Officially confirmed by Fabrizio Romano, Mourinho will become Real Madrid manager and, before talking about the future and the problems ahead, we need to talk about the lies and illusions Mourinho sold to Benfica fans. I am not even going to criticise the decision itself, because leaving Benfica makes sense, but why sell the dream that he was staying? Saying there was a “99% chance” of remaining at Benfica, even without an official offer yet, when it was clearly only a matter of time… why sell that to the supporters?
He said he would decide his future within a week and, less than a day later, Fabrizio already has him confirmed at Real Madrid.
I will not lie, I do not like the idea of Mourinho. He is outdated. This is 2026, please. But at the same time, when you look at the complete chaos inside Real Madrid, where players feel they have power over everything and egos to match, where everyone wants to be Batman and nobody accepts being Robin, I do understand it.
At this point, it is not even mainly a tactical issue anymore, it is player management. It did not work with Xabi Alonso and, looking at the market, what real options are there? Ancelotti is with Brazil, Zidane is heading towards the France national team… there are not many names left.
Mourinho is going to face a huge problem and we all know how he is: direct, fearless when it comes to dropping players if necessary. But that is where the biggest dilemma appears. He is going to have to choose between Vinícius Jr and Mbappé. We have already seen it before. Alonso chose Mbappé, Arbeloa chose Vini. If you pick one, the other becomes unhappy. They might even be friends, but on the pitch they simply do not function together. And the president does not have the courage required to remove one of them from the team, or other big names either. In the end, the impossible task always falls onto the manager.
Will Mourinho succeed? I do not know. But problems? He will absolutely have them, constantly. Because beyond all of this, Mourinho himself is already a very difficult personality.
Conclusion
I do not think Mourinho, in 2026, is a great manager anymore, but Real Madrid need a type of manager that barely exists in modern football, because the problem is not tactical, it is about control and management. Either Mourinho fixes this or he sets even more fire to the circus. There is no middle ground.