José is a kitten at heart.
Jose Mourinho arrived at Chelsea in 2004 and made a few class signings.
£98m was spent as the likes of Michael Essien, Tiago, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira arrived at Stamford Bridge. The most astute signing of all, however, was Didier Drogba.
The Ivory Coast international arrived from Marseille for £24m and helped them to two Premier League titles in his first two seasons. During his first stint at the club, Drogba scored 157 goals in 341 appearances and left as a true Chelsea legend.
He returned in 2014/15 and had a less fruitful time of it – 4 goals in 28 games – but still claimed a League Cup and another Premier League winners’ medal.
Drogba is now playing out the final days of his career with Phoenix Rising in the United States League [a step down from Major League Soccer] but found time to do some punditry work, at the World Cup, for the BBC and Russia Today.
Asked if he had a message for Mourinho, who was on the RT punditry panel for the tournament, Drogba revealed his nickname for the Manchester United boss.
“Bonjour, Papa!” he declared.
The clip was played back to Mourinho and he showed a softer, funnier side than many of us are not used to seeing.
Asked about the somewhat surprising nickname, Mourinho responded:
“Papa is papa forever, and son is son forever too.”
“I gave him the biggest opportunity of his career, to move from Marseilles to the Premier League. So I gave him something very important, but he gave me his sweat and his blood every minute he was on the pitch for me.”
The time they shared at Chelsea was mutually beneficial and it again harks back to Mourinho’s one-to-one relationship with many of his top players. Produce the goods for him and he will back you to the hilt.
“So yeah,” Mourinho continued, “my kid is my kid, in spite of the fact that he looks older than me!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlOakzaF49u/?taken-by=rtsportnews
Mourinho with the last laugh.
