Jose Mourinho was coach of Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013. During this period,
he signed a number of players, and today we want to look at 13 of those players
and where they are right now. One went on to become a fisherman. Can you guess who?
Keep watching to find out, but let’s start with Angel Di Maria. Jose signed
the Argentine winger from Benfica in 2010, and he went on to become a very
valuable player for Real Madrid, helping them win the Champions League in 2014.
He then left Madrid in 2014, had a bad one-year-stint at United,
and then joined PSG where he went on to become a
legend. He spent 7 years in France and then moved to Juventus in 2022.
Speaking of 2022, that was perhaps the most
memorable year for Di Maria as he won the World Cup with Argentina.
Another player Mourinho signed who went on to win the World Cup is Mesut Ozil. Just like Mourinho,
Ozil joined Madrid in 2010 and left in 2013. During that period of 3 years,
Ozil was perhaps the most creative player on the planet.
In 2013, he left for Arsenal where he had a great first few years before things fell off. In the
first few years, he won 3 FA Cups with Arsenal and won the World Cup with Germany. But in 2019,
he started to fall out of favor with the coach and he started seeing less and less game time.
Eventually, he was completely iced out, so he moved to Fenerbahce in 2021, spent 2 years there,
and moved to Istanbul Basaksehir where he played until he retired in March of this year.
Mourinho also signed Sami Khedira from Germany in 2010. Khedira would
go on to spend 5 years at Madrid, winning multiple trophies including
one Champions League and same as Ozil, won the World Cup in 2014 with Germany.
In 2015, he moved to Juventus and played there for 6 years. While he was there,
he was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and had to be sidelined for about a month in 2019.
Then in February 2021, he moved back to Germany where he joined Hertha BSC
and announced that he’d be retiring at the end of the 2020-21 season.
Still in 2010, Mourinho also signed one of his good servants,
Ricardo Carvalho. The Portuguese defender had already played under Jose at Chelsea,
so when he became boss at Madrid, Mourinho knew that Carvalho was just the guy he wanted.
Carvalho joined the club in the same year as Mourinho and left in the same year as him.
The center-back moved to Monaco in 2013, spent 3 years there,
and then moved to China to join Shanghai SIPG in February 2017.
We all thought that was it for Carvalho. He was just going to make money in China
and see out his career there, but then, in October of that same year,
he was slapped with a 7-month suspended prison sentence in Spain for tax fraud.
He’s 44 now, though, and he has since turned to coaching, working as assistant manager to former
Chelsea boss, Andre Villas Boas, at Marseille between 2019 and 2021. Right now, though,
he works as assistant manager to Roberto Martinez in the Portugal national team.
Jose also signed Sergio Canales as a youngster back in 2010,
but things didn’t exactly work out for the Spanish midfielder, so he moved to Valencia,
then Sociedad, and now he plays for Real Betis.
Another youngster Mou signed was Pedro Leon, but it also didn’t work out for him at Madrid,
so he moved back to Getafe, first on loan, then permanently in 2013. He
spent 3 years there and then moved to Eibar, got relegated with them,
and then moved to Fuenlabrada, another second division club in Spain.
He got relegated yet again, this time to the third division, then he signed with Murcia,
a third division club in Spain where he still plays right now. Crazy fall, right?
Anyway, after winning just the Copa del Rey in his first season at the club,
Mourinho wanted to go for La Liga, so he signed a few more players in 2011.
He signed Hamit Altintop for free from Bayern, but it turned out to not be a very good signing.
So after just one year, Altintop moved to Galatasaraay, played there for 5 years,
and then moved to Bundesliga club, Darmstadt 98,
in January 2017 where he saw out his career. He spent a year with Darmstadt
before parting ways with them and moving back to his home country, Turkey, with his family.
But while Altintop didn’t work out, Fabio Coentrao sort of did. He came in in 2011
and spent 7 years at Madrid, winning numerous trophies including 2 Champions League titles.
But it wasn’t all smooth-sailing for the Portuguese defender. While he was a Madrid player,
he was loaned out twice, first to Monaco and then to Sporting. He left permanently in 2018
and then went full circle by joining Rio Ave where it all started for him.
But it wasn’t a fairytale return for him. He got 11 yellow cards and 2 reds in his first
season back, so the club released him in 2019. He didn’t find a new club after that,
so he announced his retirement in January 2020.
But boom! He made a U-turn in October of that same year and signed for Rio Ave yet
again. He played there until 2021 when he finally called it quits at the age of 33.
What did he go to do after retirement? Coaching? Punditry? None of that. Coentrao
went on to become a fisherman at sea. He said that fishing is a job like any other.
In 2011, Mourinho also signed 22-year-old Nuri Sahin from
Borussia Dortmund. He had wreaked havoc playing under Klopp in the Bundesliga,
so everyone expected him to do a madness under Mourinho at Madrid, but it was not to be.
After just one year, he was loaned out, first to Liverpool,
and then back to Dortmund, before Dortmund re-signed him permanently in
2014. He spent 4 years there and made the sideways move to Werder Bremen.
And then in 2020, he moved back to his home country of Turkey to join
Antalyaspor. He played for one year and then transitioned into their head coach in 2021,
becoming one of the youngest coaches in Europe at the age of 32.
Now, to a name you’re all very familiar with,
Raphael Varane. Mourinho signed the French center-back as an 18-year-old in 2011,
and he was the one everyone thought would not make it because the club had Ramos and
Pepe back then. But Varane proved his quality, and slowly worked his way into the first team.
In the 2014 Champions League final,
he started ahead of Pepe as Madrid went on to beat Atletico and win the trophy.
Varane spent 10 years at Madrid, winning several trophies including 3 La Liga and
4 Champions League titles. During this period, he also won the World Cup with France in 2018.
Then he moved to Manchester United in 2021 where he currently plays,
and so far, has won the EFL Cup.
He announced his retirement from international football in February 2023 after 10 years of
playing for France following the defeat in the 2022 World Cup final against Argentina.
The last signing from 2011 – Jose Callejon. He was actually a product of the Real Madrid academy,
but he was sold to Espanyol in 2008. Madrid then bought him back in 2011 for 5.5 million euros.
Callejon was at Madrid for 2 years and then joined Napoli in 2013 where he played for 7
years until 2020. He then moved to Fiorentina, spent two years there,
before making a return to Spain, joining Granada in 2022 after they got relegated from La Liga.
Now, in Mourinho's final season at the club, he made two important signings. First,
he signed Luka Modric from Spurs in the summer of 2012. At first, it looked like a horrible
signing. Modric was voted worst signing of the season by Marca after his debut season
at the club. But do we even have to tell you how he has turned things around since then?
5 Champions Leagues, 3 La Liga titles, 1 Ballon d’Or,
silver and bronze World Cup medals… the list goes on and on. Mourinho really
just bought a true gem for Real Madrid and left them to enjoy it for years to come.
As you know, Modric is still kicking it for Madrid,
hoping to win a 6th Champions League with Madrid this season.
Finally, in January of 2013, following an injury to Casillas,
Mourinho re-signed Diego Lopez, who was once a Real Madrid youth team player. At first,
he was only playing because Casillas was injured, but then he put up really great performances that,
even when Casillas returned to full fitness, Lopez retained his place in the starting lineup.
The following season, after Mourinho was replaced by Ancelotti, Diego Lopez was still first choice
in the league. But he left at the end of the season and joined AC Milan. He spent two years
there and joined Espanyol, first on loan for one season, and then permanently after that.
After 6 years at Espanyol, Diego Lopez moved to Rayo Vallecano in 2022 where he currently plays.
Those are 13 players Mourinho signed at Real Madrid and how they’re currently
doing. What coach and club would you like us to do next? Let us know in the comments.
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