5 players who reached super stardom under Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has been in charge of top European clubs like Real Madrid, Chelsea and Inter MilanJose Mourinho is not just a master tactician. For players who have played for him, he is a motivator and a champion of young prodigies. Mourinho himself coming from a proletarian background, seems to have a heart for players who work hard and are passionate and not to forget display exceptional skills. He is famous for spotting and bringing into limelight hard working players at clubs like Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid. Michael Essien, Mario Balotelli, Luka Modric, Sami Khedira, Thiago Motta, Thibaut Courtois – the list goes on. His players have reached the very top of their profession and won major trophies along the way. Here are the five players who attained stardom under Jose Mourinho.

#5 Didier Drogba

When Mourinho moved to Chelsea in the summer of 2004, he picked out Didier Drogba of Marseille to be his main transfer target. When questioned about Drogba’s ability to perform in the Premier League, Mourinho replied: “Do not judge him now. Judge him when he leaves the club.”

Ever since that day, for Drogba there has been no looking back. His rise has been very linear and it has knocked numerous teams off their feet. Drogba needed to play for a top club and Mourinho was in a situation where he could have used the help of a venomous striker. The rest is history.

Surrounded by players like Arjen Robben, Damien Duff, Joe Cole, and Frank Lampard, Drogba had plenty of players to assist him. Once he was in front of the goal, there was no stopping him from scoring. With Mourinho, Drogba helped Chelsea to quick success with two consecutive Premier League titles in 2004/05 and 2005/06. The player went on to win more trophies with Chelsea during his spell that ended after winning the Champions League in Munich.

Drogba played in nine finals for Chelsea and scored in all of them. He was the driving force for Chelsea on the pitch. When he first left the club, he left it in style by winning the Champions League with the last penalty kick against Bayern Munich. He left the club like legends do, thus proving Mourinho’s prophecy to be true.

Mourinho won many trophies at Stamford Bridge. But his find, Drogba, helped Chelsea reach greater heights even when Mourinho was not guiding the club between 2007 and 2012. Drogba was a gift, to Chelsea Football Club, left behind by Jose Mourinho.

#4 Diego Milito

In one sentence, Diego Milito had the potential to be a world beater but spent most of the time in lower leagues and smaller clubs due to the ignorance of many coaches. It was Mourinho who brought this goal scoring machine from Genoa to Inter Milan. The deal was simple – Mourinho wanted to regain the Champions League and prove to the world that he was the best in the business. Milito wanted to win laurels for his hard work on the pitch and the deal worked wonders for Internazionale.

There was a spirit of a great athlete inside Milito which was clearly evident from his goal scoring abilities. Twice in his career, he achieved a goal scoring average of more than one goal per game. But people knew little of his winning mentality.

A player needs to adjust to the team and handle the pressure when playing big games. Milito had this in his blood and Mourinho was one of the few people to have recognized it. He was a complete package – he posed an aerial threat, made menacing runs up front, assisted and scored goals frequently.

In 2010, Milito, Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto’o, the three signings of Mourinho in 2010, marched briskly towards Italian and European glory, taking everyone by surprise. The treble achieved by Inter Milan was also praised by Sir Alex Ferguson. He heaped praise on Mourinho by saying that it was an incredible achievement to win the treble with an Italian team.

What more could Milito have wished for? Apart from the treble, he also won the 2010 UEFA Best Player of the Year award.

#3 Mesut Ozil

When Real Madrid signed Ozil from Werder Bremen, he was quite successful in making a name for himself, thanks to his form with the club and an impressive performance with the national team at the World Cup.

Ozil, who needed to be streamlined very carefully, was delicately handled by Mourinho. To this day, Ozil holds his former manager in high esteem. Mourinho mainly used Ozil as the central attacking midfielder in his 4-2-3-1 system. With his clever passing and vision for finding forwards with accurate balls, Ozil orchestrated Madrid’s attacks.

His rise at the Santiago Bernabeu was meteoric. In his second season with Los Blancos, Ozil earned a nomination for himself in the Ballon D’Or shortlist. His performances were also noted by UEFA.

Ozil came to Madrid with Mourinho and left when the Portuguese manager returned to London. Carlo Ancelotti did not think Ozil was worthy of playing in his team. It is quite clear that Ozil’s full potential at Madrid was known only to Mourinho. It is sad to say that even the famous Arsene Wenger has not been able to get Ozil back to his best form, partly due to his injury record.

#2 Angel Di Maria

Angel Di Maria, born in Rosario, Argentina, hails from a very poor background. For Di Maria, who spent most parts of his childhood toiling, football was the only left hope for him to become famous and uplift his family from poverty. Such a player, an untouched gem, needed an equally understanding manager. Luckily Di Maria had Jose Mourinho. Since he was playing for Benfica, Mourinho’s scouts had no difficulty in spotting the frail looking youngster with an amazing talent.

Directly coming from Benfica and settling down amongst the Galacticos of Real Madrid can make any player nervous. Thanks to Mourinho’s support, Di Maria took very less time to blend in with his teammates. Mourinho, sensing the hard working potential of the Argentine, used him as a winger in his counter-attacking system. With his pace and dribbling skills, Di Maria proved to be a valuable member of the team.

Di Maria enthralled Madridistas with some truly magical moments and also helped Mourinho win his first trophy in Spain as the manager of Real Madrid.

#1 Eden Hazard

Even though Eden Hazard was signed by Roberto Di Matteo and managed by Rafael Benitez for the better part of the season, Hazard learned very little from them. A player with great potential, Hazard, needed the right manager to lead him the right way.

In came Jose Mourinho at the start of the 2013/14 season and Hazard found a mentor. Like all football stars, Hazard was initially reluctant to listen to the words of the Portuguese coach. On the night of the defeat against Atletico Madrid at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho pointed the finger at Hazard for loosening Chelsea’s grip on the tie.

Unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, who reacted badly to Mourinho’s comments and techniques a couple of years ago, or Lionel Messi, who is not getting along well with the methodologies of Luis Enrique, Hazard did not sharpen his blade and go after Mourinho. Instead, he stayed calm, knowing that a slip-up might cost him dearly, and worked harder to not repeat the same mistakes again.

Hazard, these days, feels no difficulty in dropping deep to assist defenders playing behind him. He respects and upholds his manager’s philosophy of tight defence. This season, he has been in scintillating form scoring goals, grabbing assists and doing his best to assist in the Blues’ defence. Mourinho has turned him into a team player from a personal glory seeker.