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Abstract
This article examines the leadership approach of the football coach José Mourinho, particularly of the relevance of the media for his top performance at Porto (2002–2004), Chelsea (2004–2007), Inter Milan (2008–2010) and Real Madrid (2010–2013). The perspective from which we analyse the work of Mourinho in that period, and his presence in the media, is based on what science calls the paradigm of complexity. This is a relational perspective which, in this case, means not only focusing upon the actions ‘central’ to the activity in question – the technique, tactics, physical preparation and so on – but, with particular relevance, detail and in an integrated fashion, also focusing on the media and the cultural context in which the activity takes place. Key to the transformational work of José Mourinho is his presence in the media, the managing of fame, the challenges and ambitions of the players, the fans and the general public. At stake is a personification of a global system of significance.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to acknowledge the important comments of the Editor and anonymous reviewers for the improvement of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. For example, Deuze, Media Life; Baudrillard, Simulacra; McLuhan, Understanding Media.
2. Davenport and Beck, Attention Economy; Franck, ‘Economy of Attention’; Goldhaber, ‘Attention Economy and the Net’; Lanham, Economics of Attention.
3. Baudrillard, Simulacra.
4. Simon, ‘Designing Organizations’, 40–1.
5. Wagg, ‘Angels of Us All?’.
6. The references to statements of José Mourinho are based on three texts published in Portuguese, the mother tongue of Mourinho: (i) Lourenço, José Mourinho… a biography of Mourinho, published in 2004, with the collaboration of Mourinho himself; (ii) Ilharco and Lourenço, Liderança; as Lições de Mourinho… published in 2007, a work that presents material of an exclusive interview with Mourinho, who wrote the Preface of the book, and of another interview with Rui Faria, Mourinho´s number one assistant in his coaching team; and (iii) Ilharco, Mourinho… published in 2012, which expands the covering of Mourinho’s coaching onto Inter Milan and Real Madrid. The translation to English of the passages referred to is of ours.
7. For example, as soon as December 2013, in ESPN network, http://www.espnfc.com/chelsea/story/1,660,158/mourinho-out-to-build-chelsea-dynasty (accessed 23 March 2016) or CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/23/sport/football/mourinho-wants-chelsea-dynasty/ (accessed 23 March 2016).
8. For example, Daily Mail, January 18, 2014 ‘Chelsea boss Mourinho claims he is a changed man in changing role’, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2541925/Chelsea-boss-Mourinho-claims-changed-man-changing-role.html (accessed 23 March 2016).
9. E.g. McChesney, Media Made Sport; Beck and Bosshart, ‘Sports and Media’; Wenner, ‘Sport, Communication’; Brown and O’Rourke, Case Studies in Sport Communication; Miller et al., Globalization and Sport; Boyle and Haynes, Power Play; Wenner, Media, Sports, and Society; Wenner, MediaSport; Blain and Berstein, Sport, Media, Society.
10. Bernstein and Blain, ‘Sport and the Media’, 3.
11. Horky, Sportwissenschaft.
12. Carter, ‘Managing the Media’.
13. Rowe, ‘The Global Love-Match’.
14. Ilharco and Lourenço, Liderança: as Lições.
15. Mourinho in a interview to Selecções of Reader’s Digest in 2003; accessed in October 2015, 2nd, http://anabelamotaribeiro.pt/jose-mourinho-2003-14,445 [translation of ours].
16. Gomez et al., Value Creation.
17. For example, Prigogine and Stengers, Order Out of Chaos; Morin, Introdução ao Pensamento Complexo; Wheatley, Leadership and the New Sciences; Johnson, Emergence.
18. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Sciences.
19. Prigogine and Stengers, Order Out of Chaos; Morin, Introdução ao Pensamento Complexo; Byrne, Complexity Theory; Erdi, Complexity Expainded.
20. Prigogine and Stengers, Order Out of Chaos; Morin, Introdução ao Pensamento Complexo; Wheatley, Leadership and the New Sciences; Johnson, Emergence; Byrne, Complexity Theory; Erdi, Complexity Expainded.
21. Ilharco and Lourenço, Liderança: as Lições, 66.
22. Ibid., 47–9.
23. Damásio, Descartes’ Error; Damásio, The Feeling of What Happens.
24. Baudrillard, Simulacra.
25. Lourenço, Mourinho; Ilharco and Lourenço, Liderança: as Lições.
26. Barclay, Mourinho – Anatomia de Um Vencedor, 163.
27. Ilharco, Mourinho, 25.
28. Lourenço, Mourinho, 139.
29. Barclay, Mourinho – Anatomia de Um Vencedor, 162.
30. Ilharco, Mourinho, 146.
31. Prigogine and Stengers, Order Out of Chaos; Johnson, Emergence; Byrne, Complexity Theory; Erdi, Complexity Expainded .
32. For example, Vugt and Ahuja, Selected.
33. Beck and Bosshart, ‘Sports and Media’; Carroll, An interdisciplinary Study of Sport.
34. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
35. Lorenz, The Essence of Chaos.
36. Ruelle and Takens, ‘On the Nature of Turbulence’.
37. Ilharco, Mourinho.
38. Freud, ‘Group Psychology’; Le Bon, The Crowd.
39. Dayan and Katz, Media Events.
40. El País, ‘Arranca la Liga: José Mourinho – En el fútbol lo arriesgo todo. En lo personal, riesgo cero, August 24, 2010.
41. Frankl, Man Search for Meaning.
42. Heidegger, Being and Time.
43. Lourenço, Mourinho, 128.
44. Ilharco and Mourinho, Liderança: as Lições, 83.
45. Mead, Mind, Self and Society.
46. Ibid.
47. Ilharco and Lourenço, Liderança: as Lições, 33.
48. Prigogine and Stengers, Order Out of Chaos; Johnson, Emergence; Byrne, Complexity Theory.
49. Ilharco, Mourinho, 38.
50. The quotes that follow, from Portuguese and Spanish newspapers, are translations of ours of the originals.
51. Marca, ‘Mou no se alquila’, September 17, 2010.
52. ANTFP, www.antfp.pt.
53. A Bola, ‘Leia a mensagem complete de José Mourinho’; translation of ours from the Portuguese, http://www.abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=224850(accessed October 2, 2015).
54. Marca, ‘CR7 es intocable, trabaja como nadie’, September 3, 2010.
55. Marca, ‘La carta astral de CR7 há cambiado’, October 10, 2010.
56. Marca, ‘El Madrid de CR7 es un ciclón’, October 23, 2010.
57. Prigogine and Stengers, Order Out of Chaos; Johnson, Emergence; Erdi, Complexity Expainded .
58. Barclay, Mourinho – Anatomia de Um Vencedor, 163.
59. Ilharco, Mourinho, 25.