfer Rumours: Arsenal want Igor Thiago as €115m deal edges closer
The FootballTransfers app
Check out FootballTransfers’ new app for all of football’s big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.
The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:
•Google Play
•App Store
View full bio
