Real Madrid coach José Mourinho gave a passionate defence of his star man Vinícius Júnior in his pre-match press conference before taking on Rayo Vallecano as he said: “In Spanish, the word proverb is used. In Portugal there’s a proverb, I don’t know if there’s an identical or similar one in Spain: you only throw stones at trees that have fruit; you don’t throw stones at a tree that has nothing on it. And Vinícius Júnior has a lot of fruit. What has he done here over the last few years? How many
Champions Leagues has he won? How many goals has he scored? How many knockout ties has he won? What has Vinícius Júnior done here over the last five or six years that he’s been here? Maybe even more. He’s a tree with a lot of fruit, and people throw stones because they want the fruit. What is the best version of Vinícius Júnior? The best is still going to come. The Vinícius Júnior who, in the past, against Benfica, had the Santiago Bernabéu worried and then finished the tie almost by himself, that Vinícius Júnior is going to arrive. But at this moment, he hasn’t been that player yet. The Vinícius Júnior who used to win matches on his own, right now we have a Vinícius Júnior who is working harder than ever. And in an era of data, the data is very objective. He is very close to his maximum speed, very close. He has surpassed his records for high-intensity running this season. Number of balls recovered: record. Number of balls recovered in the defensive third: record. He’s going to arrive. He’s going to arrive.”
Mourinho on the team and Rayo
“We’re happy, united, and working well. Obviously, working well also means recovering well, and today we did our tactical training. Obviously, it wasn’t very intense and it was for a short period of time, but we have a lot of respect for our opponent. As you say, they’re coming off a win, and in other matches, even when they haven’t won, they’ve shown their quality and demonstrated why we need to be very focused for tomorrow’s match. I’ll take the opportunity from your question to thank Beñat San José, because he said some very kind things about me that I probably didn’t deserve that much, but obviously I want to thank him publicly, and tomorrow I’ll have the opportunity to give him a hug.”
Mourinho on the 2030 World Cup final
“One thing is where it should be, and another is where I would like it to be, forgive me. I would like the final to be in Lisbon, but I’m already happy that a country like ours will have some World Cup matches. And my answer isn’t because I’m Real Madrid’s coach today. My answer, and I think you know me a little by now, is that if you can play in a legendary stadium, a historic stadium, a stadium where some of the greatest players in history have played, the stadium of the most important club in the history of football, then I think it should be here. And I’m telling you that independently of the fact that I’m Real Madrid’s coach. If I were Benfica’s coach, I would tell you exactly the same thing.”
Mourinho on the committee’s defence of the decision with the penalty against Betis
“It doesn’t surprise me because one of the things I admire enormously about referees is that there is always a great deal of solidarity between them. There is always tremendous protection of the institutions. It’s something I genuinely admire a lot about the refereeing profession, and I’m not saying that only in Spain. In every country where I’ve been, I’ve found exactly the same situation. It’s very, very, very rare, it’s very, very, very difficult, for them to come out and criticise a refereeing decision. They are very united, and unity is strength.”
Mourinho on rotations against Rayo
“I’m not going to answer the question directly because I don’t want to say who is playing and who isn’t. I don’t want to tell you whether Yan Diomande is going to play or not, because if I tell you who is playing, you’ll know who is playing; if I tell you who isn’t playing, I’m not going to answer you. I’m not thinking about the three matches. I’m thinking about tomorrow’s match. It’s a match we want to win, that we have to win, and that we have to approach strongly. But within that idea of going strongly, obviously there is some room. Maybe ‘rotation’ isn’t the word I like very much, but there will be room for fresh energy, for legs with plenty of fuel. Obviously, we worked extremely hard on Tuesday’s match. At this point, when we have a squad with so many options, if we look at the last match, we recovered Eduardo Camavinga, Bernardo Silva and Arda Güler. Imagine that we already have a group strong enough to give opportunities to players with plenty of energy to play, while giving others a little rest, which is also important. And you’re right, it’s three matches in nine days, with Elche coming in three days, but the focus is tomorrow’s match: how to win it, how we can win it. And within that question of how we can win it, we think it’s important that two or three players who didn’t play in the last match can play and give the team a little more energy.”
Mourinho on the boos for Vinícius Júnior
“OK, let’s start with what you’ve already said. I don’t want to give an opinion. It’s not about criticising or giving an opinion. I’m a coach, nothing more. I’m nobody to even give an opinion. I’m sad because I’m very demanding of my players. I’m very demanding. For example, the other day I read a statement from Dean Huijsen where he said I’m very demanding, that I’m always on his back — and it’s a little bit true. I’m very demanding of my players, but the demand is: you have to give everything you have to give, and someone who gives everything cannot be expected to give more. In that sense, I have enormous respect for a player who makes a mistake, a player who hasn’t had an extraordinary match, but who has given everything, who wanted to play, wanted to help, played for the team, showed empathy with his teammates, played with respect for the badge and fought extremely hard for a result. That type of player will always have me by his side. Always. It doesn’t mean he will always play, obviously not. But it means he will always have me by his side. When our stadium boos a player, obviously I’m very sad for my player. But, as I said before, I don’t want to judge or criticise it. But from my experience, not just at Real Madrid, but my experience as a coach, when there is unity between the team and the stadium, I don’t want to say ‘unbeatable’, because that’s a very strong word, but you are almost unbeatable. And I can say that because I still think I have the Guinness World Record for home matches in the five major European leagues. I went seven years without losing at home — or six years, I don’t know. When there is unity between a team that works as a team and its stadium, you are unbeatable. I can say that. But obviously, every stadium has the right at a particular moment to react and behave however it wants.”
Mourinho on the criticism of Kylian Mbappé
“I’m not talking about the people who criticise. I’ll use the same proverb I used before about Vinícius Júnior. He’s a tree with an enormous amount of fruit. I can comment on Kylian Mbappé’s statements: he’s right. A player who scores 40 goals is never a problem for a team. And when you manage to create empathy, friendship, commitment and respect, just imagine. And then there are things that I see and value enormously as a coach. There are people who don’t understand, which is normal. There are lots of people who love football but don’t know football in depth. Then there are other people who understand football in depth, but it suits them not to talk about the good things. I saw a team play, and not just for five minutes or ten minutes, but for the full 90, two minutes with ten men. And I saw Kylian Mbappé playing on the left, defending with ten men, in front of Marc Cucurella, who was already dead on his feet. I also saw Kylian Mbappé exhausted for two minutes, defending against an animal down that left side, with a very demanding coach who wouldn’t stop shouting and wouldn’t stop motivating him. I saw that, and as a coach I value that in an absolutely incredible way. For me, it’s a joy to see that kind of behaviour. There are people who know as much about football as I do, who also saw it, but they don’t say it. They don’t say it. Instead, they say we didn’t defend well and that we could have conceded three or four goals. They also don’t say that we could have scored eight. There are matches that are very boring, and maybe we’ll have one of those at some point. Champions League matches are often boring games where the teams are afraid of each other, defend a lot and take no risks. It ends 0-0 and people go home with a bad taste in their mouths. Sometimes you win 1-0 with a counterattack goal in the 90th minute and suddenly everyone is happy. In this match, they could have scored four against us, yes, yes, but we could have scored eight. But once again, there are people who understand football as well as I do, and they don’t say it. Why don’t they say it? They’re not happy because we won. That’s the reason. We’re continuing on our path. Me, the players and the staff, we all feel this unity within Valdebebas. We lost together against Betis, we suffered together against Betis, and life continued for us. And the commitment we have to each other, which is to work for Real Madrid, not simply be at Real Madrid, that commitment is going to continue. And we’re going to do everything possible to make people happy.”
Mourinho on Courtois’ future
“The club isn’t worried. The club isn’t worried. There’s a great deal of empathy. The club knows that the club wants him, and the club also knows that the club wants him. The goalkeeper is young and has also decided not to be with his national team during this Nations League season, which allows him to be even more focused on Madrid and have his rest periods during international breaks. He’s here. Great game.”
Mourinho on the relationship between Aurélien Tchouaméni and Federico Valverde
“Look, I’ve done nothing. They’ve done everything. Me? Nothing. The empathy that exists in the group today, the friendship that exists in the group today, working together, winning together, losing together, going to the bench angry because nobody wants to go to the bench, but supporting the teammates who are on the pitch. And when someone comes on in the final minute, and nobody likes coming on in the final minute, they go on to help close out the match. Without answering specifically about the Aurélien Tchouaméni–Federico Valverde situation, but generally speaking, the group is fantastic. More specifically, regarding Tchouaméni and Valverde: if I know nothing, rather than pretending to know everything, if I know nothing and arrive in the dressing room knowing nothing, they seem to me like two great friends. Obviously, when I arrived, and when Aurélien Tchouaméni came back from the World Cup, I was paying attention because I needed to understand whether I had to intervene in some way and act as the Minister of Peace. I did nothing. I did nothing. All the credit, all the merit, goes to the players. They have built a group that I really like.”
Mourinho on the Madrid Grand Prix and his ticket
“Well, normally I leave when Valdebebas isn’t sleeping. I leave at 7:15; today I left at 6:30. I lost 45 minutes of sleep. Some of the players did the same, while others live very close by, so nothing changed for them. Training we didn’t change anything because you weren’t there. We spent the first 15 minutes doing nothing, and then we worked well for 45–50 minutes. We worked well, at low intensity, but we did the tactical things we needed to do. Tomorrow we’ve given two options: one is to go directly to Valdebebas; the other is to come here to the stadium, leave the cars here, take the bus to Valdebebas and then have a normal day. I’m very good friends with, and I’m very proud to be friends, with Stefano Domenicali from my early years in Italy. And yes, I have a ticket. But I’m that kind of creature who, if I don’t win, there is no life. If I don’t win, there is no life. Which means that if I’m happy, maybe I’ll go.”
Mourinho on Real Madrid and the Formula 1 teams
“I have to be very careful because they’re all very nice to me, very nice to me. They all invite me here and there. Obviously, the global impact of a club or a Formula 1 team, which are more than just a club or more than just a team, is enormous. Obviously, the reds will always be the reds. What this kid is doing with Mercedes is incredible, absolutely incredible, even without having a car capable of winning and practically without having a car capable of scoring points. I’m also friends with Fernando. I really like Fernando’s personality. I really like that he’s someone who is one of the best, always, even when they give him a car that isn’t good. But I really like sport as sport.”
Mourinho on what he reads about the criticism
“I don’t read anything, but these people are very persistent. I’m telling you, I don’t see anything — newspapers, television, social media. I don’t see anything. But these people are very persistent and, when they prepare me, so to speak, to come here, they give me the Bible containing everything you’ve all been talking about over the last few days. They’re very persistent.”
Mourinho on whether he considers the criticism unfair
“Unfair? No, I don’t want to go down that road, because then I’m getting back into what they say, what they write, what I talk about. I don’t want to go down that road. I’m focused on my work and the players are too. I’m absolutely certain that neither criticism nor boos are going to change the state of mind of this team. I don’t think anyone is going to change the state of mind of this team. Obviously, obviously, obviously, unity is a plus, empathy is a plus, and it’s a very important plus. But we’re continuing with what we’re doing. Thank you very much. Thanks.”
