Jesualdo Ferreira - Relationship With Mourinho

Relationship With Mourinho

Curiously, Ferreira and former legendary Porto manager José Mourinho crossed paths in the 1980s, when the current Real Madrid coach was a student at the Lisbon Superior Institute for Physical Education and Ferreira was a teacher there. In 2002, when he was briefly the Benfica manager, Mourinho refused to accept the appointment of Ferreira as his assistant, and in February 2005, Mourinho had a swipe at Ferreira in his weekly column for the Portuguese sports magazine Record.

Comparing himself with Ferreira, Mourinho wrote,

"One is a coach with a 30-year career, the other with a three-year one. The one with 30 years has never won anything; the one with three years has won a lot. The one who has coached for 30 years has an enormous career; the one with three years has a small career. The one with a 30-year career will be forgotten when he ends it; the one with three could end it right now and he could never be erased from history. This could be the story of a donkey who worked for 30 years but never became a horse."

Despite these claims by Mourinho, Ferreira went on to make history by becoming the first Portuguese coach to win three consecutive titles in Portugal, a feat that Mourinho never achieved. Mourinho also was Ferreira's assistant in 1990–91, for Estrela da Amadora.

Another Porto coach, José Couceiro, worked with Ferreira many times. Firstly, Ferreira was a coach in Atlético Clube de Portugal, and Couceiro was a player there. Couceiro moved to Torreense, with Ferreira as coach. And finally, in 1991–92, Couceiro joined Estrela da Amadora, again with Ferreira as coach.