Or football manager craze 2007. During the last weeks the main characters on European football have been football managers. In Italy we have seen small episodes involving Inter FC manager Roberto Mancini, but the lights have been especially pointed at Real Madrid’s Fabio Capello and Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho.
Fabio Capello is the neighbour you would never want. He’s started his professional career as a manager at AC Milan and won everything possible in 6 years time (with 4 Scudetto in a row). Then he went to Real Madrid, won a Liga beating a great Barcelona and then, after an unsucessful short period back at Milan, he joined AS Roma and won the league at the second attempt, 18 years after the previous one for this club. Over there he mentored two of the best youngsters of the team, Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Aquilani. Then left as a traitor for Juventus and won two titles, none of which has been validated by the Italian football association though. He joined Real Madrid again, accidentally right after Juventus’ demotion to Serie B, and last Sunday after a dull 1-0 victory, whistled at by his own supporters, he showed what kind of gentlemen he his. There would be plenty to say about him, for example about his really poor tactical skills as a coach and the defensive attitude of all the teams he’s managed, but this gesture, addressed at the same people that contribute to make him so important, rich and famous, shows everything you want to know about this man.
Jose Mourinho is much younger than Capello but he has at least as much self-belief as the Italian manager. He’s been amazingly successful in his still short career. His teams have won the last 4 championships played (2 with Porto FC in 2003 and 2004 and two with Chelsea in 2005 and 2006) and he also shows on his cupboard a Champions League, a U.E.F.A. Cup, 2 national cups and 2 Supercups (Community Shield in England). His quotes, taken from his page on Wikipedia, says as much as Capello’s picture about him
We have top players and, sorry if I’m arrogant, we have a top manager
If I wanted to have an easy job…I would have stayed at Porto – beautiful blue chair, the Uefa Champions League trophy, God, and after God, me
We are on top at the moment but not because of the club’s financial power. We are in contention for a lot of trophies because of my hard work
He’s recently publicly complained about his club, who apparently doesn’t provide him with the financial resources he needs to enforce his team. And God knows how much money Chelsea have spent in the last 2 transfert markets and how high are its players’ salaries!
We just wish both of them a lot of success because humble, hardworking people like them deserve respect and admiration from every human being!
