In one match, he yelled at me aggressively:
"Do you think two beautiful passes are enough?
Do you think giving 50% of your level is enough for me?"
I took off my shirt and threw it!
He said to me:
"You're a coward! You don't want to fight harder to win over the fans! You look like a good player, but as a person... you're a coward!"
At that moment, I hated Mourinho — but in reality, I adore him… it was a lesson.
To be fair, he doesn't care about names. The most important thing Mourinho believes in is a player's will to win and his work ethic!
Even Ronaldo wasn't spared his criticism for some slacking.
I remember in one of our legendary La Liga matches, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick against Sevilla, and we won the game 6–0.
We all thought that after the match we’d receive praise!
But we were surprised when he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, with notes on when and where each of us lost the ball.
Then he said:
"Even the guy with the hat-trick was being careless!"
He didn’t care if you were on Maradona’s or Zidane’s level — what mattered was that you were a good person and a brave man.
Truly… he’s the best, or rather, the best coach I’ve ever worked with.
From Mesut Özil’s book, speaking about Mourinho
"Do you think two beautiful passes are enough?
Do you think giving 50% of your level is enough for me?"
I took off my shirt and threw it!
He said to me:
"You're a coward! You don't want to fight harder to win over the fans! You look like a good player, but as a person... you're a coward!"
At that moment, I hated Mourinho — but in reality, I adore him… it was a lesson.
To be fair, he doesn't care about names. The most important thing Mourinho believes in is a player's will to win and his work ethic!
Even Ronaldo wasn't spared his criticism for some slacking.
I remember in one of our legendary La Liga matches, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick against Sevilla, and we won the game 6–0.
We all thought that after the match we’d receive praise!
But we were surprised when he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, with notes on when and where each of us lost the ball.
Then he said:
"Even the guy with the hat-trick was being careless!"
He didn’t care if you were on Maradona’s or Zidane’s level — what mattered was that you were a good person and a brave man.
Truly… he’s the best, or rather, the best coach I’ve ever worked with.
From Mesut Özil’s book, speaking about Mourinho
In one match, he yelled at me aggressively:
"Do you think two beautiful passes are enough?
Do you think giving 50% of your level is enough for me?"
I took off my shirt and threw it!
He said to me:
"You're a coward! You don't want to fight harder to win over the fans! You look like a good player, but as a person... you're a coward!"
At that moment, I hated Mourinho — but in reality, I adore him… it was a lesson.
To be fair, he doesn't care about names. The most important thing Mourinho believes in is a player's will to win and his work ethic!
Even Ronaldo wasn't spared his criticism for some slacking.
I remember in one of our legendary La Liga matches, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick against Sevilla, and we won the game 6–0.
We all thought that after the match we’d receive praise!
But we were surprised when he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, with notes on when and where each of us lost the ball.
Then he said:
"Even the guy with the hat-trick was being careless!"
He didn’t care if you were on Maradona’s or Zidane’s level — what mattered was that you were a good person and a brave man.
Truly… he’s the best, or rather, the best coach I’ve ever worked with.
From Mesut Özil’s book, speaking about Mourinho 💙
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